Competition Climbing Tips & Tricks
1 – Warm up & Preview Thoroughly – If you are allowed to preview the climbs before you start… do it! If you can preview the routes before you warm up, even better! Preview all your climbs and get a sense for what is needed of you, & let that shape you warm up! Crimps? Make sure your fingers are thoroughly warmed up! Coordination? Make up some coordo moves on a spray wall. The more prepared you are when starting the better! No need to waste precious competition time warming up. It can be easy to think, “Oh, I’ll just warm up on some easier climbs”. While this is true, if you can start warmed up, that leaves more time to try hard on everything!
2 – Watch Others – Patience here can be key, competitions are notorious for tricky & risky movement. This means some of the tricks, beta, positions, moves, & sequences might not be as they appear. Watching other people on the climbs can unlock key information on how to send. Let other climbers be your guinea pig while you unlock the beta.
3 – Rest & Think! – If you fall, don’t be afraid to rest & really figure out why you fell. Don’t spam attempts in the hopes you will send quickly & move on. Take time to try and understand what went wrong and what you could do better. Give good, high quality attempts. Just because your arms & fingers feel fresh, doesn’t mean your core is! Give your body & nerves time to cool down for a better next attempt.
4 – Route Reading! – Take your time to examine the holds, chalk, & rubber. Look for clues left behind by the route setters & forerunners. This is great to do during your preview before any competitors have climbed. Route setters don’t usually take time to chalk non hands.
5 – Don’t Miss the Little Details – Don’t be so tuned into the obvious that you miss the more obvious. Like an adjacent wall with no feet, that you might have to smear up.
6 – Don’t get sucked in! – Variety is the spice of life, and this is true in competitions. Don’t get too attached to a send that you forget to climb anything else. Repeatedly doing the same moves will tire you out. So make sure to try everything!
7 – Build Confidence Early! – Snag some easy sends to “pad” your scorecard early. This can help you finish your warm up, get you into the right mindset, & boost your confidence as you move onto harder climbs.
8 – Have fun! – Competitions are stressful, you get 2-4 hours to determine your placement in the day. Doing well, or doing bad doesn’t mean you are a good or bad climber. It’s just a reflection of how you did for those hours that day. You can practice all you want, but the competition is also practice for future competitions. If you don’t do well, don’t be hard on yourself! Reflect & make changes for your next competition!
Climbing is dangerous, it involves inherent and other risks and cannot be eliminated. The information presented here does not describe all of the risks associated with climbing and is not intended to replace or supersede expert instruction and training.
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