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Post by alexandra on Mar 29, 2016 5:03:04 GMT -7
I just completed my first campus board session and I have a few questions. I posted a picture of the only campus board available in some other post (also attached), but basically it has a very weird spacing. There is a row of large rungs which are about 16 inches apart (isn't that too much?) and then there is a single row of alternating medium and small rungs. The medium rungs are about 14 inches apart and the small ones about 11 inches apart. it also only has 5 rungs of each type. The last couple of rungs are extremely high, about 10-15 feet of the ground (they have a weird setup). Since it is practically my first time campusing, I did the beginner protocol. I found I could do basic ladders both on the large and medium rungs but I only did 4 moves on each (B1-L2-R3-L4-B4) for example, mostly because once I got up there I felt I was too high and didn't have very good padding under me (I can make sure this doesn't happen next time and put some more pads). Even the 14' of the medium rungs felt a bit far, but was definitely better than the large ones. I was kind of surprised I could do the ladders at all! I know the book prescribes starting at the 1st rung and going to the 6th for basic ladders but I think it is meant to have smaller spacing if I am not mistaken. My question is: should I keep doing basic ladders on large and medium rungs and then start doing some max ladders on those two sizes of rungs? or would it be better to move to the small rungs, which have at least more reasonable spacing, and then try to do basic ladders there and see how it goes? At this point, I feel max ladders would be very difficult to achieve with the current spacing but I can always try. Also, given that the spacing is large, would it be ok to do less moves on the basic ladders and some how get the same benefits? thanks! Attachments:
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Post by alexandra on Mar 29, 2016 9:31:07 GMT -7
By the way, it seems like I am spending more time on this forum than on Facebook! (at least while there is still a lot of older posts to read and become wiser). This is good for me ;p
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Post by jessebruni on Mar 29, 2016 11:36:43 GMT -7
Completely unreasonable spacing. I'm not sure what they're trying to achieve with that. Maybe you can ask the management to add some more rungs? Doubling up the rungs on the large would put you pretty close to moon spacing. As it is, if you're doing 1-2-3 on 16 inch spaced rungs that's pretty close to 1-3-5 on a typical campusboard, so that's good. At 14 inch spacing on the medium rungs doing 1-3-4 would be pretty close to 1-4-6 with moon spacing (1-3 would be farther than 1-4, but 3-4 would be shorter than 4-6). Either way, you can make do, but the ideal would be to get on a campus board with better spacing.
There is probably some merit to campusing on the small rungs, but with such far spacing I'd proceed with extreme caution.
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Post by alexandra on Mar 29, 2016 11:59:07 GMT -7
I think that nobody there knows how to use a campus board but they added it to the school's gym anyway just to say they have one. This is a small top-roping wall where the best climbers are climbing in the 5.10 range, so i really doubt if anyone else is ever going to use it. I doubt also that they will put any effort in refurbishing it but it doesn't hurt to ask.
The thing I wanted to clarify with this post was what should i be doing for my basic ladders and how should I re-shape the beginner campus board protocol to fit the specific setup? it looks like I am already doing some sort of "max ladder" since I am forced to skip normal spaced rungs but I have no way of "warming up" and doing basic ladders while using the same sized rungs. Should I still be tying to do as many moves as possible and reaching the end of the campus board (currently I am going both, left, right, match for my basic ladders which is much less moves than recommended but also they are longer)? Should I attempt any max ladders at all? or would it be "too much" to try to start at large rung #1, then go 32 inches above it at large rung #2 etc? Another option would be to do medium-small-medium-small etc on the left side of the board, where the spacing would be more like 6'' between medium and small, but i thought this was not recommended to alternate sizes of rungs. I loved campusing as it turns out, so I really want to do it, but I have no other viable option at the moment (closest other campus board is 2-2:30 hours drive away).
thanks!
