Youth Colors (Day 1) - An Eye Opener!

Hey Guys!

At the moment I am writing from Natalie's flat, situated in the small village of Landeck, 15 minutes drive from one of the world's best climbing walls, Kletterhalle Imst!

A busy day at Kletterhalle Imst

Kletterhalle Imst has been hosting international competitions for many years, and one of the traditions of the wall has been to host a very special competition called the "Youth Colors". This is aimed at kids not yet able to compete internationally for their country due to being too young, so Youth Colors is for Youth D and Youth C kids (or Children and Pupils as it is called in Austria). David Miedzybrodski on the 7c Yellow

I flew over on Wednesday night fom Edinburgh to Frankfurt, where I slept overnight in the airport, then caught a flight from Frankfurt to Innsbruck an then a train to Imst. It was a bit of an exhausting trip but worth every bit of it to see the kids in action at the comp this weekend :D

So today was the first day of the competition. I am here with a number of Scottish kids who I coach as well as a full British Team of 16 kids who are all attending the competition. Talking to Andy Knabl (Imst Team Coach and Organiser of Youth Colors), he said this year is bigger than all the previous years! There are literally hundreds of kids from all over Europe competing and all at a very high standard. The grades of the routes across the board are high, with the easiest in Youth C Boys and Girls (11-12 years old) being about 7a and the hardest probably in the region of 7c+? For the the younger boys and girls in Youth D (9-10 years old) the routes range in difficulty from around 6a+ to 7a!

All the kids climbed out of their skin today and I am happy to say there was about 95% positive vibes the whole day from everyone with only a little bit of disapointment (which never lasted very long anyway) :P

Connor Moore giving it his all on the Blue 7c!

Young Connor Moore and Nathan Whaley (London) are both in the lower end of Youth C and therefore had a very tough competition as they were competing against kids a year older and more developed than them (it's obvious the difference when you see the size of some of the kids :P). Despite this they each gave it their all. Connor climbed exceptionally well on his first three routes (all graded around 7c) making it to around 3/4 height on all of them. It took Nathan a little longer to get the hang of things, but that is only natural when it's your first International competition and especially when your one of the smallest and youngest in the category. Nathan in particular came into his own after the mid-day break on the second set of three routes - it was here he managed his first top of the competition, a tricky green that could be 7a/b? He also gave a great effort on both the Black and Blue routes that had each only a handful of tops.

Nathan Whaley of London crushing

David Miedzybrodski was competing beside them and as usual was dispaying impressive amounts of focus and tactical preparation - he is a machine in mind as well as body :P After the first set of three routes, David was ranked 23rd I believe. It was unfortunate that he dropped some places in the second round when he made some little errors on one of the routes, nothing to worry about, just experience for next time - he can make it up tomorrow I'm positive :D

Rory Cargil before topping his 2nd route (7c)From Aberdeen we also had Rory Cargil, probably Scotlands current strongest hope for a Youth B international contendor after Angus Davidson and William Bosi move up to Youth A. Rory showed us all how hard he has been working since he was dropped from the GB Team end of last year - I think they should re-consider after his epic performance today. Rory was within the last 10 moves of every route he tried bar the ones he onsighted!!! He is seriously working in another league right now, its mega impressive to watch :D Hopefully he makes the Team for Youth B next year and gets to continue to show his amazing progression in the international stage for 2014! At the end of today Rory was placed 12th with 3 points separating him from 10th and that was after messing up his first route by climbing it at the speed of light because he thought he only had 4 minutes :P Tomorrow I think he can make up some more places with a couple more brillaint performances...

Lisa Keane, the youngest of the kids out her with me started today a little shaky. She has only just started her competition career this year, so jumping from small regional rounds to full on Internationals is some step up!!! I don't think there is anyone in the whole competition though I can say has made more progress than her. At the start of the day she was holding back and not going for moves, eventually to the point that she really didn't want to go on the wall anymore. After a chat outside in the sun about not letting the fear of results or competition ruin a good performance and instead, just going for it on every move and trying your hardest, she returned to the climbing with renewed vigour and psyche and went on to really enjoy her climbing! The difference was phenomenol, she even made the hardest route look easier than the girl who is currently placed 1st!

There are of course a much bigger contingent of Brits out here with a strong crew from England and Ireland. Eddie Cooper is out here with two of his kids, Carson and Anna, and Ian Dunne (GB Team Manager) is out here with a number of English kids as well including GB Team Members Aiden Dunne and Alex Norton, both of whom climbed exceptionally well today - Special mention must be made to Alex who timed out on two different routes, both of which he would have topped (one of which he did actually top out on but failed to do so in the 5 minute time limit).

Anyway, it has been a fantastic day and I am so psyched to see such a well organised kids competition - the day has literally flown by without so much as a hiccup or time delay throughout the whole day! Probably the best organised competition I have ever been to...

Props to Andy Knabl :D