Stepping It Up

So on the 23rd of February I attended the GB Bouldering Team world cup selection event at The Castle in London. It was a pretty intense event and our results would be a huge factor of whether or not we would be selected to go to any world cups. My run up to the event had been very similar to how I would prepare for any other competition, I trained hard and like any comp I do I'm in it to win it. The only difference with this was I had to accept the reality that I couldn't win it. Having recently gotten onto the Senior Bouldering Team I've learnt a lot about my own ability and how far behind I am from the rest of the Team. So my main goal was to give it everything I possibly had, keep a cool head about it all and to have fun!

The format of the day was we had 2 rounds consisting of 4 boulders each in which we had five minutes on, five minutes off. I had been quite nervous about this as climbing at my maximal ability for such a long period of time had always trashed me very quickly in the past. Even though I had specifically been focusing on improving this aspect of my climbing I was still worried it wouldn't be enough. As it turns out during the whole day I can't think of a time I fell off because I got pumped, I fell off because the climbs where freaking hard!

We had no viewing time for the problems, you just ran out, had a good look then threw yourself at it with everything you had. While sat in isolation the first few climbers all returned quite fast so I knew the first problem was do-able. Once it was my turn I ran out and looked it over. Basically it was a dyno from two volumes to a big undercut with one hand and the other cupping over the top of a volume, then a deadpoint to the finishing jug. I pulled on pretty quickly, confident that I could do it and flashed it with relative ease!

The day went on like that until we had climbed (Or attempted to) everything. I had no such success as I did with the very first boulder other than scoring a few more bonus points. Overall I was very pleased with how I climbed, potentially I could have done better but that's the thing with climbing. There are a lot of "What if's" and I have learnt that you can't put yourself down for not topping everything or for having a little slip and coming off a climb, because these things happen. Sometimes they could have been avoided, but if you can walk away knowing exactly what it is that you did wrong then there's nothing to be upset about! You can focus to improve that and next time, if you put in enough effort it won't happen again. Similarly if you put in everything you possibly could yet still fell then there's no point getting yourself down. You just know you need to get better. I've been climbing for 12 years now and have been competing for 7 of those years and it's only been recently that I've really learnt to understand that...

Along with the World Cup Selection event I've taken part in many other competitions and have been learning a lot throughout them all. First of all for the first time I have taken part in the Blokfest series. Honestly, this was one of the best bouldering series I've ever done. The problems are all so well set and the atmosphere for the finals (which I made once, finishing 3rd) was phenomenal. Overall I finished in 6th place in the senior category. Which I'm pretty pleased with as it was a very strong group of guys!
I have also taken part in the pretty chilled out Climbing Station winter bouldering league where after doing all rounds I finished in a comfortable 1st place, over a hundred points ahead of 2nd! This event was a good opportunity for me to get practice flashing some pretty spicy blocs, anyone who has entered one of The Stations winter leagues will know Tom Randall loves setting some confusing problems!
Finally and most recently was The CWIF. Wow was that an awesome comp! Some of the best problems I've had the pleasure of climbing on in the Qualification. Nothing necessarily brick hard but you really had to think about what it was you where doing. I finished with a decent score of 254 points, placing me in 29th place in a very strong crowd of the top British climbers and some top of the top climbers in the World too! Unfortunately that wasn't enough to make Semi Finals but I had made 2 slip ups which should have been avoided ultimately cost me a place.

On the Sunday after I decided it was a perfect time to return back to my project... Keen Roof 8B at Raven Tor. I'd spent some time away from it considering whether it was better to continually throw myself at it or just become stronger until I know it will be finished. Unfortunately after some time away I hadn't kept it fresh enough in my head and looking back I made it very hard for myself using some dodgy sequence... But even so I could feel it on the tip of my fingers, I strongly believe still that I will do it. It's just a matter of when?

During the week after The CWIF I had the opportunity, being part of the Senior Bouldering Team to have a couple training sessions with some of the other International Teams who had came to the UK to compete in CWIF! This was pretty intense and quite an exiting prospect for me, getting to climb with people who I have been watching crush on the World Cup scene for some time. The Works had their competition wall set with around 30 World Cup standard boulders for us to climb, including the CWIF finals problems (Some of which I topped!) This was a fantastic experience and I feel like I've learnt a lot getting to climb with some of the best climbers in the World.
I'm now more psyched than ever to keep on improving and one day be standing shoulder to shoulder with these people. (Which might not be long as I'm planning on entering a World Cup in May!)