Skip to main content

Competing and Training with an Injury


A close-up of my pre-injured hand (photo by Leo Cackett)

With the Boulder World Cup season done and dusted it should be time to start getting ready for the lead season, my stronger discipline. However, sometimes things don’t go to plan and you can find yourself sat in bed, nursing an injured finger and wondering why such bad luck comes at the exact wrong time! I recently found myself in this situation (and am currently still recovering and unable to train at the level I would normally) after damaging a vein, whilst fingerboarding a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had my finger scanned and the injury could have been a lot worse-instead of spending months without climbing I am expecting for my finger to be healed within another week or so.
The experience has given me a lot of time to reflect about the priorities in my life and the importance of climbing in it. My initial fears that I would be unable to compete in the Lead World Cups this year have now been consoled, as I know now that I will be able to compete, even if I am unable to perform my best. However, these thoughts were enough to make me feel desperate and even a couple of days off training made me realise that climbing has become so important to me that I can’t function without it.
These thoughts were a little scary. Of course you have to care about something a lot to be able to succeed in it, but relying so heavily on one element of your life in order to be happy does not seem healthy to me. In hindsight, I think the scare of injury was good for me as it forced me to look to other activities I had an interest in and I now feel that if I were to suffer a long term injury, I would be able to cope with it better.
Now able to climb on big holds, I am looking to make the most of what training I am able to do before the first comp at the start of July. I have made the decision to compete and I knew I was making a choice between competing when I knew I might not be on my best form and pulling out completely to wait for a time when I would be at peak performance. This was a hard decision for me, but in the end it came down to the fact that I want to compete for the full experience-to feel the adrenaline on the routes; to spend time with my teammates in cool and interesting places; to see how I compare to the top climbers in the world, even when not at my peak. I do not simply compete to get good results; I compete to enjoy myself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
4 comments
Read more

Climbing in Croatia

After months spent training at home I finally had the opportunity to travel this summer! As someone who is very used to living out of a suitcase going between comps, the prospect of spending summer at home did not fill me with joy, so when some mates asked if I wanted to join them on a climbing and scuba diving trip to Croatia, I didn’t hesitate to book my ticket. Paklenica may not be as well known as some other European sport climbing destinations, but it certainly has a lot to offer. I have always focused primarily on indoor climbing, following a busy training schedule which over the years has given me little time to get outdoors. However, with the competition season as good as cancelled this year, I’ve spent lockdown transferring my skills to rock. Before going to Paklenica, all my trips have been performance focussed-not what you’d exactly call a ‘holiday’, but rather an opportunity to show how my training had paid off. For this trip I decided to adopt the mindset of wanting to c...
2 comments
Read more

My Top Training Tips

Having not written in a blog post in a long time I felt it was time to resurrect what I started with a few tips which I think could be helpful for a lot of people! I get asked all the time about my training and though there’s no secret key to inevitable success, I do have some advice which can be used whether you’re a complete newbie looking to start a hobby for the new year, or an experienced climber who has hit a plateau. Train in the right environment Probably the most important element of training is that you want to do it. There is no point in setting out goals which you aren’t motivated to achieve because you won’t be enjoying the process of achieving them. If possible, try and find a training partner-I always climb better when working with someone of a similar ability to me or better. This way you can learn from each other and take it in turns to train and rest, making the process more sociable. Everyone’s bodies are programmed to work best at different times, so try vary...
1 comment
Read more