Reflections on our Youth Competition Climbing Experience

By Bimini Horstmann and Lily Canavan

Author's note: Lily competed on the USA Climbing Youth Circuit from 2009 to 2017 and Bimini from 2010 to 2018. We met through climbing in 2010 and have stuck together ever since. We largely climbed on the same teams and competed at the same competitions, thus, we have had similar experiences. We worked together to write this post and use “we” to describe most of our experiences. In a few cases where we discuss individual experiences it is noted in parentheses.

While competitive youth climbing is a different experience for every climber, we had an incredible experience growing up competing on the USAC Youth Circuit. We had a very fortunate set of circumstances such as supportive coaches and teammates with a healthy sense of competitiveness, and parents who never pressured us to do anything more than have fun. These are the reasons we still love the sport of climbing today.

We have both been climbing for 12 years, the majority of which have been in youth competition climbing. While competing in Youth (under age 19), we both qualified for the US National Team numerous times - Lily five times and Bimini 14 times. Bimini won three Youth National titles. As youth competitors we also competed in adult competitions. Bimini qualified for the National Team twice and competed at the World Championships in Paris. Lily competed at three Vail World Cups, once qualifying for semi-finals. We don’t compete or train very often anymore, but we still love the sport and climb for fun all the time! 

This past summer we moved to Salt Lake City, Utah together where we can climb outside all year round. We hope that sharing our experiences and insights - both positive and challenging - can help youth climbers, coaches, and parents today. 

Pro: Friends

We have been best friends for 12 years. We would have never met if it weren’t for comp climbing. We are incredibly grateful to this sport for introducing us to and bonding us with people from all over the country and the world. We will continue to be friends with these climbers for the rest of our lives. Where else would young girls in New England get the opportunity to spend extended amounts of time with people from every part of the U.S., if not for Youth Nationals and associated training camps? These unique and intense experiences connected us with people who were our age and shared a major common interest. The annual USAC events kept us in touch with our long-distance friends from the ages of 10 to 18. Moving to Salt Lake City, Utah - a popular location for climbers - was an easy transition for us, as many of our former youth competitors live here. 

Con: Body Image

With pro climbers Delaney Miller, Sasha Digulian, and Kai Lightner (among others) coming forward about their struggles with body image, and the 2021 documentary “Light,” disordered eating in climbing is slowly becoming a less taboo topic to discuss. Eating disorders are an extremely pressing issue in the climbing world. Disordered eating as a youth climber can have lifelong negative health effects if not attended to.

Unfortunately, strength-to-weight ratio is an important factor in climbing. While the most effective and healthiest way to maximize this ratio to climb hard is to increase strength, it is very common for climbers to get similar results by cutting calories to decrease their weight. Many youth climbers do not have the training knowledge or coaching to be able to effectively increase their strength, and the subliminal messaging to be skinnier in order to climb harder is everywhere. 

When we were in youth competitions, it was not uncommon for competitors to discuss their weight and diet during warm up in Iso. Events such as team dinners made it easy to see how much everybody was eating. It was not difficult to notice that the people who ate less and weighed less often tended to place better at comps, which increased the pressure to lose weight. Drastic weight loss (especially during puberty) can have severe long-term health effects. Even as young athletes, we noticed those who were struggling with being too thin tended to get injured more often, and lost their love for the sport, leading them to burn out and quit. As a teenager, you are not thinking about the negative effects and just want fast results so you can win the next competition. We are glad this topic is getting some attention because the climbing community still has a long way to go in addressing this huge issue.

Pro: Physical Activity

Climbing is a full body sport. Participating in the sport created healthy exercise habits that are lifelong. Our youth climbing team practices consisted of drills that involved climbing and projecting, but we also spent time doing more traditional “gym” workouts. We learned that consistent and challenging exercise can also be fun and make you feel good. Because we have trained from a young age, we feel restless if we don't get to do something physical for a few days. This is a healthy lifelong habit that gets us to move our bodies (preferably by climbing!). 

Con: Burnout

When we were in high school, it was common for us to have months where we were competing every weekend. It was mentally and physically exhausting to wake up early, sit in iso for hours at a time, try our absolute hardest in a demanding environment (often for hours without a break), then receive a ranking relative to our peers. When the competition had multiple rounds, we repeated this process up to three times within the same day or weekend! The rest of the week was spent at school mentally reconciling with your placement at the last comp and being nervous for the next comp. It is easy to get stuck in this cycle, becoming so focused on getting the results you want that you lose your love for the sport. 

