I am obsessed with the Kilterboard, mainly because I think it appeals to my want to tick off things in a list 😂 Trying to complete every climb of a particular grade is addictive!
I hope you enjoy this Board Climbing 101 resource. Board climbing is absolutely something I've neglected over the years, but I've been adding more sessions on boards into my week and noticing the difference in power, and body tension on small holds. I hope this helps, if like me, you've been a but of. board sceptic or haven't known where to start with them as a training tool :)
As someone who was put off by moon boards when they came out it was cool to try a TB2 many years later and realize that the boards are more accessible now, so much good stuff down in the sub V6 range
Tension and Kilter are the way for me! I find the Moon too aggressive, but I think they all work really well with smaller doses than my usual hours of commercial gym climbing.
Finger injuries have entered the chat. Jk jk, but agreed the Tension holds felt nice and friendly and being able to adjust to 20 made a big difference! ☺️
Great video! I do a lot of board climbing and really enjoy the style it offers. There were a couple of things the coach didn’t mention (or at least wasnt on camera) when you were on the wall, particularly for the final move on that v5. The first one is, at 15:50 I think the foot swap method could have worked, but as you can see your left arm is in an odd lock off. Sinking down more and getting your arm straight would have lessened the strain your left arm took when you let go with the right. The second point is, at 18:54 I also think this method could have worked, but if you notice your hips are quite square to the wall and kinda out from it. If you would have twisted that right hip in just a tiny bit (almost like a drop knee), and really kept tight to the wall, it would have allowed for you to have gotten much more leverage from that foot. Having your hips out from the wall meant that your right foot was pushing you away rather than pulling you in.
Interesting! I think each gym seems to have a culture around the board - some I go to there’s a massive crew that use the board and then others it just gathers dust!
I never thought I'd see a KOTOR reference in a board climbing video. Loved this, it's really encouraging to go try the board and just get used to some different types of climbing compared to what normally gets set.
I did try it once and could not lift my butt off the ground :-D It was at the end of my session, so next time I will try again with coach Christian's encouragement in mind! Thanks for sharing these insights with us, Hannah!
I climbed for about 7 years before ever touching a board but am a certified board enthusiast now. For those getting into board - most of the community is just like the rest of climbing in that they have their individual pursuits but are super stoked for everyone that wants to board climb. The climbing is generally more intense than a normal gym boulder so start slow, build your base of easy climbs and get used to the board style. It will likely feel pretty weird, you'll climb many grades below your normal gym grade but with time you'll match your gym grade as you get more used to the movement style. General etiquette for boards: -When you show up and there are others there, talk to them. Ask what they are working on, what the angle is at, if you can join in (the answer should be yes, if it isn't they are probably a dweeb). -Don't change the angle without asking. It takes a long time, breaks the session flow and is generally frowned upon. If you want to change the angle, just ask. If someone is close on a proj they might want to keep it as is but often in my experience people are chill with it. -Never, ever change the lights while someone is mid climb. This is easily done as it is a default behavior in the app if you are connected to the board. Look in the settings and turn off any "auto light" settings. -Encourage everyone. Experienced or new, double digits or intro grades it doesn't matter. We are all stoked for everyone that is trying hard on the board. Get stoked, pull hard, try hard and have fun!
As a new climber that has never been on a board, I enjoyed this video! My gym only has a moonboard that starts at V4, and I'm a little intimidated that I will injure myself because the moves will be too hard.
Moon boards seem to be commonly accepted as the most difficult to jump in at if you’re new to board climbing. I’ve heard the newest set of holds is friendlier though!
You can always make your own moves that feel safe and doable for you. I think making your own boulder problems can help you get better at climbing as well as it forces you to think about it differently. Plus it's fun to set problems with friends.
Yeah, I would definitely caution you against getting into that as a new climber, you have plenty of things to do outside of board climbing with plenty to gain. I say this as a very avid board climber.
I’ve struggled with boards because I’m blue/green colorblind. The apps have a colorblind mode, and it’s not so bad on the easy routes, but I found route reading much slower when compared to commercial routes. There are workarounds, like going with a preset list or watching someone else go first, and the colorblind mode helps. Boards are still good tools, but I don’t know that the “bang-for-buck” is as good for colorblind folks like me as it is for other people.
