- Practice using my thumbs to pinch every hold
- Use more hip movement to create momentum and a generate a heap more power
- Quick confident movements and decision making
It seems simple, but here I am looking at everything I learnt this year and can clearly identify these three straightforward things that have significantly improved my performance in competition and training over the last 12 months. I had the wonderful opportunity to train in person with my coach, Roman in Slovenia who'd been helping me online since January. Over 5 weeks in July we put these simple things into practice every session and we were both super happy with the progress in even just my short time there.
I also learnt to trust my muscle memory more, when to switch the brain off for certain moves, the importance of training specificity, focusing on quality sessions and also how to try really really heckin hard every time you pull on.
It's been a massive year, super positive, but a difficult one to wrap my head around. So much awesome content to remember, yet exhausting nevertheless. Aus National Championships have just been and gone a month ago. I felt stronger than ever and was proud to place 1st in Lead, 4th in Boulder and 2nd in Combined.
Since Nationals, I made a massive decision to shift my primary focus from comps, which has been in the front seat of my life for 15 years, to focus on pursuing outdoor climbing and some projects I've dreamt of for a long time. In the past I've managed to have a bit of balance between plastic and some outdoor projecting locally, and last year managed to tick my hardest grade yet. In the last 12 months however, my physical, financial and mental investment in comps have made it feel like training on plastic is the only thing I'm allowed to do. I've missed rock a lot, but truly enjoyed the progress I felt and experiences I've had this year.
I'm so psyched to have the opportunity to turn it around now, tip the scales the other way and spend some time focusing on my passion for outdoor sport climbing, learn more and get obsessed over a singular line of rock for a while. It's important to understand I'm not closing the door to comps entirely next year, but opening space and time to chase goals I've dreamt of from the beginning, that I haven't made space for in a long while.
2022 was so awesome and I'm so grateful for all the opportunities and experiences it brought. Grateful for the endless support of friends and family and to my sponsors for being psyched for every goal I set my mind to.
I'm so very excited, and also pretty nervous for whatever adventures next year has in store... But I'm all in for the bumpy road and the whole rollercoaster ahead.
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