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Post by jessebruni on Mar 29, 2016 12:28:07 GMT -7
You're not going to be able to follow the beginning campus board routine to a T here, obviously, so you'll have to improvise. Go back to the fundamentals of what you're trying to achieve, and figure out a way to make it work. The matching ladders are supposed to be for warming up, so why are they effective? Find a way to mimic this effect with what you have. Doing basic ladders is going to be much harder sure, but I've already explained how you can approximate max ladders with this board. You've got a less than ideal tool, but it's not useless. Look at each exercise in the beginner routine and ask yourself "What is the desired effect of doing this exercise"? Once you figure that out you can work on a solution to achieve that same effect with a similar, but different exercise.
If it were me, I'd be warming up by doing pull ups on the large rungs, or if it's not too hard doing 1-2-2 drop, 1-2-2 drop, 1-2-2 drop, on the large rungs. Then I'd move on to max ladders by doing 1-2-3-3 on the large rungs. If that's too easy I'd try 1-2-4-4 or 1-3-4-4. If it's too hard then I'd do 1-2-2-3-3 on the large rungs. If you feel like you need to improve your contact strength and not your ability to pull then I'd do the same things, but downsize the rungs.
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Post by alexandra on Mar 29, 2016 12:40:36 GMT -7
Thanks a lot for the response!
yes, I do feel my contact strength and contraction speed are bigger limiting factors than pulling. I actually think pulling is my strongest suit in everything that has to do with climbing:) I have climbed (in two or three tries) up to V7 on climbs where all I needed to do is statically pull hard on crimps but can only climb V5 in two sessions or more if there is a dynamic quick move or a dyno. (always outdoors, the gym is a different issue and I never pay attention to the grades there since all the setters are over 5.10 tall mostly).
your suggestions sound great, I will do perhaps one such set on large rungs and one on medium rungs and see how it goes. I am waiting for my climbing gym to be ready to install their own campus board- then I will design it as needed and they would build it, but that might take a few more months.
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Post by alexandra on Apr 2, 2016 14:21:55 GMT -7
I was visiting some friends in Chicago this weekend and I got the chance to go to one of the climbing gyms around for my second campus session.
I measured their rung spacing by comparing to the dimensions of the "rock prodigy training" book which I had with me. I guess it is a standard paper size, 11* 9 inches (right?). Looks like the smaller size of the book is about 7 inches or so, which is close to moon spacing (though I don't have a measure at home so i am just ball parking this). It seemed like both their large and medium rungs were spaced at 7'' from center to center (almost exactly equal to the small size of the book). I tried to follow the beginner protocol to the T, to see where I stand with moon-ish spacing. I could do matching and basic ladders on large and medium rungs with no problem at all. Then I could also do 1-3-4-4 on medium rungs with no problem. When I tried to do 1-3-5 on the medium rungs however, I found that I could touch rung 5 but couldn't latch it. (I didn't try this on the large ones). I was pretty tired at this point though so that might have played a role. I guess my assessment from this session is that matching ladders were kind of a waste of energy, so even if I do my sessions on a proper campus board and not on the 16 inch spaced one, I think I will skip them (unless any of you advise otherwise?) and warmup either with basic ladders (moon spacing) or with what jesse suggested on the weird spacing. My one question is when should start to try using small rungs? Should I complete the 1-3-5 max ladder on the medium ones comfortably first? or should I attempt basic ladders on the small rungs as well to work on contact strength? thanks!
