The Rock Prodigy Training Center  is a ground-breaking hangboard designed by the authors, in cooperation with Trango, and with help from our friend Lamont Smith. It is the best hangboard on the market, and  a big leap forward in hangboard design. This board will help beginners unlock the amazing power of hangboard training, by eliminating the top barriers to hangboarding and starting them on the fast-track to finger strength. These barriers are pain and risk of injury. This board is exceedingly comfortable, and was built with ergonomics in mind first and foremost.  Purchase the Rock Prodigy Training Center here.

The most obvious innovation in ergonomics and injury prevention is the two-piece design. Two independent pieces are absolutely fundamental and essential to safe hangboarding. First, they allow each climber to adjust the hold-spacing to their own shoulder-width, so Jane doesn’t have to do an Iron Cross on Bruce’s board, and Bruno doesn’t have to press his elbows to his ears to use Julie’s board. Second, they allow the two halves to be rotated independently, so the holds on the board can be properly aligned with the climber’s fingers, accounting for variations in finger lengths, and eliminating unsafe strain on the climber’s wrist. Also, nearly every one piece board has a bunch of holds in the center that are useless (for two-arm hangs). This board eliminates that wasted plastic and distributes it where it can be used safely.

All the holds on the board have large-radius, skin-friendly lips to maximize comfort. The board has three textures (completely smooth, medium texture, and rough texture) to give a secure feel on positive surfaces without wrecking your skin. The board includes multiple size options (usually three sizes or more) for all of the most important grip positions, ensuring that climbers of all abilities will find Goldilocks Holds-those that are just right for maximizing your finger strength. Furthermore, the size options provide a built-in ladder of progression that will make the RPTC a valuable training investment for years to come.

While we’re certain the above features will help beginners break into hangboarding, this board was wihtout-a-doubt designed with hardcore training fiends in mind. We have nearly 30 years of hangboarding experience between us. That is, three or more seasons per year, with 8-12, 90-minute hangboard sessions per season. That’s literally 1000’s of hours spent hanging from all manner of hangboards.  We wanted to develop a board that would help extremely experienced hangboarders push to the next level, by minimizing all the little annoyances that inhibit your hangboard training sessions (like skin irritation, joint pain, features that encourage cheating, unrealistic shapes and impractical hold sizes). Even if you aren’t a hangboard connoisseur, you will benefit from the thought and attention to detail that went into the design, and you won’t outgrow this board once you become fanatical about training.

Finally, we were determined to develop a practical yet functional means of progressing to smaller grips, without the need to constantly buy more and more hangboards as the climber improves. Often once your hangboard does its job – making you stronger – there is nowhere to go except to a new, expensive hangboard.  The Variable Depth Edge Rails on this board provide an almost limitless ladder of progressively shallower edges to train from. These features, along with the “Position Index Bumps”, allow tremendous variation in hold size without taking up too much space on the board (or resulting in a fragile design). Each climber will be able to find a spot on the Edge Rail that is perfect for their finger size and ability, and then as their fingers strengthen, they can incrementally progress to smaller holds by shifting their hands outward, using the Position Index Bumps as a reference point for repeatable training.

Purchase the Rock Prodigy Training Center here.

For moving pictures that further describe the features of the RPTC, please check out the “Using the Rock Prodigy Training Center Video” below.

RCTM.com Articles related to the Rock Prodigy Training Center:

• Good Things Come in Threes   …The third and final “project” I referred to was spawned by the book. In February, after reviewing some of the early drafts of the book, my friend Adam Sanders at Trango texted me to see if I would be interested in designing a hangboard. I’ve long–well “fantasized” is really the appropriate word–about designing a hangboard. I’ve been using hangboards seriously for training for more than twelve years, and I’ve been through countless boards over that time. I’ve never been satisfied with any hangboard, and I’ve come up with many ideas on how to improve the concept. I was really excited by this opportunity, so I put together some concept sketches for Trango.   Read more…

• Rock Prodigy Training Center First Production Run   The initial production run of the Rock Pordigy Training Center was completed last week!  Here’s a picture courtesy of my friends at Trango.  At this point the actual product is ready for sale, but we’re still finalizing the packaging.  We’ve written instructions for installation and put together instructions for an intermediate workout that will be included with the RPTC.  Next week we’ll be shooting some photos for to go along with the written instructions and shooting a video that will describe the new features of the RPTC, how to install it, and how to perform a proper hangboard workout.   Read more…

• That’s a Wrap!   Last week the Lazy H Barn was the star of its own film.  A big part of launching the Rock Prodigy Training Center is creating a few short videos about the board (describing the key features of the board, how to install it, and how to use it), and Trango decided to use the Lazy H for the shoot location. She was very excited, so I spent some time getting her in tip top shape for the camera.  Trango pulled out all the stops for the shoot, sending out Ben Fullerton and Travis Ramos to direct and film the videos.  These guys were super-professional; I was totally blown away.  Read more…

• Get ’em While They’re Hot! The Rock Prodigy Training Center is now available for purchase from Trango’s website! The initial manufacturing run produced a modest number of units, so order right away if you want to be the first climber on your block to have one. This ground-breaking hangboard was designed by me, with help from my brother Mike and Lamont Smith. In my humble opinion, this is the best hangboard on the market, and is a big leap forward in hangboard design. Read more…

• RPTC Install and First Impressions I permanently installed my Rock Prodigy Training Center last week, and I’ve done my first few hangboard workouts of the new season. To install the RPTC, I took a bunch of measurements of my old, sprawling setup, and used those figures to optimize the spacing of the RPTC. In the end I settled on 4.5″ between the interior edges of the two halves (YMMV!). I have the halves oriented horizontally, and so far this is working well for me. Read more…

• Hangboard Resistance Data Analysis  As promised, here is some hangboard resistance data from my recently concluded Strength Phase.  This was my first full phase using the Rock Prodigy Training Center.  I thought it would take a while to get the loads dialed in correctly but I was able to get pretty close to the right resistance during the first workout. I trained the following grips, in the order listed below, performing 3 sets of reps (7 reps for the first set of each grip, then 6 reps, then 5), except where noted. Read more…

• How’s Your Hang?  We get a lot of comments from folks that they would love to use the Rock Prodigy training method, but they can’t because they don’t have access to the right tools; primarily a hangboard and campus board. They may live in a small apartment, a dorm room, etc where they don’t think they have the space, or authority to put up these essential apparatus. Unfortunately, it’s easy to take a circumstance like this and magnify it into an excuse to delay training. Delaying training is delaying your life!  Read more…

• Adjustable Mount for the RPTC  Ever since I first conceived of the Rock Prodigy Training Center, I’ve been pondering a cheap and simple mounting system that would allow for instantaneous spacing adjustments. Once the RPTC was unveiled I got a number of great ideas from other climbers. Julian Marks suggested a “French Cleat” system in this Mountain Project thread, which uses two pieces of angled lumber to create an integrated hook on the mounting structure that slides along a fixed receptacle.  Read more…

If you have questions or comments about The Rock Prodigy Training Center, please post them on the RCTM Forum. We will try to respond as soon as possible.