3 Months and Coaching

So it has been about 3 months since I stopped climbing...with the exception of a few days of attempting V1's. I feel like a broken record right now. I am just blogging about injury after injury. I feel like it is kind of boring. I am injured, still. I have no clue when I will be able to climb again. Maybe June? September? Good news though: I got my air cast off!! Whoop!

But I am not going keep blogging about my injuries today.

Youth ABS Nationals is on Friday and I am SO PSYCHED!! I have been working really hard with the climbing team and I feel that our team is ready to go. The team kids have worked so hard for this weekend and I know that they will do well. I am so interested to see how they place in comparison to the rest of the nation. This weekend will be a big learning curve for my coaching. Just like every other competition, I can earn from the other competitors. I can learn from the other coaches, the rankings, the styles of the climbs, the climbers. I think that going to this competition will help me with both the training of the team and my own training.

Last year was my first year coaching and three of the team kids went to ABS Nationals. Two of the kids placed in the 20's and the other placed 11th. This year, there are four team members from Worcester, two from Hadley. It is not many, but considering how hard our division is, I am very proud. I think that because our divisional was so hard, these kids will do great. Not to mention the training and nationals training camp Shane, Josh and I have put them through.

Last summer, I went to Youth SCS Nationals and stayed with my friends Sydney and Tyson. Tyson really opened my eyes up to what successful team is: Very strong and supportive of one another. Their team camaraderie was unmatchable to the other teams at the event. All of the kids were so proud to be a part of Vertical World Climbing Team. They also supported one another and really acted like some sort of crazy family. These kids didn't have massive ego's either. In fact, they didn't have any egos at all from what I saw. They were just confident competitors who were there to have fun with their friends and family...and crush. 

Seeing the Vertical World Team made me think of what my team could become. I came back to coaching in the fall with a new attitude: helping the kids not only get good at climbing, but to help them become confident, respectable young adults. I tried hard to get the kids decked out in Team Ascension gear, to get them excited about being a part of the team. With the help of the other coaches, I think that we are able to accomplish that and much more. I look at our climbing team and just think, "Wow, I am really proud right now". I can see that these kids care about one another and about climbing. They care about rock climbing lifestyle, not just the competition.

To coach this team make the pain I feel from injury go away. This team is something that I had always wanted, but never had. They are a family-like support group for one another, just as they are teammates and fellow competitors. I feel so accomplished to be a part of building this team. To offer someone else something that I could only dream of is a really, really great feeling.


Honestly, I think this climbing team is one of the only things getting me through this hard time of injury. I am glad to be a coach and I am glad to be working with some of the most supportive people I have ever met. Through everything I have gone through in the past couple of years, I never thought that coaching would be this gratifying.

Team Ascension! (There are a few missing, but Optimus Prime is serving as their replacement)