Easter is like two months away and it is about to train more specifically to reach your new goals. First, you have to analyze what kind of rock, holds, steepness, length etc you will challenge and if your focus is redpoint, flash or onsight? Then you have to replicate this in your gym and train in order to get a peak. In practice, if your plan is onsight, this would mean climbing much slower than you are used to indoors. Otherwise, your muscles are not adapted to rather long hanging time looking for the next sequence. If you are going to Frankenjura, you will be better off training on pockets. Going to 30 meter walls, you will probably need to stay at least ten minutes also during your training. In general, if your plan is not Santa Linya or another steep cave, you should climb on less steep terrain then you are used to indoors. For a boulderer it is even more specific and it is hard to say anything in general. Check out the videos of the boulders you want to do and try to replicate them as much as possible indoors.

Based on 3 500 votes, who is the Sport Climber in 2019, Seb Bouin and Barbara Zangerl got most votes. This is the first year since 2017 when Adam Ondra and Janja Garnbret were not #1. 40 % Seb Bouin - Barbara Zangerl 41 % 34 % Adam Ondra - Janja Garnbret 40 % 07 % Alex Megos - Isabelle Faus 6 % 06 % Tomoa Narasaki - Chaehyon Seo 5 % 05 % Jakob Schubert - Laura Rogora 4 % 04 % Alberto Gines Lopez - Akiyo Noguchi 2 % 04 % Others - Others 2 %

"The International Federation of Sport Climbing wishes to express its support for the people of China in dealing with the current Coronavirus emergency. As such, the IFSC has shipped 10,000 breathing masks to the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA), also encouraging its Member Federations to join the initiative. The IFSC World Cups in Wujiang and Chongqing and the IFSC Asian Championships, also scheduled in Chongqing – might be postponed, moved or even canceled, if necessary. Further actions shall be taken following the IFSC Executive Board teleconference scheduled on February 11th". More info.

Based on almost 1 600 votes, in regards who will get the golds in Tokyo, Janja Garnbret got 82 %. Among the male, Tomoa Narasaki got 50 % and Adam Ondra 34 %. Janja and Tomoa won the Combined WCH rather superior meanwhile Adam was #18 partly as he touched a bolt in Lead. It should be mentioned that Alex Megos won the qualification in a surperior style where Tomoa actually was just #3, after Jakob Schubert who was runner-up. Also Janja was #3 in the qualification, beaten by Shauna Coxey and Akiyo Noguchi.

It is easy to lose power in your lower hand as you look up and put all your focus on sticking the next hold. Try this experiment; Look at the fingers of your lower hand, and lock off. You will be surprised as you can lock off higher when you just concentrate on the lower hand instead of focusing on grabbing the next hold. Once you have learnt the technique you can start going for the next hold. It is not easy to change this so you just might need a friend who can remind you to "focus on the lower hand", while moving.

Niki Rusev, who just did his first 8c, has done his fourth 8b+, Storm in Bojenica. (c) Ivan Totev Interestingly, all his 8b+ he did just the last three months and amazingly he lives 150 km from the nearest climbing gym. Anyhow, he trains four days a week, mainly with Alex Totkova. One day they go to the rock together with the coach Faza and other friends. "I like to climb because that's the only thing that makes me happy. I have not favorite subject at school. Yes, I play some games, but they make me bored. I am having fun, only when I'm climbing. Now I train hard and prepare for the upcoming competitions and I hope to achieve what I want. When we can't go to Sofia. I run in the forest and do little cross-fit or we go to a fitness gym. They have a small boulder with a campus but that is not enough."

Alberto Gines Lopez (17) finished his Youth A season 2019 by getting four bronzes in the World and Euro Championships. The next month, competing with the seniors in Lead, he got a silver in the Euro CH and was 3 - 5 - 2 in the World Cup. This made him #2 overall at the same time he qualified for the Olympic qualifying event where he got his ticket to Tokyo. The fairy tale finished with Adam Ondra asking him to come and train with him as a preparation for the Olympics. It should be mentioned that Alberto was #7 in his Lead World Cup debut in 2018 in Arco. As he three weeks later, was #5 in the Youth Lead WCH among the 16-year-olds, a side story can be that the juniors are picking up and that more fairy tales are coming up in 2020. Remember that Ao Yurikusa and Hajime Takeda did beat him in the Combined Youth World Championships and that Hidemasa Nishida and Colin Duffy did the same in Lead as well as five guys in Boulder.