Asian Climbing Championships 2015, Ningbo, China

The months leading up to to competition were not as smooth sailing as I had hoped it would be, given that CCAs were on stand-down and I only had PW work. But somehow reality has its way of showing up in your face and work seemed to interfere into my trainings more than usual. I long to rush down to training the moment work "ended", I missed training sessions just to carry out my duties. It is at this time, that I wish I had the freedom to stop all work and focus on training. I came up with a training plan that involved 5 days of training a week, 2-3 hours each. I centered my training around my speed climbing, contrary to focusing on bouldering - as I was having doubts about my performance in the recent months after Chonqging. The drive to train for speed pushed me and kept me going beyond my disappointments in boulder. I am thankful to have the singapore speed team around with me, keeping me sane and motivating me. 

The Asian Championships was the biggest conpetition that the National Team was working towards since its inception in April. My knee injury (described in my previous post) has since disappeared completely thanks to Orchard Health Clinic, who sponsored the team with treatment. Their oestheopaths really know how to fix us climbers back into shape! It turned out that I had an internal rotation of my femur, but an external rotation of my tibia, causing strain on the posterior knee. Once Martin (the big boss) managed to figure this tricky issue out, he gave me a little re-alignment and the pain was gone. From then on, I did strengthening of my legs, quads, hamstring, etc, in line with my speed training. Knowing all the sciences kind of gave me a good direction and a better understanding of how my body works. The day before we flew off, I managed to squeeze in one last session with the osteos to fix my shoulders, which has been giving me some problems. Big thanks to Marcus, Lewis, Martin and Adela for all the help at OHC! 

However, on a not so positive note, I have also discovered another injury in my wrist. I visited Sport Singapore for a checkup and took an MRI. Discovered some tears in my wrists that prevents me from doing push-ups, or mantling. The pain has since subsided and I tape my wrist whenever I climb now. I now know the reason behind those weird pains in my wrist. Haha.

But back to ACC2015!

With the send off team! Thank you guys for coming!

The view outside the hotel

The small stream by the hotel

Flags of all the asian countries hung in the hotel lobby

It was a privilege to travel with the team to Ningbo, China. We stayed at the Wulongtan Resort which was situated up a hill and surrounded by a nice park. The weather was about 16 degrees on average and it rained/drizzled throughout, making it even colder. Brrrr. ❄️ I have climbed in the cold in Japan and even Homg Kong, but nothing could prepare me to compete in a weather like this. The mental pressures and need to perform was so much greater. And it was even colder than expected! Thankfully I had my down jacket with me! 😊

I was down for all 3 days of competition, first was Boulder, then Speed, then Speed Team Relay. 

The competition venue was built to model a ship. It was raining that day.

The lead and speed walls!

Warming up was difficult and it just felt so different. It was only a matter of time before my fingers turned cold. I was pretty psyched to boulder, feeling less pressure than in Chongqing. I topped the first route with cold fingers and a slip of the feet. However, I did not complete the other routes and left the competition at 25th place feeling disappointed. I had not made it through to the semi-finals, but most importantly, I had no climbed as well as I thought I would. 

Thinking back, there were a lot of weak areas in my climbing that I had not touched on during my training. Yes, boulder may have taken a back seat this season, with my focus on speed training and doing simple boulder circuits, but it still gutted me that my performance was way below the standards that I used to be. It made me realise how other countries like Japan and Korea had managed to push the level so far ahead. It probably took them a whole generation to get to that level of "strong", what made me think that a few months of training would equal my standard to theirs. Indeed, it's back to the drawing board to figure how to really become a stronger and excellent competition climber! Allez!

Trying to work this volume!! Photo by Janice

On the last route of qualifiers. Photo by Janice

Collecting my thoughts while waiting for my climbs. Photo by Janice

Getting cramped up in this 3D wall did me no good. This was not the correct beta! :p Photo by Janice

Experience from Chongqing prepared me for my next category. Looking past the disappointment and setbacks, next on my list was speed. Similarly, warming up was different from back home. I just felt... slow. I could not move as fast as I wanted to. More over, the speed tiles were shallower than what we had practiced on in Singapore. There was a lot of hesitation and slip ups during our practice runs. 

I had managed to pull off a 10.3 sec average run back in Singapore, but the fastest I climbed during qualifiers only went up to a high 12. A far cry from my average and not a good reflection of the training I had put in either. During knock outs, tables were almost turned when my Iranian competitor slipped in the first few moves. Watching the other countries speed up the wall without any qualms really had me wondering what makes them able to move that fast, and with confidence. Being my 3rd overseas speed competition, I guess I still have a long way to go in mastering the format and competition stresses.

On a good note, speed veteran Adriel managed to "knock-out" the world champion, Qixin, in their "coincidental, always meet you" knock out round for qualifiers! 

My final climb - knock out with #8. Photo by Janice

Presentation of the team for finals. Photo by Janice

Team wefie otw to the hotel lobby. Photo by Janice

Finally, all 13 of us! Photo by Janice

Another wefie! Photo by Janice

Our 3rd place trophy!

Majulah Singapura!

I have learnt much during this competition. That desperation can set in the day before you fly, motivation and morale can switch and turn around when the right words are said. Control is not something we should seek, but adaptability. I had ached and worry and crumble at the pre-season trainings, affected by work and emotions and the lack of performance. I am still learning to get around it, or to make it better, but it will take time. Reality is indeed a bitch. While other climbers are training professionally, not everyone has that opportunity and we have to find the means to make things work. It is the passion that pushes us on, and the love for climbing. 

After this whole competition, I am already looking forward to the next big game! The next Asian Championships in 2016 will be in China once again, in early August. I'm still uncertain if I am able to go for this due to work commitments. Similarly for the actual big Asian Games in 2018 at Indonesia. Well, all I can do know is to keep training hard and go beyond what I have acheived so far this year. Already psyched for the upcoming Gravical 2016 by SMU in late January next year!! Gamba!

With love,
J