Christmas Day Climbing

Hmm, there’s been too much text of late in this blog!  So here’s a video.  We went climbing at Cratcliffe on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day at Cratcliffe from Peter Jeffery on Vimeo.

2012 Already

It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2012.  The next comp season is closing in quickly.  I joined a gym back in November with the aim of having a wider variety of training tools available to me.  The change has been fun and inspiring.   Tim Cunnington of Funky Munkey Personal Training has been helping me train.  I’m getting fit and strong.  I’ve completed my conditioning and strength phases and am moving into power.

The team support is expanding.  We now have a sports psychologist, a nutritionist, a chiropractor, a physiotherapist and a sports scientist, management and coaches helping us.  It’s an exciting progression and I can’t thank them all enough for all the voluntary support.

Reaching for new heights

Several team members, coaches and BMC officials attended a reception in Westminster on the 2nd November.  Following a tour, we met with MPs, senior Sport England staff, Dame Kelly Holmes (awesome) and Minister Hugh Robertson to promote climbing and mountaineering.  Overall the event seemed extremely positive and we hope it will help raise support for the sport, the team and our chances in the 2020 Olympics shortlist.

Audrey Seguy gave a superb speech highlighting how climbing and mountaineering is a sport for all, regardless of age or ability.  Also, how the trend is for people to maintain participation in our sport, rather than drifting away and ceasing to exercise.  Discussing sport in general, after the speeches, I learnt that many people give up their sport after a while as they can’t necessarily keep up or keep it together (either physically or mentally).  Some sports only work in a competition format.

The difference with mountaineering may be that, although it is typically a group participation sport, the competition is ultimately between you and the mountain, the rock, the ice, the plastic etc.  You can always have achievable goals.  This could be getting to and from a certain place outside in the fresh air from the nearest car park (under your own steam of course), like Curbar Edge for example with its stunning views.  It could be going to play at your local climbing wall with your mates, or something altogether more epic like the first ascent of something.  It’s doing it that counts.

This sentiment was reflected at the recent Women’s climbing symposium at The Climbing Hanger, Liverpool.  Over ninety women attended to discuss climbing, to learn and offer advice on how to improve, to climb.  People came from as far as Devon and Scotland for the day.  The good thing about the day was that it was all about the climbing, rather than differences between men and women and the possible excuses this may offer.  There are no excuses!

Onwards and Upwards

Competition climbing is now an Olympic recognised sport and it is short listed for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics.  This is an exciting development for the ever growing sport of indoor climbing.  It is an honour to represent my country in my chosen sport, and to see it included in the Olympics would be great  for the competitors and the sport in general. 

The question is - what inspires us to compete?

I do not compete to get attention, however it is nice to get recognition for achievement.  I have a blog to promote competition climbing, the British Climbing Team and climbing in general.

In bouldering many of the competitors, myself included, compete due to enjoying the challenge of working out and topping short, hard, technical problems.   We are competing against the challenge of the boulder and seek new challenges on a regular basis.  The competition must be on manmade boulders as it would be unfair to compete on natural rock as the competitors may have been on it before so wouldn’t have to work it out on the spot.  Also, considerable damage would likely be caused to any natural rock environment if a competition was held in it.

But why compete against others, rather than just the boulder problem?  Well, it’s natural to compete with each other – it happens all the time at the climbing wall and it’s human nature.  If I can’t top a problem I work at it, I want to beat it if possible.  If someone else can top it, then it is possible and I maybe try harder, try and work out what I am doing differently.  Do I lack the strength, power, flexibility, endurance, savvy etc to top it? 

When put in a competitive environment, adrenaline comes into play.  I find I can do moves that I cannot always repeat outside of the competition.  It helps me in the challenge of beating the boulder.

Bouldering can be very sociable.  Through competitions,  I have met many fantastic characters.  I’ve also had the opportunity to visit some amazing places, despite climbing on plastic! 

Oh, and it feels good to do well and even better to win!

Matching in Munich

Apparently matching makes you weak.  However, when you’re feeling weak, matching helps you through.

For a couple of weeks before Munich I’d been suffering bad back knots.  Whilst warming up for the last World Cup Qualifiers of the season, I found I was in pain and couldn’t pull on one side the same as usual.  *Darn! (*insert expletives)

I had my best start position ever, but quickly dropped down out of the semis.  I was really disappointed, but realise that it was for the best, as if I had matched the 4th top hold, or had a couple of less goes on the three tops I got, and therefore made the semi, I may well have done my shoulder some major damage (assuming I haven’t already).  Never mind, I got points – not bad in the circumstances.  The comp was really good for the team – we all got points and team GBR came 6th.  Also, Shauna crushed to come 4th in her third ever World Cup.  Awesome.

I finished the season with my best overall result to date – 25th in the World Cup (World Ranked 28th).  I know what I need to train for next season and can’t wait to fix myself so that I can start training again.  It’s the difficult month of year when I try and do anything other than climbing to give my body a chance, but end up out with my mates climbing.  I’m sticking to friendly moves…. honest.

I was hoping to try a few hard things outdoors whilst still strong from the comps, but that’ll have to wait too.

Adidas Rockstars, Austria

Wow.  I was invited to attend a new event at Area 47 in Austria – Adidas Rockstars.  As an athlete I was treated like a VIP from the moment I was picked up from the airport to the moment I returned.  We had our own lounge for warm up, chill out, eating etc.  Masseurs, physios and a doctor were provided to ease us through the competition.  There were interviews, showing the rock band Orange but Green how to boulder, and really good competitions.  The competition was high, with competitors invited based on World Ranking and outstanding performances.  I qualified in 20th place, and came joint 15th in the semi-final to put me 17th overall after count back.  Not bad.  I need to practice throwing for stuff more, as this style of move often lets me down.  Here’s some comp photos thanks to C Waldegger.  There was also a ‘Be a Rockstar’ comp that 3 GBR girls entered.  The top 3 men and women from the ‘Be a Rockstar’ event qulaified for the Rockstars event.

Outside of the competition, Area 47 is an amazing place in the mountains.  There’s water slides, a pool complex with various activities, aerial fun and canyoning to name but a few activities.  I joined the majority of my competitors in having a go at the bridge swing, jumping quickly before I had a chance to think what I was doing.  After falling for longer than anticipated, with legs going ninety to the dozen, the rope took me swinging between the 2 bridge piers.  Great fun and a big buzz.  Here’s a clip of Magnus from Norway taking his turn (sorry for the poor quality) and some photos I took of the area.  As for the food – I tucked into an indecent quantity of fantastic meat among other things.  Also, I will be making some Kaiserschmarren in the near future.

Bridge Swing from Peter Jeffery on Vimeo.

Arco Comp Photos

Here’s a couple of climbing photos from the World Championships – thanks to Nick Clement our Team Manager.  Two slabs in the same round – slow, careful climbing for the tops