Climbing and the Olympics: 2024 Summer Games (July 18, 2024)
The sport of indoor rock climbing made its Olympic debut in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan (postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Long before climbing became a competitive - let alone an Olympic - sport, it was an outdoor activity enjoyed by small groups of outdoor enthusiasts and mountain climbers. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, outdoor climbers began to experiment with creating artificial indoor climbing walls as a way to train in the off-season, but it was not until the late 1980s that the first dedicated indoor rock climbing gym opened in the United States, in Bend, Oregon. (Reference: https://www.climbing.com/places/history-of-climbing-gym/) In the nearly 40 years since that time, indoor climbing has grown exponentially and evolved into a popular indoor sport with a highly developed national and international competition circuit. The competitive sport is organized around three disciplines: (1) sport (or lead) climbing, in which climbers ascend high walls using ropes and anchors for protection; (2) bouldering, which features highly technical short climbs on lower walls that do not require ropes; and (3) speed climbing, in which climbers race in pairs up a vertical wall on a standardized course. On the international circuit, climbers belong to their respective national team, however each climber competes individually in one or more of these three disciplines.
When climbing was first accepted to the Olympic games for Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Committee decided that all athletes would be required to compete in all three disciplines. This ‘fully combined format’ was controversial because climbers who specialize in sport climbing and bouldering do not usually overlap with those who specialize in speed climbing. Many sport and bouldering athletes were unhappy that speed climbing was a mandatory discipline. Some had to learn speed climbing for the first time just to qualify for the Olympics. Meanwhile, speed climbing specialists found it hard to qualify at all, since they may have not touched a competition climb in lead or bouldering in years. The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) does not organize their annual World Cup series in the ‘fully combined format,’ but rather with sport, boulder, and speed as three separate categories! IFSC also hosted multiple Olympic qualifier events for the games that used yet another organizational method: boulder/sport (grouped) as one category and speed as another category. This organization makes a bit more sense, because sport and boulder have much more overlap in terms of the required skill set and the athletes who compete.
Many in the climbing community were frustrated by the fully combined format in Tokyo, because it does not showcase the best of each discipline. In response, the 2024 Olympic committee decided to change the organization to that of the IFSC’s Olympic qualifiers (two categories, sport/boulder and speed). This means that some of the truly best, strongest rock climbers in the world should be seen on the podium in Paris this summer, without being set back by having to learn how to speed climb. The world’s best speed climbers will now also have a shot to compete and be recognized at the Olympic level.
In my view, this change is a crucial improvement, but frankly, I believe that each discipline within the sport of competition climbing should be separate (the way it is in IFSC’s regular World Cup circuit). This is not to say that an athlete who is psyched in multiple disciplines should be confined to only their chosen area of specialty – no way! I only say this because I know plenty of talented athletes who love one discipline but couldn’t really care for the others. One can definitely see athletes on the World Cup circuit who only pop up in one discipline – that’s their thing. Bottom line: While 2024 is an improvement over 2020, I believe that in the long run the Olympics will find more talented sport, boulder, and speed climbers if they allow each discipline to function as a separate competition.
Climbing in the New River Gorge (July 17, 2024)
This past weekend my mother and I got the amazing opportunity to climb in the New River Gorge with some family friends from the gym.
The first climbing day – Saturday – we went to a couple crags right by Summersville Lake. Specifically, Narcissus Cave and Orange Oswald wall. The second climbing day we went to the Butcher’s Branch area.
This trip was my first time sport climbing in the New River Gorge. I was extremely eager to learn the ropes (pun intended) and learn how to lead climb outdoors. It is a rewarding and refreshing feeling to be ten feet above my last piece of protection and fussing with gear.
The feeling of climbing on New River rock is now my favorite thing about climbing. The rock is cool, comfortable, and intricately shaped. Unlike holds in a climbing in a gym, one handhold can contain multiple angles and multiple edges, creating a much more interesting climb! One of the largest challenges on this trip was confronting my fear of falling on lead. For my readers who do not know, the New River Gorge has many routes that have sparse protection, creating the possibility of a large, scary, but usually safe, fall. Multiple times, I was put in scary situations where the best, safest option was to continue climbing in scary terrain with large falls. Overcoming my fear of a large fall and continuing to climbing, however, was another extremely rewarding aspect of climbing outdoors.
All of the challenges and beauty that came with my first proper climbing trip to the New River Gorge in West Virginia made this trip unforgettable. Climbing outdoors felt the purist – it is the purist. No blasting music, no gym bros, just me and the rock. It will have to happen again soon!
My Philosophy (June 2, 2024)
This will be a short and fun post!
Over the past few months, I have been developing a personal philosophy of training for climbing. I have found it helpful to distill my ideas about how I learn best into a list.
My Philosophy of Training for Climbing:
No time should be wasted. If you’re are climbing, climb. If you’re working out, work out.
