British Team Training

So after the BBC’s; I was having a chat with Nick Clements (the manager of the British Bouldering Team) who was really impressed with my result, as was I. And I ended up getting an invitation to go and train with the team at Boulder UK in Blackburn.

On the day I turned up to see most of the team there and we got stuck straight in. First of all we did 5 or 6 problems that Ian Vickers and Jamie Cassidy had set for the team to try. We went round in pairs and I was with Gaz Parry. I did all the problems which I was surprised with as I thought I would struggle to get any.

After that I had another chat with Nick and he mentioned the possibility of doing some competitions across Europe and maybe a round of the world cup. I was so shocked when he told me this but happily shocked as I didn’t think I was that good.

Then we did a couple of circuits which were pretty damn hard, but I still enjoyed it. After that I sat and listened in on the team talk discussing things like the new arrangements for the BBC’s and similar things. At the end of the day Nick invited me to another training session at City Bloc in Leeds and somewhere else in Preston. I gladly accepted and am pretty happy with the day overall.

This is a late update from late January

BBC's 2011

It’s been a while since my last blog update so here it is. The BBC’s were held early this year in January and in London instead of Sheffield. This meant no Cliffhanger festival to support it, but instead it was a central event in the outdoors show held inside the Excel Centre.

With it being in London there was a lot more travelling to do for some competitors including me. The journey down wasn’t too bad and didn’t take too long. When we got there we had time to have a quick look around, watch a movie and get a pre-comp meal, which consisted of soggy chips and fried cheese.

On the day we walked to the event which was only a minute walk from where we were staying and got took in to see the wall with all the other competitors. The wall was pretty much a flat overhang with a few volumes scattered about. This was a slight disappointment compared to the walls that had been produced in the last few years.

There was no problem with keeping warm this year as it was indoors and with all the people in there it got pretty hot. I would have preferred it to be outside in the summer but what can you do.

The format was different to previous years, with the seniors climbing on the Saturday and the juniors on the Sunday. As it was my first year in the seniors I wasn’t expecting a great deal from myself this year. We were split into two groups; A and B for qualifying. I was in group A which were climbing first. I was going pretty well I thought but there was half an hour less than normal which caused some problems. Towards the end of the comp I was trying for my second attempt on a problem that a lot of people were struggling on. The last move was a dyno which I do a lot of in training. I managed to catch it and almost came off but managed to stick it. This psyched me up and with about a minute remaining I jumped on one last problem and flashed it.

There was one problem that I didn’t get chance to try but it looked pretty solid anyway so I was pleased with what I had done. Now I just had to wait while the second group had their climb and wait to see what the results were.

When the sheet went up everyone gathered round to see how they had done. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had finished 14^th. With it only being my first year in the seniors I was very pleased with myself.

I stayed around to watch the womens qualification and the finals. I also got chance to have a look around at the rest of the outdoor show which was pretty cool.

I came back the next day to watch the juniors as some of my friends were competing that day. All in all it was a pretty good do. I still prefer the sun though.