17 October 2015
Hello everyone! Competed in inter men qualifiers today for RM2015 and I think it was a good learning experience. Oh yeah, on a side note, it's nice knowing that there are people reading my blog (I know you're reading this daretotheryl) so I'm gonna be summing up on my strengths and weaknesses and some tips which is sort of like a reminder for myself on what to do and work on for the next competition.
What I did well:
-pre competition prep. I think this comp was one in which I really did prepare myself well before the comp. slept early at about 10.30pm. Hydrated myself 12hours before the competition time by diligently drinking 250ml every half an hour till I fell asleep. Ate a non oily and non spicy breakfast. And I know this is a little tmi but also took a shit before the comp. that bit of extra weight or the feeling of constipation may affect you more than you think. Then it's the warm up phase. Started warming up about half an hour before my detail started. Did my usual warm up of some body exercises and then did some climbing on the warm up wall. My aim was just to get my body to sweat through climbing on the wall. There comes a point where I reach this optimal sweat level that I feel ready and warmed up. Then I followed one my
NUS senior's advice of the warm up test which really helped: check if you can hang comfortably on one hand on a crimp/sloper/pinch. If you can do that for both ends, it means your arms are pretty much warmed up. I think that was a really good gauge for me. Then I went to the call zone 5 minutes before the start of my detail to rest and read the first few routes that I'll be going for to psych myself up. I think what really helped me throughout the whole competition was my mindset. I went in with no expectations but I told myself to just enjoy the climb and stay calm and composed for every route. I felt no nervousness and my focus was entirely on climbing. It's almost like I just drowned out everything and nothing in this world existed except the wall and me. Of course, I can hear the cheering from the audience and the blasting of an edm remix during the whole time. But I didn't let it affect me at all.
What I need to improve on:
-almost the same as BM2015, I really have to get to training my pinch strength. My pinch really sucks especially on big pinches. I guess that's the disadvantage of having a small hand. But I am determined that I can train up my pinch strength soon enough :)
3 November 2015
fast forward to today. Can't believe time has passed so fast. The recent weeks have been an seemingly endless cycle of tutorials and lectures but I think I've finally got the momentum to keep up with my academics and even be ahead for some of my modules. Surprisingly, I'm beginning to enjoy my life in NUS more and more. I like studying chemical engineering cause I have genuine interest in it and though the modules and cohort are big challenges, I still find most of the modules worthwhile. Although my grades are average so far, I am sure that I will do better next time:)