To climb hard, one must climb hard. A serious climber should spend the majority of their time climbing hard. If you’re not falling, you’re probably not climbing hard enough.
Technique over raw strength. Generally speaking, I believe it is healthier, more stylish, and – from a performance standpoint – more efficient to practice good technique than to muscle up everything one sees. By good technique I mean using skills like footwork, precise hand placement, and leg utilization (among others) to save energy and minimize the chance of a careless error.
Movement every day. I have found it particularly helpful to be active and stimulate the muscles every day. This aids in recovery and keeps me from going insane.
Build on the basics. I find that I value (climbing-specific) drills and workouts that have been practiced for years and make sense. When I preform these simple protocols with perfect form, I find that I really get useful results, because of the protocol’s years of proven usefulness.
I just wanted to share some of my emerging “training philosophy” with you, my reader, because this list has really helped me and I hope it might help others too. There are many books and ideas out in the world that talk about how to maximize one’s climbing performance, but at the end of the day the most enjoyable, sustainable, and productive method for you has to be adapted to the way you learn best.
My Bomb (June 2, 2024)
I am active on USA Climbing’s competitive youth circuit. Recently we youth competitors had a very important competition: Youth regionals for sport climbing. I went into this competition feeling very strong, but I had a terrible day and failed to advance to divisionals, which had been my goal and expectation. Afterward I reflected on what happened.
In isolation – an area for the competing athletes to warm up while staying isolated from the competition floor – I felt great, and after I got to preview my routes, I still felt great. The routes looked fun and I was excited to climb them! Everything crumbled, however, after I climbed and fell on my first route. I started strong and controlled. All my limbs were placed very methodically. But about half way up the wall I got stuck. Where to go? I experimented with a few different approaches, but suddenly I lost my balance and peeled off of the wall. I later learned that I did quite well on the route compared to most of my competition, but at the time this relatively low fall got in my head. I could not stop thinking about what I could have done and how I could have fought to stay on the wall. These thoughts sabotaged my performance for the rest of the competition.
In a competition setting, my coaches always tell me to forget about my previous climb when moving onto the next. Erasing a past performance and focusing on a future performance, however, is a skill like any other and can be hard to master. Ever since this experience I have been working on methods to keep myself calm, composed, and focused in competition. Below I have made a list of three (out of many) mindfulness exercises I have come to love.
Close the eyes and breathe. Sometimes, I just need to reset. When I close my eyes and take a couple deep breaths this reset comes automatically.
Breathing audibly. This can be a self-created cue to stay calm as well as an extra measure to make sure I am actually breathing. (As funny as it may sound to say “make sure I am breathing,” when exerting energy many of us hold our breath.) Remember to breathe correctly: all in through the nose, all out (slowly) though the mouth.
Keep a facial expression of optimism and strength. Honestly, this is kind of a ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ approach, but sometimes that’s all you need to keep yourself happy and moving. In an isolation setting competition, you have no way to know how your performance compared to that of your peers, so you may as well be happy about it.
Staying focused or “locked in” is big thing in climbing. (For me, staying “locked in” means taking something seriously – and giving that thing my all – in a relaxed and composed manner.) As I have learned, even a small foot slip can get into my head and temporarily compromise my performance. What happened to me at regionals was most certainly not an inability to climb the routes or a lack of physical strength, but rather a case of mental self-sabotage. What I learned from this experience is that I need to take the mental aspect of my sport more seriously, especially when it comes to managing my fear and emotions in competition settings.
Getting Outside (April 21, 2024)
I live in the Washington D.C. metro area, which is not exactly mountainous. One of the things we climbers love about our sport is the chance to be outdoors in amazing places. So naturally, a major challenge of being a rock climber in a not so rocky area is finding opportunities to get outside. Now, even in this urbanized and not-so-mountainous area small, local crags exist. I have climbed at Carderock and Great Falls, but if you want world-class routes, you are looking at roughly a five-hour drive each direction, which is not something most of us can do very often. Occasionally I heard about local bouldering spots, but I never really gave them much thought, focusing instead on the famous places I wished I could go.
Recently I was on quite the streak of complaining about the lack of real rock in the DC Metro Area. But after chatting with a few friends at the gym I started to think maybe I had been too quick to dismiss the local options, and I gained hope. There were at least three crags (mostly bouldering) within 30 minutes of my home. It might not be Hueco Tanks or Joshua Tree, but why not give it a try?
