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DK  > Other > My Climbing Wall
My training facility, finished as of mid-November 2005 after a month or two of construction. It's fully circuit-able, meaning you can start at one point, and traverse around every wall (using transition panels) to arrive back at the start point, 40-60 moves later.

Thanks to everyone who helped out either physically (Erik, Duncan, Chrisco), with hardware (Phil, Craig P), or with holds (Johnny, Matt, Glen, Mark).
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DK > My Climbing Wall photo
DK > My Climbing Wall photo
DK > My Climbing Wall photo
DK > My Climbing Wall photo
DK > My Climbing Wall photo
DK > Before the headboard was fitted
DK > Headboard complete with hangboard - fitted!
DK > Campus board variables:
Board angle: I found through research 12.5 degrees to be the most "standard" angle, and built mine to match.
Rung spacing: I think 22cm should be adopted as a standard.
Rung width: Variable - people will always choose the rung width they prefer. Anywhere from about 1cm to 3.5cm.
Rung incut: Some rungs are incut, most (like mine) are perpendicular to the board.
Degree of rung-edge smoothing: This is also variable.
Rung friction: Wood type, smoothness, temperature, humidity.

Jeff Baldwin's 2-9-14 effort
- The board he using has ~15cm rung spacing
- This then equates to a first movement of 105cm travel, and a second movement of 75cm travel.
- Total travel of 180cm

1-5-9 on the Moon Board
- 22cm spacing
- First movement of 88cm, second movement of 88cm
- Total travel of 176cm
- This does not take into account the fact of the shorter distance between rungs 8 and 9 on the School Room Board.

School Room Specs
----------------------
22cm between rungs. 9 rungs
16-18mm thickness per rung - just less than a pad thickness
Angle 12 - 15 degrees.

Here is something written by a Brit, or a Scot:

"On the subject of campus technique, here is my take. Campussing is a party piece trick that is of little direct use to climbing. Case in point - Irish was lapping 1-5-8 at a time when his hardest problem on the 50 board was one 7c (and probably Schoolboy, so 7b+. Its hardly Basic Ben is it?). Me and Doyle were climbing at the same level, but our best was 1-4-5! (Then Si went into the stratosphere, but that's another story. About eggs). Obviously the climbing technique element is low, but also, it doesn’t necessarily equate to climbing strength as you might expect. Cos the holds are so big! (yes even the little rungs – c.f. holds on Uncle Crimpy Guts). However it is fucking good fun, so here are my tips for the top…..

There are two equally important elements to campussing - strength and technique. To illustrate, Danny Cattell can do a one-arm on an edge, and did 1-5-8 by doing just that (100% strength, 0% technique). Conversely, Ben Pritchard pissed 1-4-7 and nearly did 1-5-8 on the same day he failed in a protracted siege on Hard Banisters due to his immaculate campussing technique. To improve at it then both should be worked.

Strength: This is fairly obvious. Keep working towards the elusive one-arm on an edge (OK, not you Keith). If you can do this you’re sound. Because then you just one-arm the rung of your choice. Easy. If you can’t do this (everyone except Keith) then it is useful to add a workout for the triceps, pecs, and lats. These are all crucial to the “pushing” involved in good campus technique. Ben, with the amount of rings you do, you shouldn’t be lacking here!

N.B. For 1-5-anything hopefuls make sure you are working on the extremities of the one-arm, i.e. pulling from full (or very close to full) extension, to your chin above the bar. Don’t just copy Simpson doing his 30 degree R.O.M. “one-arms” on Doyle’s video. Its impressive but it won’t help! If (hypothetically) you were forced to choose you should ditch this bit in favour of extremity work anyway, as this middle portion is where you have the most mechanical advantage, so its easier.

N.B. No.2. For arm strength I recommend staying around 1-2 reps. Certainly no more than 3. The amount of people I see doing 5 reps with about 20kg counterweight on a pulley makes me weep. This is no more than a very offset two arm pull/up, usually incorporating an element of mantelling the assisting arm in the last few reps! You’re far better off doing one solitary slow controlled negative through the full range of motion than this nonsense.

Technique: This is for you Dobster! I won’t go into the slap from 1-4 or 1-5, that’s obvious. It’s the next part that’s tricky. You need to co-ordinate a pulling from your leading arm with a pushing from your trailing arm. The best way to practice this is to do it slowly, i.e. get 1-4/5 and pull/push upwards until your lead arm is locked to your shoulder. You should be using your pushing arm a lot in this motion. Watch Jerry bachar laddering on The Real Thing for a visual. Now, this is most useful from a push/pull at the same time co-ordination point of view, but things are slightly different when you’re actually campussing dynamically…..……The reason for this is because of the twist. 

When practicing the movement static your body tends to stay open and close to the board, and your leading arm levers upwards parallel to the board (as if you were doing a straight lat pull down). You shouldn’t be campussing like this. Many do and do very well but they are all overpowering it (like young Mr Cattell). To get the highest up the board, and lets face it that’s what its all about, you should be twisting.

The difference here is that you need to leave space between yourself and the board to allow your torso on the trailing arm side to twist inwards. To visualise this, lock an imaginary rung level with your left arm pit, sit with square shoulders, and extend your right arm above your head. This is your reach if you stay open. In fact its generally worse than this since many people begin slapping up to 7/8/9 when the shoulder of their slapping arm is still lower than that of the leading arm! Now, in the same position, twist you torso from right to left and your right shoulder will rise upwards, thus gaining you a good few inches reach. This is the position you should be aiming to release from.

To allow space for your torso to twist inwards, you need to pull up a different way. Put simply, you need to lever your lead arm upwards perpendicular to the board rather than parallel. To illustrate, if you looked side-on at this technique your body would describe a curve moving out from the board then back in, rather than staying flat to the board throughout the motion.
The reason I think that most people don’t do this (and I don’t think you do Dobs) is that most can reach 1-4-7 easily enough with bad technique (i.e. shoulders level or worse), and have practiced by doing 1-3-6 which is nigh on impossible to do with a twist!

Other tips: Don’t pause or settle or re-adjust halfway. Do everything as one motion.

If you hit a plateau (i.e. 1-4-6 and 1-3-6 easy, aim of 1-4-7) which goes on for a while, stop campussing and do two weeks of basic strength work. Done properly this should see you right."
DK > My Climbing Wall photo
My Climbing Wall photo
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