Ingo Filzwieser, the previous national coach of Austria who still is the personal trainer of Sandra Lettner (16) #4 in Meiringen, has a saying. "My motto is that you can not train like the last winner... you have to train like the next winner." When he became an Austria coach seven years ago he analysed the types of holds used and it was like 65 % crimps. This can be compared with 2017, with some 5 % crimps and like 80 % volumes. "Part of the reason for this might be that it was getting more difficult for the route setters to check the right level for the male. I saw Sharafutdinov (superior #1 in 2013) doing a pull up with 65 kilo extra weight. Today, there is very little benefit of such strength, instead bouldering has become a coordination sport, giving chances for the route setters to actually do the problems. You need to be very smart and also tactically skillful. Most boulderer have different shoes they choice from, in order to adapt to different steepness and types of holds. Coming into the boulder, you need to immediately get a plan and then start executing within seconds to not loose time. You can not just start trying hard. Sometimes I see competitors start brushing the holds before they start which actually will make them just loose time. Doing and filming simulation is very important. Later you as a coach can actually give feedback on why they rested so many seconds and how many attempts they did etc. It will become more of a mind game in the future and this was one part how Kilian (Fischhuber) won 22 World Cups. He was also, and still is, physically really strong but he always solved the problem first in his head. In general I like this as it also becomes a better and more injury free sport for the youngsters. It is also good that it becomes more of a team sport as it is a constant process of learning technical and tactical skill from each other. I was quite amazed seeing Narasaki and Noguchi closely following what the others did, in a training camp in Innsbruck, even on yoga classes. You could feel that they really cared about each other. It is also important for the kids to finish school, have other interests and reducing the time they spend on social media. I agree on what recently have been pointed out on 8a that the trainers should have an holistic approach.

The easiest way to predict the Bouldering WC in Moscow, which starts on Saturday, would of course be to just copy the Meiringen results. Another possibility is to calculate the finalist based on the total result from the qually and the semifinal, from the two groups respectively. Beside that, we should look out for the Japaneses and especially Kokoro Fujii. Bear in mind also that the Japaneses are the only team that go all in also in Speed where the qualification is just right before the Bouldering final. 1. Yuji Fuyiwaki JPN 78 (7 Tops and 8 zones) 2. Aleksei Rubtsov RUS/Tomoa Narasaki JPN 67 1. Jakob Schubert AUT 89 2. Tomoaki Nakati JPN 79 3. Jongwon Chon KOR 78 1. Akiyo Noguchi JPN 79 2. Janja Garnbret SLO 78 3. Stasa Gejo STB 58 1. Miho Nonaka JPN/Sandra Lettner AUT 69 3. Fanny Gibert FRA/Jessica Pilz AUT 58

Piotr Schab has done a very quick ascent of Estado critico 9a (8c+) in Siurana. "3rd go. Cool moves in the crux and then some technical pumpy climbing to the top. 9a in a day feels damn. I assume it’s low end, but I had to fight very hard for it." In the 8a ranking game, the Pole is #2 after Adam Ondra. (c) Wojtek Kozakiewicz

Michaela Kiersch has done an impressive second go ascent of American Hastle in as well as her eight 8c+, Joe Blau, both in Oliana. "Yay!!! Epic battle after breaking a hold at the top." The 152 cm american, who took the silver in the USA Lead nationals recently, is the superior 8a Combined ranking game leader. (c) Matty Hong Michaela has just graduated from University and this is her second trip to Spain. Unfortunately it has been raining a lot and she has only two weeks left and now a heat wave is coming in. Next up to try is Papier Moyat.

