ABS Nationals

February 11, 2011

      Another year, another obsession to test myself against the best boulderers in the country. Each year this commitment to competition climbing gets more and more challenging. Partly it's my career choice and partly it's because these girls get stronger and stronger every year!  Still, I enjoy the challenge, I revel in my successes and I can't believe the time is already here.

My qualifiers is over and before I see any results, I want to share my impressions. Catch the high while I'm still on a high, if you know what I mean. :)

First, challenging as it was to pull off a pre-comp workout, I managed to pull it together for qualifiers. Certainly, I would have had more umph to put behind me if I had not been rusty, but given my situation, I was pleased with my performance.

One of the best things about this competition that I take away as a success was my mental state. Frazzled by the lack of useful warm up walls, time crunched and logistically challenged for parking, I had to really focus on my nerves.

The walls were tall, my ankle is an issue, and my nerves were on edge. Not a good set of thoughts to have rolling around up there. Tall walls, well, I'd just have to suck it up and not think about it. Fortunately, I had a nice spotter who helped me and I found no issues with the falls for my ankle. As for my nerves, I was quite pleased that despite them getting in the way from time to time, I was able to adequately manage them. This was the first competition where I could really tell the difference in my performance based on my mental state.

In fact, on one problem, I decidedly calmed down mid-move, refocused, and considered my process as I was climbing through a tough section. On another problem, when I felt myself rushing, I had to calm myself down and look again at the problem. I started to 'see' alternatives, was able to re-commit to a process and most importantly shut my brain off when I started climbing.

By the end, I was making a few silly errors that cost me, but I didn't give up on myself and my adjustments were fruitful with progress. I really can't be upset at myself for that. Now, the fact that bonus is what counts and not one hold below or above, hurts a bit more. The scoring of the problems, I'm assuming, will lead to numerous ties. I just hope my 2 tops and 1 bonus keep me at the 12th mark!

*sigh* the joy of competition. Now, if I don't make it to semis, I'm having a very delicious alcoholic beverage tonight and I'm really looking forward to getting on ropes ASAP!