2:45 not a criticism, but I want to mention boards are not the same facility to facility. Shallow pours change the character of a ton of holds, orientations may easily be a few degrees off in either direction, electronic angle finders depend on orientation, and boards shift depending on structure and the hydraulics themselves coming to "rest". Plus, the layouts may be the same but then the kicker can be of varied heights (even on boards with no holds on the kicker, this matters especially for undercling or compressed starts) and the boards may have more or less width to flag/smear past, and the texture of the board is different. If you have a 12mm rounded gaston crimp for the left, and this one is a short pour, rotated clockwise by 3°, and you need to stand into to establish from a two foot high kicker this will be harder than the same hold with a proper poor and no further rotation off of a foot high kicker. Just take the communal grading on boards as less accurate than expected despite the amount of ticks (especially quick ticks...), and anything you want to tick and worth keeping track of is worth a brief comment to describe experiences for other users. Maybe establishing wasn't as hard for you, but the finish sequence was rough, and for the next user they struggle to get off the ground but the top is trivial?
This was cool thanks, just started using the one at our gym. Its fixed at 45 degrees and is a mirror board (hild same on each side). I really enjoy it. Thanks again 🙏
I love climbing on the Kilter board: it's pretty fun and accessible due to the adjustable angle and the very nice holds - I can set up easy warm-up climbs and I can set up some hard boarding on my limit. But at my gym, we only have 2019 Moonboard, oldschool hold, fixed angle - it's pretty brutal, like the V3 warmup boulders there feel intense - but it's a great training tool, really humbling and forcing you to get better)
No way, I literally started board climbing just this week! (a year and a half after starting climbing). My gym has a Moonboard, and holy moly it's hard at first! I typically climb around v6, but I can barely do v3s on the Moonboard (from my first 2 sessions). And it's so hard on my fingers!!
Yes! I think the Moonboard has a rep for being pretty aggressive on the fingers. I hear the new set is a little nicer. I avoided the board for the longest time, but I definitely notice its impact on contact strength and good foot placement and I can see how it makes people really strong ☺️ Hope you’ve been enjoying is so far!
@@hannahmorrisbouldering I went there once when I was like 12, begged my mum to let me continue climbing but Mile End was too far and at the time it was like the only climbing gym available in south london area, how different my life could have been... I'll have to visit it when I eventually go back to London
This is good timing, I have been meaning to try out the moonboard at my gym. Unfortunately the closest one is locked at 40 degrees, so I may have trouble climbing anything, as I am usually at V3 at best. Gonna give it a go anyways i think
I use my gyms kilter board maybe every other or third week for a session when I’ve projected all there is to project on the walls. I’ve used the tension board once ever, and had a blast. This makes me want to go back and use the tension board more. The holds are so much more creative I think. But I definitely get nervous using the tension board vs kilter since that’s where the super strong boulder bros tend to train at my gym..
Boards that can vary in the steepness angle provide fewer barriers to entry to less strong intermediate climbers. my main gym only has a non-adjustable moon board. Not great for someone in their mid 60s. However it also has 3 wonderful spray walls which provide a lot of the good things boards offer and you can pick the level of strenuousness.
I love a spray wall session - really nice way to get creative with making up your own moves that scales to different levels better often, I think! Great for training endurance too :)
I wish my gym had a board 😭. There's one in the other gym (same franchise) but it's a good 1h20min away, and the few times I've been there was a bunch of people (strong, muscley) working on it and I was too intimidated to go ask if I can have a go at it (that hangup is completely on me, they would probably be like yeah of course). Really nice video :) coach seems great !
Christian was ace! Super nice to work with. Lots of people feel similarly towards training on the board I think and it’s something we discussed in the video! Generally, I find having a session in mind helps me so I feel confident to just go and sub in with others on the board and don’t feel like I’m out of place or lost!
Hey, I was wondering - would you consider Spray wall climbing as a good alternative for board climbing? I know it's different in many ways but I don't have board in my gym so spray wall it's the closest thing I have. (40degrees, bunch of different holds, changes only twice\three times a year or so) currently I am stuck on a V5-6 plateau trying to improve and thought to start doing spray wall training. thanks!