Caroline Ciavaldini reports on Instagram that she has climbed the FFA of The Quarrymen E8 7a in Twll Mawr, Wales. This 4 pitches route was put up by legend Johnny Dawes in 1986, and it is one of the most iconic routes in the world with the extraordinary Groove Pitch (on the picture). © Neil Hart "“THAT IS NUTS" What on earth made me come up with: “I want to do The Quarryman”? Well… It seemed impossible so…"

Jernej Kruder, #2 in the WCH in 2014 and who has been an active competition climbers for 15 years, won his first World Cup in Meiringen. Interesting is that the Slovenian is mainly climbing and training outdoors doing all disciplines from DWS, trad and Big Walls and that goes also for his WC preparation. As a matter of a fact, the 27 year old should be a contender to be the best multi-discipline climber in the world, together with Adam Ondra, as of today. And he is going for the Olympics. "No preparations yet. Too soon for that :)" His Insta from 2018 confirms that he likes all types of climbing including bolting up new routes. The week before Meiringen he had two projecting days on a 9a, see the picture by krimp.si. The last months he has posted from several comps, 8b+ trad, 8b+ MP and 8B boulder. It was all about the weather, so it's hard to say how many days outdoor exactly. There were also some selection trainings and competitions too. But for sure it was more than 50% outdoors."

The document published below did include some info that was not correct when it comes to the Time in between the disciplines in the Olympics. Here are the official 2018 rules which we also have confirmed with IFSC. "The Qualification round of the Combined event shall be organised such that: 15.1.5.1 Each competitor shall have a minimum [30] minutes recovery period between their last attempt in the Speed competition and the start of their attempts in the Boulder competition following; and 15.1.5.2 Each competitor shall have a minimum [120] minutes recovery period between their last attempt in the Boulder competition and the start of their attempt in the Lead competition following. where each of the Qualification and Final rounds will combine competitions in the Speed discipline, the Boulder discipline and Lead discipline in that order." 15.1.6 The Final round of the Combined event shall be organised such that: 15.1.6.1 Each competitor shall have a minimum [15] minutes recovery period between their last attempt in the Speed competition and the start of their attempts in the Boulder competition following; and 15.1.6.2 Each competitor shall have a minimum [15] minutes recovery period between their last attempt in the Boulder competition and the start of their attempt in the Lead competition following. When it comes to starting order, the highest ranked competitor should start last in all three disciplines. In the finals, the highest ranked, after each discipline, should start last. In practice this means that there could be an advantage to qualify to the Olympics as #20 as this means you will start first with fresh holds in Bouldering and the contrary applies for the #1 qualified. The starting order is based on the Seeding, i.e. who qualify first and in which position. During the final, the ranking in bouldering might be most important as a better result will give you longer resting time before Lead. IFSC has stipulated a min of 15 min rest in between disciplines, and if so, the highest ranked climber could remain with instead 40 - 60 min rest. Another consequence is that a poor result in Speed during the final might not be so bad as this means, you will save more energy skipping two Speed runs, starting first in Bouldering and getting longer rest before Lead. Imagine Adam Ondra, could be last in Speed, starting first in Bouldering which he wins, will give him the longest rest before Lead. It should be mentioned that we have commented the min 15 minutes rule with IFSC and they have answered that it is just a minimum and that there probably will be longer time in between the disciplines during the final. One problem to face is also when to do the route reading which in itself is like a 10 min procedure. It will be rather complicated to do all route reading before starting the Speed event. On the other hand, it is probably the broadcaster who will decide what type of interval in between the disciplines is best for the million television audience.

Innsbruck 2018 has published an interesting Meiringen analyses talking about technical skill adapting to different types of challenges, carried out by Udo Neuman. As the route setters will be the same in the WCH in Innsbruck 2018, important lessons have to be learnt. Udo also points out the problem with the conditions deteriorating which in practice means that the better result you had in the semi, the worse friction you will get in the final. On the first problem, that can be seen in the picture, the first three guys did it at the same time the four last guys, and higher ranked in the semi, failed. "Once someone has slipped off a foothold twice, the risk of slipping again increases dramatically. This also had a big influence on the result in Meiringen." Video of last man out, Jakob Schubert, slipping from that big yellow hold. Udo also says, "It can only be hoped that a more level playing field will be made available in the future.". IFSC comp stats since 2007, confirms that the semi winner seldom actually wins the final and this is especially true for the WCHs. Other reasons for this is of course, the increased pressure starting last out, having heard that other guys topped and also that plastic holds and the whole arena get slightly heated up from the first to the last climber.