Campus Board Anyone???

So, after climbing for the past decade and never spending more than a few minutes on an actual campus board because I absolutely suck at it...I realized (thanks mostly to the Anderson Brothers and their training book) that great improvement in personal climbing performance can be achieved if weaknesses are worked on instead of constantly trying to improve existing strengths.

I could always crimp on small holds, I could always utilize small/non-existent feet..but man do I struggle on powerful moves and brute contact strength!  Enter the new training apparatus for my home climbing wall, aka the DOJO.  This campus board is 7ft. in overall height (starting at chest-height and going up to my garage ceiling) and has three different sized campus rungs (1", 3/4" and the heinous 1/2") spaced at 6" on center, filling out the entire board.  I am pretty handy with power tools, so I invested in some expensive oak hardwood and mitered and milled my own campus rungs for $45 instead of having to spend over $200 if I were to buy them from a retailer.

I am more than satisfied with the end result and plan on incorporating dedicated campus training sessions in a couple of weeks, probably after the prime spring conditions pass and the bugs and humidity overpower the Adirondacks.  I am anxious to see what the additional contact strength will do for my personal climbing ability.  Looking back on my personal climbing notes, I have done 40+ outdoor V8's, 20+ outdoor V9's and 3 V10's and have never been able to complete one basic campus ladder on the largest Metolius Campus Rungs.  I can only image the holds I will be able to grab if one day I could do a complete campus ladder on my new 1/2" campus rungs!!!  Hell, at this point I would be ecstatic to be able to do one compete campus ladder on the largest of the rungs.

Here's to working personal weaknesses to see what comes on it...

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