WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE OLYMPICS

Photo: Daniel Gajda

Time flies… One week ago, sport climbing had its debut in the Olympics. There’s a lot to learn from this event that might help us prepare for future events as big as this one.

Here are some of our biggest lessons learnt we'd like to share with you:

🔸 Mental preparation is at least as important as physical training – particularly in an event as big and important as the Olympics.

The pressure levels were visibly higher compared to any other competition. Such as Jakob Schubert has stated in an interview, “What makes Olympia so special is that it's a much bigger stage. As a result, everyone tries to work towards it even harder and more professionally. You just have a completely different pressure and nervousness compared to a World Cup – it's only every four years."

Or like Tomoa Narasaki said, "Tokyo 2020 Olympic is over. My only target was a gold, but ended in 4th. [...] I really wished to win and pay back to everyone with my best climbing. I still can’t believe what just happened and even feel it like a bad dream. Well, my professional life is not finished yet. I had huge pressure, which was the biggest one on me. With this precious experience, I will keep climbing up to where no one has ever reached."

The pressure was real, already in qualifications. Being able to "keep it together" and staying mentally strong and resilient seemed to be a key "ingredient" to be able to recall their performance on the wall.

🔸 Two exceptional exemples of mental strength were certainly Jakob Schubert and Janja Garnbret.

Jakob Schubert, who was able to reach the highpoint/top in the lead competition (both in qualifiers and finals) after the two previous disciplines not really going according to plan, was incredible to witness. Considering the enormous pressure he must have been under, his performances both times did not only showed his physical but also his mental strength – and also, why he has been dominating the competition scene for almost a decade.

Another demonstration of mental strength and domination certainly was Janja Garnbret. It's easy to say that she is the GOAT and she'd win anyway. But to actually go out there and perform at the highest level, dominating the whole competition – that's incredible, on both a physical and mental level.

🔸 Mistakes can happen. It's not only about avoiding them but very importantly, how we deal with them.

If you remember the finals in the women's speed, you might remember Janja Garnbret making a mistake in her run when racing against Brooke Raboutou. Instead of giving up and slowing down, Janja immediately refocused, sped up again and was able to win that particular race after all. Mistakes can happen in climbing – sometimes more quickly than we'd like to. Being mentally prepared for mistakes to be able to adapt and refocus as quickly as possible is essential to keep on climbing and not getting dragged down by the mistakes.

🔸 Mental flexibility is important.

Particularly in bouldering, the right beta might not always be visible at first – e.g. the women's first boulder problem in finals or the second, coordinative boulder in the men's final. In both boulders, we saw different solutions for the first move – and not every solution worked right away. We could see women slipping off or not being able to hold the left undercling dynamically, we saw men not getting the right momentum for the swing to be able to move on or not being able to catch the crimp in the big undercling after the jump... But eventually, the ones who kept calm, adapted their beta (often on a micro level), stayed creative and changed their approach if they didn't succeed, were the ones who ended up doing the move.

🔸 Winning and losing are really close to each other.

In climbing in general, but even more so in this combined format. The final result is dependent on so many different variables – a lot of them out of control of the climbers: such as how the other competitors did. E.g. just one hold by another athlete made the difference between a 3rd or a 7th place for Jessy Pilz (and there are numerous more examples were the difference between a podium and not, finals or not, were just a millisecond, one hold or one + difference. It's even more important that we...

🔸 Focus on what we can control and influence.

The more uncontrollable variables there are, the more important it is to actually focus on what we can control and influence, such as e.g. on our climbing, on enjoying the process, on our routine.

🔸 Every athletes has their routine before starting.

If you looked carefully, you could see athletes doing their routine before starting – regardless of which discipline. Whether that was calm breathing, moving their arms fast to activate themselves, closing their eyes the "recentering"... Routines can help us to focus and be present with our mind. The more often we train them in training, the better we will be able to recall them and our performance in competitions. They implement a structure to our climbing which gives us a sense of control and hence get us in our optimal mindset and activation level for climbing.

🔸 Embodiment matters.

Something I love watching in competitions as a sport psychologist is athletes' body language and facial expression. What does their body posture look like before they start climbing? How does their facial expression look like? And how do both of these look like after e.g. a bungled speed run or not sending a boulder problem. Our body language (body) – if we don't actively work on it – often mirrors how we feel (mind). Hence, our body influences our mind – and vice versa, our mind will impact our performance (body). Our body and our thoughts are connected. And we can learn to use our body language to impact how we feel in a positive way.

🔸 Focussing on the process, particularly in high pressure situations, is incredibly important.

When results seem to be so arbitrary and dependent on so many uncontrollable variables, it gets even more important to focus on the process. One wonderful and positive example of focussing on the process was Shauna Coxsey in the bouldering qualification round, who seemed to fully enjoy herself so much on the mats. She laughed, she even danced along to the music, she gave it all in every try... She seemed to soak in this experience, fully enjoying every moment of these Olympics. For many athletes, having fun is essential to be able to recall their performance under pressure. Having fun might be one, but significant element of the process of eventually achieving the best possible outcome.

🔸 "Never give up!" Every attempt matters.

After Nonaka Miho not getting a zone in her first final boulder, the commentators on TV said, "that will be tricky for her, nearly everyone else got this zone. It's surprising, because bouldering is her discipline and she should have got this zone." In the end, she got the zone in the hardest boulder, boulder 3, first go and it was irrelevant that she hadn't got the zone in the first (easier) problem earlier.

After Jakob Schubert not getting a top in the first three boulders in qualifications, everyone got a bit nervous. "He needs this top, otherwise it will be hard to advance to finals." It seemed like it wasn't his round and everything was going not according to plan... Well, Jakob went out to the last boulder problem – and after a few tries, he climbed it within the last minute. Lessons learnt of these two examples: Never give up. Every attempt matters. Every boulder matters by itself and it's not over until it's actually over. Just because the "first few boulders" didn't go as planned, doesn't mean the whole round is automatically "over".

🔸 Even the strongest athletes make mistakes and "fail" sometimes. They're also human. ❤️

There were so many expectations on the strongest climbers. Expectations on who would win, who would be on the podium... Well, let's say some of these expectations weren't met. Even the favourites can have bad or unlucky days. Even they can make mistakes in their speed run or misread a problem. It doesn't make them less successful as an athlete, less inspirational or less valuable – it makes them human. And climbing (as we have all experienced ourselves probably) can be really unforgiving sometimes... 😉

What were your biggest lessons learnt? Leave us a comment underneath. ⤵️

And if you want to start working on your mindset for the upcoming competitions, don’t hesitate to schedule a free first session.