Catch up-Hackney Youth Sports Fund

I haven't written in a while due to exam/training stress, but I've finally had time to catch up! During March I received a youth sports grant from the Hackney Council awarding me £350 to help pay for some of this year's competition costs as well as a year's free membership at my local leisure centre. A few weeks later I discovered myself on page 7 in the local paper! Thanks to Hackney for all the support they've given me-

Keep climbing!

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Youth Open Leading-March 2016

Last weekend on the 5th March I arrived at Liverpool Awesome Walls to compete in my first lead comp of the season and the first comp in which I would be representing the GB Team. This was exciting, although I felt nervous as I knew people would have high expectations of me. On arrival I was told I could collect my new team kit from Berghaus . It came as no surprise that the kit was much cooler than previous years as I knew Berghaus were a huge company producing quality goods. My favourite item is the branded down jacket! After the initial excitement of trying everything on, I felt shaky again so went to warm up and watch my demos. Both of my qualifiers were technical with a slight overhang and larger overhang at the top changing to vert for the last few moves. Pulling on to the wall for my first route I felt a roomful of eyes turn to the Union Flag on my back and I knew I had to do well to prove my worth. After a few sketchy moves at the beginning, I reached the top secti...

Finding the Balance: Life outside the gym

Up until now my blog has served to guide people through my climbing experiences; people know me as an athlete and that is all. However, for this post I want to write more about myself and how I strive to find balance in my life. For me, climbing is the most important aspect of my existence, but equally, it is for this reason that there have been times when I have felt on the verge of break down because all my self-value relied on climbing and my performance in the sport. I cared little about anything else-my social life, my studies, my other hobbies, even my family. In saying this I may sound like some cold-hearted climbing machine and in many ways that’s how I saw myself, but it is my belief that this mind-set is not uncommon among individuals who dedicate the majority of their life to achieving and mastering a single activity. I am by no means a changed person from the Jo who isolated herself from the rest of her life in the pursuit of being the best. I still struggle to find a bal...

Youth Open Bouldering-March 2016

After a long day in Liverpool competing in the leading event, I travelled to Manchester to compete at The Depot Climbing Centre , a brand new centre with loads of space and a variety of gradients. I arrived 2 hours before qualifiers began and took time to look at the blocks and get warmed up. There were lots of slabby problems with twists-a slippy foothold perhaps or even a dyno- as well as some powerful blocks. Going around with some mates I managed to flash a slab and then one which came through a small roof. However the hard blocks far outweighed the easy ones, and I had trouble getting past the bonus on a fiendishly hard slab, a shouldery, bridging problem and a slab with a dyno to a tiny pocket. There was one problem which I suspect I could have done had I not messed up all of my attempts. The first go I grabbed a hold which looked the same colour as the block but apparently wasn't. The next two attempts my hand slipped just as I was setting up for the side ways dyno to the b...

Jo Neame

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