Simone's climbing competitions are really different these days. Its pretty cool how they do it. There is a Kaya Climbing app and the kids video themselves doing the climbs over a two week period and upload them to the app. That way there isn't a huge crowd of people all at the same time.
Simone had a comp at Momentum Sandy and they were able to do the climbs during practice. Simone had one climb that was super hard and she was so, so close. It was just her style she said.
Her team has some really incredible climbers and many of them have been national champions and the top in the nation. Every climber has certain strengths. Some girls are really good at beta and reading the wall and knowing how to do it. Some like sport climbs, some prefer bouldering. Everyone has different strengths and depending on the climbs, they might have an advantage if the climb is more their style.
So Simone was so close on this super hard comp climb that was just her style. She knew if she got this climb she would win the comp for her age. The only other climbers to get it were some of the older boys. So it was absolutely haunting her that she was so close, and didn't finish!
So she asked me to take her the next day to Momentum so she could work on it again. Her teammate was meeting her there and she had one to work on too.
I was running errands after dropping her off and she called and asked if I could come watch. She just knew she could get it if she had a little audience. And of course I love to go watch and was super glad that she wanted me there.
It was fun to see her teammate and her encouraging each other on the wall! I love that part of teammates and how it is especially supportive in climbing. Climbing is an individual sport in a lot of ways. But I've loved seeing these girls and how they root for each other.
In climbing they know they only have so many attempts before they are unlikely to be able to get the climb as their muscles fatigue and it gets more and more difficult to improve. She was so, so close and just had a harder time sticking it at the very end where there was a little crimp at the top of a sloped volume, so it was very difficult to see where her hand needed to go from below.
So after five attempts, I wondered if she might need to try again the next day. And her face was like, NO WAY. I'm not coming back. I'm doing this now!
So she stayed on the wall after falling and just tried the last move a couple times. I recorded it for her so she could see what was working.
Finally she gave it one more shot and she got it! I loved her reaction. She was so happy to be done with that beast. She was totally crying. I was so proud of her for sticking with it and for her practicing mental toughness.
When I posted it on my story (of course I just thought it was so cool) but in her mind it was a little embarrassing for her because she knew some of her teammates might see it and she felt a little dramatic to be that happy that she finished. But I think they have all shared that feeling and emotion when they had similar experiences!
Anyway I thought it was pretty sweet and an incredible display of persistence and wanted to record it.
