The first day of the 2019 USA Climbing Youth Nationals for Sport and Speed went very well for me. The event was held at Reach Climbing in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, which is near Philadelphia.
In my two Qualifying runs, my times were 9.90 and 8.87 seconds. The cut off time to make it into Semifinals was 11.13 seconds. I placed 6th in Qualifying. I was very excited to do so well for such an important competition.
It is very important to warm up well before you speed climb, but it takes a long time. The Qualifying round was held early in the morning, and I wanted to warm up well, so I created a detailed schedule for my warmup routine. Here it is:
6:40am Get up
6:45am Put on clothes with practice shirt
6:55am Shake down warm up run in hotel gym on Elliptical machine
7:10am Eat breakfast in room: oatmeal, peanut butter toast, banana, apple
7:35am Drive to the gym. Stretch in car
7:50am Enter gym
7:55am Sign in for comp
8:00am Start warm up exercises with Coach Meritt
8:30am Warm up on bouldering wall
8:45am Go to bathroom
8:50am Put on harness
8:55am Call to line up
9:10am Male Youth B Wave 1 starts climbing. Stay active in line by jumping.
9:20am I climb. Remember to put auto-belay lanyard behind my right arm.
The wake up time was early for me because my body clock was on Central Time, but I felt ready to speed climb when I got up. This was a very important day for me as I’d been training a year for it. I also had to get up a little bit early, because I wanted to check out the gym and where everything was located. I would rather be too early to the gym than be late. It is important to know the location of the lineup area, the speed wall, and even the bathroom before the competition starts.
The gym was very busy when I first got there, but I had 20 extra minutes to get acclimated to everything that was happening. After I got adjusted to the gym environment, I started warming up. I had about an hour left until my start time. My schedule allowed me plenty of time to warm up.
At 9:00am, I was called to line up. I stayed warm in line by wearing a jacket, jumping, and keeping active with other exercises. When it was time to compete, I took off my jacket and went through my start routine which consists of adjusting the timer footpad, putting chalk on my hands, and acting out the sequence of the speed route in my mind, hands, and feet. The timer then called out “Climbers on your marks”. I was a little nervous as I got into my start position on the speed wall.
After I was in position, the countdown sequence began. The speakers blared: “Ready”, “beep, beep, BEEP”. On the third “beep”, I leapt off the start pad to begin my climb. When I speed climb, my mind goes blank because I am very focused. I am in auto-pilot. My body runs on muscle memory.
As soon as I hit the time buzzer at the top of the wall, I checked the clock: 9.90 seconds. I felt relieved. I knew that time was good enough to qualify for Semifinals.
On my second run, I was much more relaxed, because I knew I had qualified for Semifinals. My strategy was just to do a clean run without any slips or mistakes. I succeeded as it was a solid run. I got an amazing time of 8.87 seconds. This was the best time I have ever gotten in a competition.
My coaches were very excited about my performance in Qualifying. They told me to leave the gym after my runs and not watch the sport climbing competitions, so I would be rested for Semifinals and, hopefully, Finals the next day. I ate a healthy lunch at a local sandwich restaurant called Lou’s which is famous for inventing the Zeppelin sandwich. I ordered a turkey Zeppelin which was colossal.
To keep my body active and ready for competition the next day, I walked three miles around the massive King of Prussia shopping mall. I had dinner at Aroma Mediterranean Cuisine and ordered a Lamb Gyro with a side of hummus. I went to bed at 9:00pm. I felt well prepared going into the next day.