climbjudtravels: Japan

2015

IFSC Chongqing Boulder Worldcup 2015

June 22, 2015

A team of 4 Singaporeans went for the Chongqing Boulder Worldcup this year. Consisting of first-timers Marcus Yeo, Ryan Yeo and I, together with Janet Goh, our small contingent flew the Singapore flag in China just last weekend. Here's a recount on my journey over this past few months, as well as some reflections.

Getting ready

The journey towards this competition was plagued with injuries, uncertainties and sometimes lack of belayers (in the case of Ryan and I for speed training). This was the big stage, the highest level of competition that we can ask for and I didn't want to give anything lesser. Unfortunately, I had somewhat injured my right knee - I am assuming something to do with my meniscus from the looks and feel of it. I also developed golfer's elbow and all these injuries frustrated me greatly. Somehow I felt stronger, yet not as prepared compared to when I was gearing up for the past few TNFCup. Mental strength would come in very handy this season.

With the support from Allsport Equipment, I had my flight costs covered for the Chongqing Worldcup. It was highly encouraging to work together with them - they always believed in their athletes, no matter the performance. I may not be their athlete, yet if they believed in me, why shouldn't I believe in myself! :)

The 2015 Hirundos harness from Petzl. Sponsored by Allsport Equipment. This lightweight harness really made me fly up the wall during practise!

My knee injury was something new, having played and jump around for 10 years in netball with no problems at all. I believed this came about from the constant falls while bouldering. It was already troubling me before the National Climbing Championships in April and it become slightly chronic as the weeks went by. I rented a knee guard from Bauerfeind and the compression helped a little. I took to taping my knee eventually, in preparation for Chongqing, in the event that wearing a knee guard would restrict me too much. This injury hindered my right heel hooks and sit-ins and honestly shook me quite abit in my confidence to climb well. Consciously I do push pass it whenever I can, but sometimes I feel that it hinders me implictly whenever I am required to put pressure on that leg. But I learned not to take my injuries as an excuse, and worked in some strengthening exercises like squats and back raisers to strengthen my supporting muscles.

[edit - 10/7/2015] Went for an MRI to get a check on my knee. Results came out good. No tears or damages to any ligaments or menisci, it just identifes a joint effusion. So my osteopath Lewis was pretty puzzled and together with Martin worked my hips, knees and ankles. My hips are rotated in, while my tibia+fibula seems to rotate outward, causing some unneccesary tension on my knee. Martin has clicked my knee back and the next few days, it was back to new! No pain at all, no pain that awkward position. Yay! That is, until I went cycling a couple of days later (I ride a fixie..) and i had to hard brake and I guess my bones have misaligned again. PFFT. But gotta give a shout out to Orchard Health Clinic for support the Singapore Climbing Team and also fixing me!

The elbow required a good warmup before it could ease back into its usual functions. But sitting around or cooling off made getting back on the wall, after a rest, a painful one. I grew to become really pumped all the time as the lactic seemed to collect in my forearms and it was really frustrating. All injuries are frustrating, especially nearing competition time. But I knew that if I continued to dwell on it, it would not work to make me a better climber, neither would it make the injury go away. Similar to my knee, I taped it up, and took a conscious effort to warm up well, so that when I started climbing, it felt good.

I practiced speed climbing once a week, as I had wanted to focus on bouldering. But eventually I managed to hit a consistent 12 seconds, and towards the last few days of trainings, 11 secs. Morning runs with Ryan were sometimes challenging as it was hard to wake the body up. But I really appreciate all the time and effort my teammate has put in, as well as the small help from my belayers during our trainings. :)

I tried to work on different styles of climbing before the Worldcup. And when I was daunted by the tiles and moves at Onsight (too much hesitation and uncertainty on old moves), I headed to Kinetics to work on some onsighting. I think it is important to put yourself in the right position and mental frame before the competition. Really thankful those close by me who kept me up when I was feeling down.

Pre-competition

I headed to Tokyo, Japan together with Hazlee a week before Chongqing, immediately once school ended, in search of some good climbing and to learn a little something from the strong Japanese climbers. I say climbing (not training) because it was hard to get onto a strict training programme when you go there to meet friends, and we were gym hopping. Moreover, it was only a 10 day trip where we managed to squeeze 6 climbing days in.

Honestly, I didn't exactly have a clear mind on what I was doing in Japan. It took me awhile to figure my thoughts and get on the right track. I had experienced and seen the Japan styles of climbing before and really sought to reach the same standards. But it takes more than just seeing and copying. I had a lovely opportunity to meet up with Yuji once again, met new friends, and also some old. :) Sachi brought us to climb at Akiyo's gym where I was wowed by the tiles and the walls. Being in that environment brought me into the world of these professional climbers and how they train. I learnt to cherish the empty gyms that aided my focus in training, compared to being around the crowd where the psych was high. I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to these two different methods of training, and it really depends on what we want to achieve.

