THE MENTAL CHALLENGE OF HARD ROUNDS IN COMPETITIONS
If you watched the men's bouldering qualifiers at the World Cup in Innsbruck 2023, you may have noticed that the qualifying rounds were really challenging. Depending on the group at this particular World Cup, you could qualify for the semis with only one or two tops, which indicates that the boulders during the qualifiers round were rather hard. On the other hand, extremely easy rounds can be mentally demanding because they put pressure on the athletes to perform flawlessly and "having to" deliver without any mistakes. However, "hard rounds" like the qualifiers a the WC in Innsbruck 2023 can be equally mentally taxing.
Photo Credits: Nils Lang / Moritz Klee - Andreas Hofherr climbing during qualifiers at the WC in Innsbruck 2023
You might have experienced this yourself: quickly sending or flashing the first boulder(s) boosts confidence and affects subsequent approaches. Conversely, failing to send the initial boulder(s) can lead to self-doubt, frustration, and embarrassment.
It can be mentally tricky to NOT let the outcome of each individual boulder affect your performance on the next one. Having worked with many climbers before, we know how much a "bad round" can impact the subsequent boulders.
In this round during the qualifiers at the WC in Innsbruck, you could observe this phenomenon from an outstanding perspective: as the temperature rose during lunchtime, the fewer boulders the athletes sent, the more their body posture and facial expressions reflected their disappointment: sloping shoulders, frowns in their face, frustration, and more were evident.
This video is a very positive example to observe: It was Austrian Andreas Hofherr’s first Boulder World Cup and he didn't make any points in the first three boulders. Compared to many other competitors on the mats next to him, he didn't however let these outcomes impact him. He pulled himself together in the last two boulders, showed confidence in himself and his skills (watch his body language) – and ended up sending the second last boulder, a slab. He also almost did the last boulder, falling on the last move and running out of time.
Positive examples are a great reminder for all of us that it's only over once it's over – and not a minute earlier. Our body language impacts how we feel and perceive a situation – and will impact how we approach the climbs.
Have you climbed in a hard qualifying round before and felt your emotional state affecting your performance?