All system boards are is a smart and systematized spray wall. The strength of a system board is having an unchanging hold set (plus more input from others), but this is also a weakness. Spray walls are often more dense, not constrained by standardized lighting arrays, with greater hold variety, and this means there are often similar enough options in the surrounding space; a slightly worse or better hold is close by in a well set spray wall. Sessions I often spend on my home adjustable spray wall is setting an initial problem which is challenging but controlled, and then modifying elements to become more challenging such as shifting and dialing and replacing or entirely removing holds and then tilting the wall. With a commercial spray wall at 40°, having this control may not be available, but the concepts are there, and this is all a system board is except you have to put a little more initial effort in but could get much more out of.
Board bro here Spray walls are absolutely goated If you climb with friends consider playing a game of Add On, or Plus One, where you take it in turns adding a move and trying to beat each other, making moves that your friends can’t do. It’s great because different climbers have different strengths and will set moves to those strengths, so you end up trying moves that don’t suit your strengths.
He says climbing on a board will tire you out in 60-90min, much faster than commercial sets. I tire out in 60min of doing the v2-v4 commercial sets in Sender One (yeah, that's my home gym too). Then again, I literally only boulder when they're setting on the roped walls.
I think you may be (honestly) misunderstanding him slightly. Board climbing is absolutely, 100%, more tiring on the muscles than mixed commercial climbing (slab, dynos, pressing moves, vert, overhang etc). It is mostly a constant test of body tension, power, finger strength and crushing shoulder strength etc etc. All of these are constantly in action, so you would inarguably tire in these facets quicker on a board (I think that's what the guy is saying). Whereas I think you're more talking of a cardio based thing in terms of how you feel tired on a commercial set - like being tired in an energy sense? This absolutely isn't a critique of you, I think maybe you and the guy in the vid are just talking about different things😅. And I'd guess as you're a predominantly top rope/lead climber by the sounds, stamina isn't an issue - it's more the intensity of moves on short boulder problems?
I think thd kilter board is really the only board with good enough holds to be accessible to beginners. I'm a v3/v4 climber and I struggle to even establish on the tension board.
Most of my experience with the Kilter is on a fixed 50 degree board so I feel like that’s given me a ‘Kilter is hard’ perspective whereas the Tension 2 felt much more attainable for me to have a good session on without getting completely shut down. Haven’t tried the OG Tension though!
How would you recommend finding the right shoe for bouldering please? I've just come back to climbing and I've only bought one pair so I'm not too sure what the different types do or what would work best for me, thanks!
My main gym is in a church an doesn't have the space for a board sadly, but there is a gym further away that has some boards. I've been saying for ages that I want to go there just to board climb, but any time I get there so much has reset that I just spend the whole time doing normal boulders, oops 😅 I should take a friend with me and spend atleast half an hour on just boards together, but my friends are all hella strong, so when I'm then failing to do a 4b because it's that sandbagged it kinda sucks a bit. I wish I could board climb regularly, but that's just not an option sadly.
i have a friend obsessed with the moonboard and he wants me to try it. however he is climbing ~ v8 indoors and I am barely at v4. i would rather start with something more accessible, if i ever decide to board climb at all. thanks for the info!
The best climbers are always on the board or the hangboard ... go figure... :-) after ive started hangboarding everyday next step is board - but yeah its intimidating :-)
Good question! I’ve been climbing for 10 years, so I think I’ve built up a good tolerance for volume over time. I feel like I’m pretty in tune with backing off when I feel fatigue and trying not to climb too far into the red zone during sessions. Focus more on warm up and stretching as I get older! 🥹 As it happens though, I ruptured my calf this week playing tennis, so maybe I’m not great at managing cross training.
Great video as always. One thing that kind of grated for me was referencing KJ as a "beginner climber", when she has climbed for several years and climbs V4. I appreciate you are trying to make boards accessible to all, so want to include beginner advice, but in the general population of climbers I don't think she would be considered a beginner. I feel like labelling her as a beginner risks alienating true beginners, who might feel they are not yet at the right level to board climb, as well as climbers of her level (including myself) who no longer consider themselves beginners so might be a bit ticked off to be labelled as such. Just my 2 cents
Take that on board, definitely wasn’t trying to insult or undermine KJ by labelling her a beginner for this video, but suggesting that someone who is a beginner / new to board climbing might follow a similar approach to KJ! Understand that the labelling isn’t a 100% fit in this case
Love the video! I think there may be a female climber with a larger RU-vid - not sure if you can get in trouble if you advertise as the biggest but aren't? Would want you to have any issues, I've seen people be wild on here! Keep up the fantastic videos
