The Nightmare Before Sendmas

About a week ago, we had the first Alberta Climbing Association (ACA) comp of the year and it was hosted by my home gym, Calgary Climbing Centre. These comps are always a blast and are very well organized. Simon, the manager of the south location, has been hosting comps for 10+ years and has ironed out pretty much all the kinks you can have in a competition. This competition consistently runs on time, which is testimony to the level of organization they have.

Unfortunately, this is the first time in over 6 years that I was not a participant in finals. Small blow to the ego. And by small, I mean big. Especially when every other female Pro/Elite Team Member was going to be in finals and it is extremely rare I don't make finals.

Men and Women Finalists previewing their problems.

Saturday was a pretty rough day but luckily I was at least able to pull some positive from it. On the plus side, I got some quality time with friends from out of town that I wouldn’t have had if I’d made finals!

A few days after the comp, I was chatting with a friend and he said something that really hit me. “In climbing, we’re great at calling out what someone needs to work on or isn’t good at but the issue is, we don’t focus enough on what each climber does well.” (Thanks KR!) With that in mind, I came up with the following...

The basis of my post. (And the next one.) KR - you are one smart man!

What are five things I did well?

1. I reeled it back in after a less than ideal start. Typically, within the first hour of climbing at a comp, I will have at least 8 climbs on my scorecard. Some of them will be warm-ups that will get bumped off my scorecard but, regardless, I’ve alleviated the stress of not having six problems on my scorecard. (For anyone not familiar with our format of comps, top six problems count towards your final score.) Within two hours of this competition, somehow I’d only managed to send five problems and four of them were problems I didn’t want to count towards my final score. Within the last hour, I was able to add five of my top problems. Four of these problems were added with less than 30 minutes to go in the comp. This ended with me being only 15 points out of finals (tied with another competitor for 9th).

2. I recognized that I was not in the right head space and put myself in a time out. I realized on Friday that I’d misplaced my ipod so it wasn’t as productive a time out as I would normally have but I was able to adjust my head space a bit nonetheless. (In case anyone was concerned, I have since found my ipod...) After doing this, I jumped on a few climbs that a) looked fun and b) looked like I could flash them (flashing is a term for getting to the finish on your first attempt for any non-climbers reading this). The positive reinforcement from these climbs, I hoped, would help me perform better on the climbs I need. And guess what? It worked.

3. I tried problems that aren’t my style. For anyone that knows me, you know that I have a burlier style and that compression moves are typically my forte. Very technical climbing on the other hand is tough for me, mainly as I don’t allow myself time to be patient with each minute move. This comp was set quite different from the typical CCC set and there were not a lot of climbs that fit my style. There were a few high graded problems that I felt would fit my range so I tried them just to try and branch out. I didn’t end up sending them, but the fact that I convinced myself to try them is a win in itself.

Canmore TDB - Jan 2014

4. I realized I was slowing down one of my team members and parted ways with her so she could execute to the best of her ability. The worst thing we can do when we aren’t performing at our best is to hold others back and that’s exactly what I felt I was doing. Don’t get me wrong, I really, really love climbing with this teammate and we work together very well. I knew that with where my head space was going though that it would be unfair to drag her down with me.

5. When I set my mind to attempting a climb, I didn’t allow myself any time for hesitation. I just executed. I have a history of hesitating when I’m unsure about a movement and typically this results in me falling off. Analyze your own climbing and see if you have that same issue. I bet it’s a key part of why you’re falling off your current project, whatever that may be.

What are five things I could have improved on?

1. Taking my time warming up. In our practice, typically I will take about 10-14 boulder problems before feeling warm after having completed a basic warm-up through regular exercises. For some reason, I got it in my head that this competition was different and that three problems would be enough of a warm-up before trying something hard. This was the start of the downward spiral. Sure I had completed some of our warm-up exercises beforehand but as I do that every practice so it is just a small part of the process. Take your time and warm up like you always do if you want to expect the results you’ve proven you can attain.

2. Better time management. I don’t think we need to go too in depth on this one as we’ve already discussed it (see Five things I did well #1 if you missed it). Who climbs only 5 problems in 2 hours at a comp?!? I need to remember to stick to the plan that has always worked for me. If I do, I have proven time and time again that I will make finals.

3. Stop beating up on myself. We’re our own worst enemies and our own worst critics and as a result typically don’t see what we’ve done well, choosing to focus only on the negative. I was definitely a victim of this. Ask anyone that spoke to me when there was still an hour left, and they would tell you I’d already beaten myself out of a spot in finals.

About to complete a burly move by campusing. Toronto BWC June 2014

4. I got ahead of myself. With an hour left, sure I only had 5 climbs on my scorecard, but I started telling myself and anyone that would listen that there was no way I would be making finals. I came within 15 points of making finals even with this mentality!!! Imagine what I could have done if I’d calmed myself down more and believed in my ability!

5. Assuming I can’t climb something because it doesn’t look like it fits my style. This relates back to #3 and #4 if you really want to get down to it (which also then relate back to themselves...). A teammate came over and told me that there was this one problem, that likely would be within our range, that was really easy (for what it was worth). When I went over it was little holds on a face. ‘But I don’t climb slab. I can’t get my foot that high. How did she get her foot here? She held that? I can’t even look at that hold never mind hold onto it!’ This was a brief synopsis of what went through my head. Clearly, none of it was positive. I’ve gotten a bit better at this and am trying to get myself out of the habit of saying a climb looks hard or has tough holds on it to make myself more confident getting on climbs. I do still have a lot of room for improvement though. I need to look at a climb, figure out what will be a more difficult section for me and work through the ways I can try to get it done.

All in all, it was still a fun competition. I got to climb with friends, the problems were fun and the line-ups weren’t bad (in case you’re wondering, based on the number of hard problems, the gym had determined there would be an average of 8.75 climbers per hard problem. Not bad for a comp that hosted near 300 competitors).

While I enjoyed hanging out with my out of towners after, I can tell you that watching finals is nowhere near as exhilarating as being a participant. I will be working my butt off to be in finals at the next comp!

When all else fails, destroy everyone at a food eating competition they don't eve know competing in!

Stayed tuned for part 2...