Most focus on physical training trying to get stronger and to get better endurance. Technical training is done on the run doing different boulder problems. At the same time, it is the mental training where you probably could have the biggest and easiest gains. Can you perform the best with your muscles and your technical repertoire when you need it the most in a competition or at the rock? How do you deal with anxiety and failure? Doing onsights are very stressful. One mistake and you missed that lifetime opportunity. Hanging under a crux not knowing which sequence to chose creates anxiety and possibly you will not give 100 %. Adam Ondra is the best onsight climber in the world at the same time he has done terribly bad often as he is climbing fast with no safety margin. Last month he showed a clip when he did fall on a 7a onsight as his foot slipped. Once you start accepting that failure is part of the game in climbing and that there is always one more onsight to try, your anxiety will drop and you will start instead enjoying being out on uncertain terrain. This means you will perform much better in the long run. It is about a mental thinking stage where you love doing challenges more than you love that grade or result in a competition. Onsight challenges can be created indoors also by combining different colors or adding some extra holds on routes that otherwise are without reach. Alternatively, you can climb old easier routes with one foot or skip some holds making up for being challenged by new sequences. Once you start loving solving new problems on the go, you have become mentally stronger and you will have more fun and climb harder :)

Lena Marie Müller has done Prinzip Hoffnung 8b/+ trad at Bürs. Previously, the 28-year-old, who is doing doctoral thesis is in climate change at Innsbruck University, had 8a+ on bolts and 8a on trad as her personal best. (c) Johannes Ingrisch "I went there the first time 6 weeks ago and checked out all the moves and gear on toprope. After sending it on toprope, I did some long falls into the gear to get more comfortable. In the end, I did it on my third lead go, falling the first time before the crux section and the second time at the very end of it. On the third go I was lucky enough to get through the insecure moves. I tried it together with Johannes Ingrisch who send it a few days before me. We almost always went to Bürs by train to climb it with a carbon footprint as low as possible." More info on her Insta

Solveig Korherr, who last November did her first two 8c+' in Red River Gorge, has done Combifetis 8c in Margalef. In the 8a ranking game she is #1. (c) Jon Shen "I was not sure if the pocket style here would fit me but I quickly found out that it did play to my strengths as there are many intermediate holds and foot options here. I had a rather successful first week. I managed to dispatch Via del Quim (8b+) in a single day and Aitzol (8b+) in two days, as well as make several other 8a+ and 8a onsights. I then set my goal on finding an 8c/+ project. This happened to be Combifetis, which consists of about 20 moves of very sustained climbing on small holds without a rest. It feels like the most difficult 8c that I have done. As for the rest of 2020, we still have about three weeks in Spain. I am generally looking to consolidate the 8c and 8c+ grade in different styles and rock types as I have only done a handful of them."

At the same time we see more and more 9a's being recorded in the 8a database, onsights 8b+ and harder are getting rarer. During the last eight years, 411 insights 8b+ to 9a have been registered which can be compared to just 12 such onsights the last year. One reason for this is that Adam Ondra, with a total of 173 onsights 8b+ to 9a, and other competition climbers have been climbing less outdoors the last year as they are focusing on the Olympics. As regards the female, we can see a similar trend and as a matter of a fact, only Martina Demmel has recorded an 8b onsight in the 8a database, Pati pa mi, the last year.

Matt Fultz, who did his first 8C ten months ago, has done his eigth, Dreamtime in Cresciano. The 28-year-old is #3 in the ranking game and based of his trend diagram he could be #1 in six months but then he needs to also step up to 8C+.

Piotr Schab, who just did his ninth 9a+, has onsighted two 8b+', Los Humildes pa Casa. and The King Lizard in Oliana. Including nine 8c onsights, the Pole should be considered as one of the very best onsight climbers in the world. (c) Toni Mas Muchaca During the last week, Piotr has also done two 8c+' and he is #3 in the 8a ranking game.

One possible explanation of why we see less hard core onsights done is that indoor gyms and training focus have moved climbing from being a lifestyle sport to be more performance-oriented also outdoors. Instead of doing multiple easier onsights while on road trips, it seems projecting a hard route is the name of the game today. If you do not practice your onsight skills continuously, it is a hard time to set new personal best. Being more competitive, it is harder mentally to fall on an onsight as you only have that opputunity. Falling on a redpoint creates much less anxiety as you can just lower down and go for it again. The twist of this more competitive focus, also outdoors, is that Adam Ondra, being the best climber in the world, is also the one focusing most on onsight. The message to all youngsters and their parents is to build a wide onsight pyramid and then you will progress automatically also in redpoint. Interview with Ondra being 13-years-old - "I always try to climb as many routes of the grade OS (now, it is 8b). I usually don't try harder things for a long time." In the 8a ranking, created in 1999, you get 145 points extra for an onsight meaning a 7a onsight is less valuable than a 7b+ redpoint. We plan to change it to 155 points bonus. The ranking shows that current onsight ranking and alhough Ondra has limited time on rock, he is still #1. Interesting is also that the best female, Solveig Korherr, is #15.

IFSC has stated that due to the coronavirus, the Asian Combined Championship in Wujiang - China 18/5, might be postponed or rescheduled. If it is postponed, they will use the World Champion as the qualifying event. This means that Jongwon Chon and Chaehyun Seo, both from Korea, will get a ticket to Tokyo.