Competition climbing is not a lifelong sport for most people. Many youth climbers dream of growing up to be successful pro climbers, especially after seeing idealized content of their lives through social media. While it is true that pretty much every professional competition climber started as a youth competition climber, only a very small percentage of youth comp climbers will grow up to be pros. Realizing that this dream is not feasible or realistic can be difficult and disappointing. However, remembering the reasons why you enjoyed climbing in the first place instead of focusing on comparing yourself to others (or to your past self) can help to avoid disappointment and burnout. We found that learning how to safely climb outside at a young age was helpful. This introduced an aspect of climbing that has become a lifelong sport. Outdoor climbing can be much less stressful than competition climbing as it does not involve rankings, publicity, or awards. Getting outside offers a break from the mentally taxing effects of comps while still climbing for fun.

Con: Financial Stress

With entry fees, gym memberships, gear costs, travel expenses, and so much more, youth competitive climbing is an expensive endeavor. It doesn’t take an expert to notice that most of the successful youth (and adult) climbers come from immense privilege. To train hard you need a coach; to get the most out of your coach you need private lessons; to gain competition experience you need to travel to and pay for as many competitions as possible. All these things cost money. 

We were privileged and lucky enough to live in the Northeast, where there were competitions nearly every weekend not too far from our homes. Participating in non-USAC local comps that offered cash purses to the winners, became a fun way to make some money to support our participation in the sport. However, it took a large initial financial investment from our families to get to the point where we could make our own money competing. It is important to acknowledge the financial barriers to competing at a high level.

Pro: Travel and Culture

Barring the financial caveats, youth competitive climbing provides incredible opportunities to travel to amazing places all over the country and the world. It can be easy to get swept up in the competition, but we always prioritized touring and experiencing the culture of different countries that we competed in. 

We have made so many amazing memories exploring new countries and learning about different cultures as we traveled for climbing. Traveling to competitions added a new dimension of fun and helped keep things in perspective. When we did not compete as well as intended, we focused on how lucky we were to be able to visit an exciting new place! Traveling for competitions is how we discovered Salt Lake City when we participated in the 2017 Psicobloc. We might not have known what a fun place Salt Lake City is to live if we had not initially traveled here for climbing. 

Pro: Establish Strong Base of Strength + Technique

Having regularly scheduled practices multiple times a week allows young climbers to establish a strong base of climbing technique and power that is extremely helpful if they continue to climb in adulthood. When you’re young, it is much easier to dedicate yourself to a sport and practice it for hours at a time, especially if you have a coach and team pushing you to try your hardest. We are so grateful that we had the structure to train hard throughout our years in Youth. The skills we learned, such as climbing movement, sequencing, and strength, have provided us with a strong base which is beneficial even now.

An example of this strong base happened to me (Bimini) when I went to college. In college, I found myself without a car to travel to the local gym, without a coach, or anybody to train with. I was grateful when I was able to get a ride to the gym, so it became a joy just to be able to climb. After years of training in Youth, I was pretty burnt out. Climbing for the joy of it was a welcome change. To my surprise, I was able to win Youth Bouldering Nationals, podium in three disciplines at the Youth PanAmerican Games, qualify for Collegiate and Youth Worlds in all three disciplines, and win the Youth National Overall Award, all in my first year of college! I had my most successful season ever and I was not training anywhere close to the level I did all throughout Youth. My strong climbing base and my refreshed joy for the sport allowed me to have fun and not stress too much about my lack of training; this led to a very successful and fun year. 

Pro: Coaches and Team

We were super lucky to be part of a close-knit climbing team with amazing coaches. While competition climbing is an individual sport, training and projecting is much easier as a team. Teamwork is an important skill required for not only comp training, but also for interpersonal skills and jobs in the adult world. Competitive youth climbing was intense at times, so working things out with teammates helped us value the team we were all part of together.

Our team helped us connect with friends who were much older and much younger than us. It was cool in elementary and middle school to have friends who were high schoolers. As we got to high school, it was gratifying to be able to mentor the younger kids we were friends with. We would not have had these friendships if it weren't for our climbing team. We were able to learn so much by having friends of different ages and perspectives.

Con: Pressure

Competition climbing provides youth climbers with concrete external validation for their hard work (medals, ribbons, prizes, team jackets, etc). These symbols of success can become addicting to work towards. Having solid goals and aspirations is important for learning, but it needs to be approached in a healthy manner. When youth climbers become hyper focused on getting a certain ranking in a competition, they can lose sight of why they climb. External validation can be internalized, and youth climbers can begin to value themselves based on their achievements. They can lose sight of why they started climbing in the first place and all the other great things that make them a valuable human being. 