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Post by MarkAnderson on Apr 3, 2016 11:33:27 GMT -7
By the way, it seems like I am spending more time on this forum than on Facebook! (at least while there is still a lot of older posts to read and become wiser). This is good for me ;p Take that Zuckerberg! |
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Post by MarkAnderson on Apr 3, 2016 11:43:04 GMT -7
I measured their rung spacing by comparing to the dimensions of the "rock prodigy training" book which I had with me. That is the awesome-est thing I've heard in a while. We should probably design the second edition to exact moon spacing (22cm) for this purpose  To the business: Clear you are too strong for the beginner campus routine, so forget about that. I don't recall what all is in the intermediate routine (shocking, I know), but I would recommend you do whatever works for you as a warmup, and then get into Max Ladders (or the next best thing you can come up with on that whacky board). For the warmup, I would start with a basic ladder, using every rung on the left column. Make sure you alternate starting hands so that each hand is getting some time on the small rungs. Then if it's not too hard, do a Medium-rungs-only basic ladder, and then a small-only basic ladder (that might be too hard for you). you absolutely do not need to go to the top of the board. I do 1-3-5-7 for my warm-up sets, so that's 4 moves including the match at the top. Lots of people down-ladder as well, so if you want to get more moves in without getting super high, you can go up a few moves then down and so on. For your Max Ladders, I would sacrifice rung consistency in favor of better spacing. That is, use every rung, even if it means mixing rungs in the same set. Of course this assumes you can handle the small rungs, but I'm guessing you can. You're going to have to be flexible in your progressions. You may find it's harder to a shorter move if it means using smaller rungs, and vice versa. So try different progressions until you figure out what is harder and how much. The goal is to work aggression, coordination, and contact strength. You can still do that even on that terrible board, it just won't look very pretty on paper. |
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Post by alexandra on Apr 3, 2016 12:03:10 GMT -7
I measured their rung spacing by comparing to the dimensions of the "rock prodigy training" book which I had with me. That is the awesome-est thing I've heard in a while. We should probably design the second edition to exact moon spacing (22cm) for this purpose What a great idea!!! So it is 7'' on the small side of the book? thanks so much for the suggestions, I will incorporate those in my next session. |
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Post by chrisbecker on Apr 4, 2016 14:05:56 GMT -7
This might be a stupid question, but have you asked the responsible person if they are okay with you changing the setup of the board? If nobody uses it currently and you provide new rungs, I can't really see why they would have a problem with that.
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Post by alexandra on Apr 8, 2016 5:45:52 GMT -7
Yesterday it was my third campus session and I followed Mark's suggestions. I found that medium-only ladders were fairly easy for me to do 4 moves on (the medium rungs are about 14'' apart and I would go 1-2-3-match), but when I tried to do basic ladders alternating rung sizes I could also only do 4 moves, even though the rungs were only 6'' apart (so i would go medium-small-medium-small, match). I found this fairly challenging. For max ladders, my baseline seemed to be medium1-small2-medium3, match. The first move M1-S2 is about 20'', while the second is about 6''. Once I latched small2, I found it extremely hard to move further than 6'' from it, so I failed to do the next ladder up. I also tried starting on the small rung and going S1-M3-M4. The first move is still 20'' and the second one is 14''. This ladder felt much easier and even though I didn't latch the last rung, I could touch it consistently. It looks like I can start from the small rungs or latch the small rungs for one move with no real problem. However, doing a second move off of a small was very hard, even though I could do the same move or even further if I used medium rungs. I was wondering if anyone can explain why that is?
Also, how would you recommend I progress from here on? Should I keep starting on the medium rungs and trying M1-S2-S3? Or start on the small ones and try S1-M3-M4? (or do both?) I was kind of exhausted after doing or attempting about 8 max ladders plus the basic ladders so I don't think I want to keep playing around with different progressions and rather stick to one that would make me improve faster. Any thoughts are welcome, thanks!
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Post by MarkAnderson on Apr 8, 2016 7:16:07 GMT -7
The reason you are struggling with moving off the small rungs is probably that finger strength is the limiting factor in your campusing. That would make sense considering that you've doing pull-up training for a long time, but only recently started systematic finger strength training.
I would suggest working the M1-S2-S3 ladder since that exploits your weakness. Plus the small rungs are usually more specific to rock climbing.
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Post by willblack on Apr 9, 2016 8:01:52 GMT -7
the gym is a different issue and I never pay attention to the grades there since all the setters are over 5.10 tall mostly Sounds like the real issue is not that the setters are tall, but that they suck at their job or are not motivated to set for the climbers who use their gym. This is a huge shame. You should see if they are open to letting you set some routes. It would probably be beneficial to your training to have some routes that specifically challenge you and the gym might benefit from having a range of styles if the setters are failing to create a diverse product. I feel like campus boarding for power is most effective when combined with limit bouldering for power, and having quality routes to train on is important. A good setter should be able to set quality routes at a range of styles and favoring a range of strengths at any grade they can climb, plus a grade or two outside their ability. Sounds like the setters at your gym are not experienced enough to do this, so you should try to get in there and set your own projects. |
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