My Bomb

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.


Location: Alexandria, VA, USA

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