I climbed most days at Base Camp, where tiles spammed the climbing walls endlessly. I learnt that they made it that way so that the climbers can set their own routes easily, and it also helps for training - compared to sparsely placed tiles of specific orientation. Most importantly, I took home the "cheer" mentality of climbing together as a community. Edging each other on the routes help push each other a little bit more and I really enjoyed climbing there in Japan. Also I learned that heel hooks play a big big part in climbing - the Japanese use that a lot! Time to get my flexibility on!

Chongqing

It was really a thrilling experience to go on my first Worldcup. Having watched many videos and yearning to match their standards, there I was, finally competing in the same world stage as my idols. While we were mostly star struck, I chose not to gush over them and tried to focus on my climbing first. With words of encouragement shared by Marcus from Pierre, I believed that I could take on this challenge.

Team Singapore at the Chongqing International Airport

On our second day, we went to boulder in a new gym called Black Ram Climbing Gym (黑公羊攀岩馆). The other athletes were also climbing and thankfully they left slightly earlier and we had the gym to ourselves. Janet and I bouldered while the guys gave us some routes. I was feeling pretty confident then and really couldn't wait till qualifiers!

At the gym, I met Tong Tong, a 11 year old girl from Shenzhen whom I met in Hong Kong during a competition last year. We invited her and another small boy from china to climb together with us. And it was a joy watching her climb. This girl has so much potential. Perhaps this was the best part of my day, meeting an old (but young) friend and sharing the love for climbing. In return she gave me her Adidas Rockstar singlet. :)

With Tong Tong!

Selfie with speed climbers: Robert and Libor at the gym.

Qualifiers started really early for the mens. They climbed in 2 seperate groups with differing routes, the top 10 from each group progressed to the semi-finals. After which, it came to the females. There were about a little over 30 female athletes and with the 5 min rotation system, I was looking to climb 2 and a half hours after the first athlete went out. It was a long wait.

I knew after awhile when I saw climbers coming back into isolaton early, that the first route was flashable. As it became my turn, I headed out with as much confidence I could carry on my shoulders. I managed a total of 2 flashes and 4 bonuses for my first every qualifying round in a worldcup.

This was F4, one of the routes I managed to top:

Screen capture of the final scores. I was #27, Janet at #29.

Honestly, I was disappointed. I was pretty far off from getting into the semi-finals. As I looked to my videos of my climbs I realised a couple of things that I needed to work on. This was also upon observation of the other climbers during semi-finals and eventually finals as well. F1 was pretty straight forward. I got by with my reach, although I would very much like to see myself climb more smoothly without any hesitation. The second route was all about planning.

F3 was stumbling for me. Watching my videos, I realised that all it took for me was to sit into my right leg, ie. lowering my body in order to move off statically from the hold. I had tried many times to move off dynamically and I did not managed to get the bonus at all for this route.

Route F4 was all crimps, which was easy but once again, there were many minor shift and uncertainties despite flashing the route. The last route was all or nothing. Unfortunately I failed to pull high enough to get the next hold after the bonus. Janet managed the move with ease! Something that I really need to learn from her!

Once boulder was over for me, it was time too move on to speed. My heart was still stirred from my qualifiers and it was hard for me to focus on speed. The warmup run was tainted with rain and wet floors. I managed 13 secs with hardly a smooth run. My qualifiers the next day was hot and dry, yet slipping on my footholds, I gathered a poor 15 second run and my heart broke once again. There were only 16 girls and I was through to the final 16 knockouts. I told myself to get as much experience as I could out of this and enjoy the moment. But it was a tough order for me to get my head back into the game. Eventually, my fastest run for the competition was still 13 secs, totally off from my usual timings. Perhaps it may be nervousness, or not used to the competition feels.. But I must admit that this is not the best I have given. I will need to learn from this and remind myself to focus more. Speed is a discipline that requires alot more practise, like the floor routine in gymnastics or even wushu. Execution needed to be absolutely perfect. I lacked the perfection of my climbs this time.

Watching the finals for speed was exhilarating. Zhong Qixin from China emerged champion in front of a home crowd. Competing against giants and record breakers, it was a remarkable feat and this guy really earned my respect. He was able to withstand the pressure, pressure that I myself could not handle the least. And he raced against his opponents with humility and pride for this country.

With the champion!

As the sun raised high into the sky, it was time for the boulder finals. Watching the top climbers compete, I caught a glimpse of the same uncertainties I faced, but most importantly, the great composure too. I enjoyed the great movement, the prowess, the excellent beta planning of these athletes. To be like them would take more of what I am currently doing. It was really inspiring to see the finalists execute their climbs with precision, confidence and strength.

Awesome walls from Chongqing. The use of volumes was excellent!

Akiyo Noguchi and Sean Mccoll came out tops in the end. It was a great show beyond all the podiums and rankings. There were hard fights, funny moments, and also great cheering from the crowd. I would very much love to go for this again and again! With the disapppointments I faced this season, I am more driven to step up and turn things around. Sadly, I am unable to go for the following leg at Haiyang, despite being in China as well. This weekend of experience and psych certainly has me craving for more! Hence my next opportunity would only be next year. On the other hand, Marcus and Dennis will be heading to Haiyang. All the best to them!