The last lead World Cups have been pretty interesting to watch. Not least since really young, teenage female athletes are fighting their way up to the world elite. Is there a trend in climbing where teens will peak in their teens such as in other leanness-focused like gymnastics? What risks and benefits does this involve?

As a climber, we are constantly torn between told how to look like by society and how to look in order to be strong and achieving our goals. This constant dissonance between our ideal social body image and ideal athletic body image can cause insecurity, disorientation and in turn, can have effects on our mental health.

Being able to control our mood can be very helpful – especially in passion and emotion rich sports like climbing. Music can be one useful strategy to handle negative emotions like distress, nervousness, or anxiety.

Emotions can influence a result, particularly in highly competitive situations. Emotions arise through our actions and are dependent on previous experiences we have made as well as on how we judge these situations

You might have read my last blog post “Why are you nervous? Haven’t you had mental training?” This blog post is a follow up with LESSONS LEARNT #2 from the experience I’ve recently made at a youth comp – or rather, the observation & conclusion I have made.

Is being nervous a bad thing? A summary of my experience of observing a youth comp.