Then, however, I began sulking for a different reason: I do not own any crash pads. (For those who don’t know, a crash pad is a portable mat used to cushion a climber’s fall when bouldering outdoors.) In places with lots of outdoor climbing, there are gyms and outfitters where you can rent crash pads, but not around here, and my parents weren’t quite ready to drop a couple hundred dollars on this item for an experimental outing. But then I remembered my community! Would a friend or coach at the gym be willing to lend me a pad or two for my first outdoor session? The answer turned out to be yes – all I had to do was ask. In fact, after this excursion I learned that it is very common for gym climbers looking to get outside to borrow a couple pads or team up with friends who have pads. Looking back, I was silly not to ask my community of climbers for help sooner. Before I knew it, I had pads and the Mountain Project app (see Resources down below) and I was on my way to a place called Springfield Boulders.
There was a certain empowering feeling the moment I jumped over a guardrail by the side of the road with pads on my back and approached this crag. The rock had graffiti on it and there was glass on the ground, but to me it was beautiful. It was an outcropping next to the Accotink Creek, about 50 feet long and 25 feet tall at its highest point. Soon, more climbers arrived. They offered to share pads, which greatly expanded our fall zone and allowed me to meet some more people. Then came the climbing. The rock was sharp and hard. It cut up my hands in an instant, and was not the grippy fiberglass I am used to at the gym. I also found it interesting that most of the holds on the rock were either extremely sharp edges, small ledges, or stone cold slopers (a hand hold that has no incuts or edges to grab onto). Climbing here was perhaps more mentally tiring than physically: no blazingly colored holds for me to follow, no cushy 20x20 landing mat, and no idea what the feeling of the next hold would be. All of these factors forced me to think about more than just the act of climbing. I had to be more mindful of my falls, and found myself becoming more mindful of my body. It was all new to me, but I suppose one gets used to reading the sequence of outdoor climbs and to the feeling of knife-edge holds.
All in all, my first boulder session outdoors was truly amazing. I left feeling knackered, and I wanted more! The smell of nature, the breezes passing by, and the feeling of rock is one I need more of. I also think that outdoor climbing in general is very good for a gym climber looking to get a bit stronger. However, back to the point, even in an urban area it is possible to find spots to climb and expand my skillset outdoors. So, let’s climb some rocks!
Resources:
You can find out about your local crags through the Mountain Project website (https://www.mountainproject.com) or the Mountain Project app (that can be downloaded onto your device). Friends are also a good resource to find out about climbing around you.
Developing a Training Plan (April 12, 2024)
When I decided to make a serious commitment to rock climbing, one of my first steps was to devise a training plan. These are the steps I took – and continue to take, since this an ongoing process. Over time I came to understand how much this process connected me to my climbing community.
Now, it is worth noting that climbing is still a developing sport, and the “best” way to train for climbing has not been researched as extensively as for other sports. It is also true that different exercises and methods of training work for different people. In fact, this was the first thing I learned – one should not copy or imitate someone else’s training plan just because they can climb the hardest grades. My approach was to go around and ask lots of different people about the exercises they found helpful in their development as a climber. I like to pick and choose the activities and protocols I find beneficial rather than following any particular plan. In this way, over time, I built a portfolio of many exercises I found beneficial. When I began doing this, I started to feel much more connected to my community of climbers. Once I had a solid portfolio, I began sharing my exercises with fellow climbers who were looking enhance their portfolios. Knowledge is power, friendships, and community!
Books were (and are) also an important part of my process. I believe it is important to be well read with respect to training for climbing and how it has evolved. As I talk to people about training tips, I always come away from the conversation with books and other resources to add to my list, be it information on hardcore training or just some old-school climbing literature. This, again, has helped me form a deeper connection to my climbing community.
Here are a few of the books and resources I have found most helpful so far:
Training For Climbing by Eric Hörst
Lattice Training website: https://latticetraining.com
The Rock Warriors Way by Arno Ilgner and The Warriors Way website: https://warriorsway.com
Climbing Gold podcast with Alex Honnold (https://www.climbinggold.com) I found the episode “Risk, Intensity, Complexity” especially good for gym climbers.
Climber’s Choice edited by Pat Ament (This is a collection of essays from old school climbers.)
My Commitment (March 28, 2024)
This is a blog about rock climbing and writing. I began climbing about five years ago. Climbing is a sport I discovered on my own, and since I do not come from a family of climbers, up to now I have done most of my training in a gym. During these five years I have done many things with climbing, and I am active on the youth competition circuit. But recently I made a commitment: I will take this sport seriously. I do not care that it is a sport outside the mainstream, nor do I care that I am not (yet) the top competitor - this is my path, and I will "pursue it with excellence" (as the world-renowned free soloist Alex Honnold once said). I also love writing, so writing will be one of the ways I pursue a life in climbing.
This commitment includes reading books, making training plans, talking to coaches, getting more involved in the climbing communities in my area and beyond, and using this blog as a vehicle to explore climbing. All of this can help me develop my climbing while also playing a role in developing the sport. My commitment also spans to other areas of life, such as my academic and intellectual pursuits. The end goal is to be the best at what I do.
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