Due to the new COVID-19, the whole world seems to be shutting down. With no competitions until further notice, there is nothing to really focus on. It’s just about getting as strong as possible.
Nevertheless I still managed to squeeze in one competition before things got really serious. It was the well-known Studio Bloc in Darmstadt.
Great memories from last year and hopefully more new ones time time around.
Qualification format
The format stayed the same as in all the previous years, so I’ll just sum it up in a few words.
The qualification round consists of 80 boulder, labeled from the easiest to the hardest. Harder boulders are worth more points + flash grants additional 10% of points. The session is open-format and lasts 4 hours. That means that there is no isolation and attempts are not limited.
Therefore it is important to take every attempt seriously as flash might add additional boost to your final score. There are 2 sessions in one day (morning and afternoon) and top 20 athletes from both rounds qualify into next day semi-final.
Qualification round
There were around 800 athletes registered and the mens field was stacked. In addition, I was also not feeling in the best shape, so I knew I’ll have to climb well, to make it through.
As only hardest 20 problems from each athlete count, I focused on finishing the most boulders from range 60-80. I made every attempt count and tried to get the correct beta before actually trying the problem. That way I made sure I was not wasting my skin, power or energy.
I finished the round with 17 boulder from the range 60-80 and 9 of them were flash. But I couldn’t really know if that was enough, so I was really trying to top one more, just to be sure that it was enough.
While doing that I lost more energy and most importantly skin. To make things worse, in the end I didn’t manage to climb another boulder. It made absolutely no difference in the end.
There was definitely a lesson to learn for next year: “If it comes down to wasting power and skin for one problem, it’s better to take the gamble.” If you don’t make it, you will surely be disappointed but in the other case you will be in much better position for semis.
Semi-final
Throughout last year I really got used of having bad skin so I knew how to get ready for next day semis.
During the warmup I would try to climb as little as possible and rather focus on doing some additional floor exercises. Here at Studio bloc it was also great, that they had wooden board. That really helped with saving skin during warm-up.
Just before my first problem I got into the right mindset with listening to music. I think it really helped me focus and perform better. With everything on my TO-DO list checked I was ready!
I finished the round with 2 tops in 5 tries and 4 zones. That was sadly not enough to make finals this time, but I got fairly close.
I managed to drop from the top of one problem and consequently finished on 10th place.
Surely things could be better but reflecting back on the past trainings, I think it could easily be much worse.
Although my skin was not the best, I managed to fight through the pain and show myself that I belong in that semi-final round (although I was slowly losing that belief lately…). I managed to quickly finish the more technical problems and I was struggling on a bit more powerful ones.
That means that there is definitely more to be done on the power and with the whole season postponed that means there is more time for training. I feel confident that I will make the transition in time.
Outro
There you go, that’s how Studio bloc 2020 looked through my perspective. Hopefully you learned something new or just enjoyed the reading.
To end things on a good note I hope every stays safe and healthy in the upcoming weeks, especially with the new virus on the horizon. I will try to minimise my activities and keep my distance from others. That mostly means that I’ll be going from my house to the gym and back. Time to get strong and find the right feeling on the wall.
