How To Ruin A Training Facility

My local wall, the Westway Climbing Wall in London, have a very nasty habit. They make changes to the wall and training facilities with out first consulting those that use them. Now this would be less of a problem if those making the changes used these facilities, if they did they would then be in touch with the way that they are used. However unfortunately this isn't the case. Time and again changes have been made and the customers, each paying just under £50 a month, have not been consulted. Regular readers of this blog will remember this fiasco where dangerous matting was laid and it took a public outcry from the users of UKB to get the system rectified.

Well folks they've done it again.

Today I wanted to have my first campus session after a 3 week break and I could not quite believe what greeted me. The Westway campus board used to be a great training facility, just the right steepness, regulation rungs and distances. After a great battle we even managed to get a Beastmaker put on the end of it. It was perfect for anybody who was strong enough to use and subsequently train on it. If not people were able to use the pull up bar just next to it, or go and use the system room to do multiple moves on similar rungs with their feet on.

Through some bizarre wisdom, without consulting anyone who uses it, they've added a massive kickboard. A kickboard big enough to make sure you catch your knees and toes when campussing and your hip and arm when using the Beastmaker.


















After pointing out these little mistakes in the design to a duty manager I was told

'It is about compromise, most people want that'.

I quite politely pointed out that a campus board isn't about compromise, in fact it couldn't be further from compromise. It is about pure basic strength training. I can't imagine Moffatt, Moon and Gullich discussing the benfits of compromising on a campus board. But then again maybe those three training legends were looking at it through tinted glasses, perhaps if they hadn't ever used one they would have know better.