[DWS]

Currently my home board is set at 40°. After having trained on this board for more than a year I have become quite comfortable with this angle and am now contemplating making it steeper. 

I have trained on the local wall's 45° board and was still able to use small holds with poor feet.  My home board is quite small, approx. 7ft wide and 8ft high, so about 3/4 the size of a moonboard perhaps. 

I feel that if I am going to make the board steeper, considering its a small board, it would be most effective to make it as steep as possible whilst still allowing me to use small holds and small feet.  I would like to adjust the board to atleast 50°, but also toying with the idea of 55°, or maybe even more. 

I've never climbed on anything steeper than the local wall's 45°board, I can climb problems up to about 7B at this angle so think I could manage climbing on a 50°, but fear that at 55° or beyond certain holds on my board would become unusable/ I would no longer be able to pull on small crimps/ and problems that were once fine at 40° would now become desperate at 55°.

I know alot of the big boys climb/ climbed on steepboards such as Ned, Malc, Gaskins etc and are/were ludicrously strong, so I'm quite drawn to the idea of making my home board very steep... I do like a challenge.

Any thoughts on this guys? 

[thekettle]

Personally I'd set the board angle to match your climbing goals as closely as possible.
The steeper you go, the bigger handholds you'll need and you'll likely gain more explosive power from it. A less steep board will give you difficulty via small holds, and you'll get more finger strength gains as a result (unless you can already use 1st joint edges on 50+ degrees). As a Lakes boulderer operating around 7B-8A I set mine at the deeply unfashionable angle of 35, because all the stuff I aspired to climb was generally short moves between minging tiny holds. When I wanted to work raw power I'd go on a 50 degree woody at a local wall.
If I was preparing for a rocklands or US trip I'd consider setting it at 50 plus degrees as throwing/compressing between big holds seems to be the norm at those venues.

[turnipturned]

As John says....

If you want to climb hard in the UK, then I won’t go much steeper than 45. If you want to go abroad and climb hard (Rocklands etc) then steeper the better. Alternatively if you a skinny finger strength weapon but no power, then a steeper, 50 plus is probably going to do you wonders. Don’t worry about what wads climb on, most home boards are tailored to the available space...... I.e in a cellar

[Ged]

I disagree with this. Surely if it were best to train on the same angle that you want to perform on, then wed all be training on 10-20 degree boards? I've made huge gains on a 50, that has translated well to outdoor projects. But then explosive power has always been my weakness.

[DWS]

Yeh, good points.  I think explosive power could equally be trained on a 40, as finger strength could equally be developed on a 50.  I'd imagine the increased likelihood of cutting loose on 50 would result in increased finger strength over time (considering if you can still use small edges at that angle).  I guess if I changed the board from 40 to 50 I could hang the small edges ( ≈10mm-12mm) on the fingerboard to compensate until I was strong enough to pull on crimps on a 50.

[teestub]

I've made huge gains on a 50, that has translated well to outdoor projects. But then explosive power has always been my weakness.

Did you get your twin to spend a similar amount of time training on a 20 degree board so you could make a direct comparison?

[Ged]

Yes. I was loads better.

Seriously though, I've experimented extensively with different training tools over the years. Finger board, campus, bouldering on lots of different angles. And training on a 50 has given me my first serious gains for a long time. That might well be because I've done lots of the other stuff, so diminishing returns etc. And of course might be my particular weakness. But it certainly seems to be extremely effective training for things that are nowhere near 50 degrees.