Tension Board 1 Thoughts
If you’ve been to Twin Cities Bouldering, chances are you’ve seen the all wood training board next to the traverse wall. If you know a little bit about climbing you know that board climbing can be pretty intimidating. If you know a little bit about board climbing, you know that the Tension Board 1 is infamously challenging. Boards in general are notorious for being hard (not looking at you Kilter Board), but the Tension Board 1 is in a league of its own. Boards are simple, but that’s what makes them so useful.
I wasn’t avoiding the TB1, but I definitely wasn’t in a hurry to add it to my climbing sessions. I wasn’t sure how it would fit into my climbing, and my ego was definitely involved in that decision. My prior experience of just “sampling” climbs on the TB1 on random trips to TCB left me feeling defeated on climbs that were VX minus 2 or 3.
Now that I have regular access to the TB1 at TCB, and in depth experience on boards, it felt like it was time to give it another chance. Putting my ego aside, I decided that I was going to add 3-5 TB1 climbs to my session, every session, and wow, I am blown away at the genius that is this board, and what this addition to my session has added to my overall climbing progression and experience.
I don’t think anyone will complain about polished holds after using the TB1. In fact that is the genius of the TB1. The all wood requires so much more. Combining all wood, with a steeper angle, and small slopey feet makes the TB1 the ultimate tension training board. There is very little room for error, you have to apply so much tension through out your entire body to keep yourself on. After a couple sessions on the TB1, revisiting projects on the main wall (talking about you, blue Octboulderfest problem on the arch) I noticed I was able to use the small, polished, sloping feet so much better. On the wall, I felt so much better on my feet, and using my tension to drive myself up the wall.
Another big takeaway I had was finger and hand strength. There is an idea in hangboarding, that more force on a larger edge will give you better gains, than simply hanging more weight, and getting better at slinking up the wall. The idea of “owning” a hold, vs hanging a hold. This is clear on the TB1. No matter the hold size, you have to grab hard. No friction to “cheat” your way up a climb. Just pinching, squeezing, and crimping harder. I have personally seen my finger strength, and confidence on small holds increase dramatically after using the TB1.
The best part about this experience? It didn’t take away from my gym climbing? I kept my goals simple at the start. I was going to warm up, climb 3-5 problems on the TB1, and then session in the gym. In fact I wasn’t even failing much on the board. For the most part I was just climbing things at my flash level, or 2-3 fall level.
So what did this simple plan look like? My average session would go like this. Get in, head straight to the TB1, with my feet on the ground I would start grabbing holds, and start pulling through my fingers. I would do this until I had a slight pump. Rest and repeat until I was doing the same thing on smaller and smaller holds. Then I would do a couple hangs, and when my fingers felt 100%, I would start on my climbs. Once I hit 5 climbs I would go to the commercial sets. This was awesome because I was now getting 5 more climbs per session without wasting any skin!
After a month of this, I was starting to feel a lot more comfortable on the TB1, I started upping the grade, and even working some limit projects, on holds I never dreamed of even hanging, let alone moving on! I also found it easy to start working some weaknesses at the end of my session. As a rope climber turned boulderer I have always felt like my power and strength left something to be desired. So using the best holds I would make up simple campus sequences, the best part? The board is symmetrical, so anything you do on one side, you can flip, and work the opposite!
In conclusion! Set your ego aside! Do the things you avoid. For me the biggest hurdle was not understanding the style of the board! By dropping the grade and trying to learn, I discovered a lot more about my climbing and weaknesses, I still have a long journey ahead of me on the TB1, but if the last two months have shown me anything, it’s that I can’t wait to see what the next year or two years on the TB1 does for my climbing!
Climbing is dangerous, it involves inherent and other risks and cannot be eliminated. The information presented here does not describe all of the risks associated with climbing and is not intended to replace or supersede expert instruction and training.
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