We have both experienced burnout from the pressure to succeed that made us question our love for climbing. Here are a few tactics that were reinforced from a young age that we think helped us maintain a love for climbing to this day.

• When we got excessively frustrated at practice, coaches reminded us that “it’s just rock climbing,” or, even better, asked us “why do you rock climb?” The obvious answer to this question is “for fun,” and answering this question really helped put things into perspective and foster a love of climbing.

• When making goals for the season, we were discouraged from setting goals like “win nationals” or “get top 3 at regionals” because these outcomes are influenced by the performance of other climbers. Instead, we set goals for the season such as “not feeling pumped when I fall” or “feel satisfied that I did my best at every competition.” These are process oriented goals that won’t be affected by other competitors and aren’t based on numbers.

• Parents and coaches reminded us that if climbing or competing becomes not fun anymore, then it is time to take a break or change something.

Pro: Adaptability 

Climbing is a uniquely variable sport because the playing field and the rules change every competition and every season. Learning how to gracefully deal with failure and success taught us the important life skills of going with the flow and quickly adapting to new situations. 

One example of this was our first PanAmerican Games in Mexico City. Nothing went according to schedule; the warmup wall was four feet wide and kept falling apart, we had to sit in iso for 9 hours straight in the blazing sun, and the competition schedule was constantly changing. There was nothing we could change about the situation, so everyone laughed about it and did their best regardless. Competitive climbing can teach kids not to sweat the small stuff, and to find humor in subpar conditions.

Participating in competition climbing enhanced our abilities to stay calm in stressful situations and to push ourselves despite uncertainties. These skills came in handy when we worked a difficult hiking field job for a summer during college. Our boss was extremely impressed with our abilities to push through physically challenging situations, adapt to last-minute changes, and maintain a positive attitude through it all.

Cons: Injuries

Working a growing body to its limit in climbing and hard training inevitably leads to injuries. I (Bimini) broke both of my middle finger growth plates from campus boarding too much at age twelve. It was hard for me to do non-climbing workouts and watch my friends climb without me, but I learned a lot from having to take time off. We were encouraged by coaches to listen to our bodies and stop climbing if anything felt weird. I took that to heart after my finger injuries! 

Even though we were told to listen to our bodies, the immense pressure that competition climbers feel can cause a disconnect between body and mind. When your mind wants to try so hard and succeed, you tend to dismiss or overlook signs from your body that you need to take a break. I (Lily) have sprained both of my ankles numerous times. My worst sprain occurred while jumping down from the top of a boulder at a competition. My right ankle was already sprained prior to the comp, but I was determined to compete and climbed through the pain with a brace. While jumping down from the top of my last comp boulder, I tried to land most of my weight on my left ankle to protect my right, but I overshot and ended up horribly spraining my left ankle. These injuries (and others) have been valuable lessons. As adults, we are much better at listening to and taking care of our bodies.

Pro: Fun!!

Logically, climbing is something that doesn't make very much sense to do—“you can just hike up the back!”. The only reason to do it is because it is fun. Every time you try a new route you have to use your brain to figure out a new combination of holds to grab and positions to put your body into. Your body must be strong and flexible enough to successfully make the moves. We can’t think of another sport that is this interesting and so physical. This combination of elements is what makes rock climbing so special and keeps us engaged in the sport. Climbing has provided an incredible physical and mental outlet. There is nothing more exciting than the feeling of successfully completing a project or topping a hard route!  

Conclusion: 

These positive and challenging aspects reflect the encompassing nature of this sport. Just like any sport at a high level, competitive climbing can be intense and may not be fun for everybody. It is worth noting that many people enjoy competitive climbing in a more relaxed way than we did; we only focused on our own experiences while writing this. We feel lucky that we were able to have a fun, educational, and strength-building youth experience that we were able to carry with us into adulthood. We both still love climbing, so hopefully our experiences can help others to find the joy in climbing throughout their entire lives—no matter how young they start. 

We recommend doing regular check-ins with youth competitors to make sure they love climbing, for climbing. Not every practice or competition left us smiling and laughing afterwards, but at least 95% of them did! We love this sport and hope that as it grows we can continue to reduce the negative or stressful aspects of competitions, while emphasizing the parts that make climbing so special.