UKC

Body weight is an unfortunate, but patently evident and inevitable determining factor in climbing performance – to a certain extent, in a sport with many variables, of course. It's at once a source of fat-shaming 'banter' between friends, and a very heavy elephant in the room for a quick fix if you're wondering how to improve. There remains a culture of silence, shame and taboo that needs to be broken by climbing athletes, parents and coaches alike.

I went through puberty as a competitive gymnast and a lot of this sounds horribly familiar.  I also remember hitting a plateau, losing confidence in my body image and under-eating in an attempt to compensate.  Some of the things that worried me weren't even related to pubescent changes, just growth.  I remember being very anxious because I grew tall enough that I couldn't do giants on the bars without piking any more.  It took what felt like forever to get the timing of the pike right and in that time I couldn't get through a routine clean because I kept kicking the other bar and coming off.  I thought that was the end of my career and I was devastated - I was 12.  And I remember watching other girls hitting puberty plateaus and dreading the changes I knew my body was going to go through. 

In the end, I stopped competing at 18, part way through my late puberty.  I couldn't take the way we were all constantly watching our own bodies and each other's any more.  It wasn't a healthy place to be a teenager.

Of course, anxiety around puberty is part and parcel of any normal adolescence too but I think the issues described are of particular importance in the world of competitive sport.

Thanks for a very resonant article!

Great article. Well written and put together. Thanks for writing and sharing.

Good piece. I was remarking to an instructor at my local wall that it must be hard for young female climbers when they hit puberty and he said that one of the things that hit them unexpectedly (along with the increase in weight/drop in PTW ratio) is that their growth in height/longer limbs mess with their previous sense of where their bodies `finish' and their sense of spatial awareness. Something I hadn't considered. The issues are obviously more problematic with young girls and body image etc, but I was interested to read Tommy Caldwell write (in `The Push') of how hard/inexplicable he found it when he hit puberty and suddenly experienced a drop in his performance, due to increase in weight, and how it took him several years to realise how to adapt to become a better climber than before.

Great, thought-provoking article! Thanks.

Great article and very thought provoking. I hope competition team coaches/managers in particular read this and take note.

Yes, this sounds familiar too.  The weirdest thing for me though wasn't so much around height/limb length, but a shift in the location of my centre of mass that meant I felt like I had to learn a lot of the basics again.

Another factor is that the teenage years are by far the best chance for a lot of young climbers to get selected for an international competition because they are competing in a 2 year age category whereas once they become adults they are competing against all ages.    The teenagers have got a pretty short window before it gets much harder to be selected  and if the competition is going for strength or unhealthy eating and it works in the short term (despite long term consequences) then you either play that game or you lose out.

One minor thing that could be looked at is doing the qualification in youth leading comps from isolation.  Not being able to copy other climber's sequence would make route-reading more valuable and make it less clear that training strength rather than skills was the way to go.

Great article.

Climbing does have a cultural advantage over running though.

No one ever said "the best runner is the one having the most fun".

Probably slim comfort for a young comp climber who just wants to climb hard sport, but a good reminder that the sport offers more than the satisfaction of podiums and grades. 

Again, great article. Well done for bringing up this topic.

There are definitely young climbers who, from my admittedly distant armchair perspective, look to be on the unhealthy side of being lean.

Do the BMC have a similar rule or guidelines to the IFSC?

It must be so hard for young competitors to get it right, particularly those with over-enthusiastic parents wanting their children to do well encouraging them.

Good comments for Dave Macleod as usual. ClimbingNutrition.com always stress that it's better to gain muscle as climber than not. More muscle more than outweighs the disadvantage of the extra weight. And you cannot gain muscle unless you're first eating a calorie surplus. It's the opposite of losing weight and the need to be in a calorie deficit.

It's also interesting to note that when you look at those at the very top of our sport, although they are typically very lean, none looks unhealthly so.

But ultimately even if there is some drop in performance due to weight gain hopefully most will appreciate that long term health always trumps climbing hard and climbing performance.

Another really good, thoughtful article, Natalie.

"Do the BMC have a similar rule or guidelines to the IFSC?"

They monitor the kids weight/BMI.

A frank article on a very thorny issue - thank you for talking about this, it is so important!

Great article, very interesting. The concepts discussed I think can be valuable in a wider context as well, for we all age, whether male or female, with inevitable changes in body shape, strength and mass as we get older. This necessitates a re-assessment of goals and one's image of oneself as a climber, whether competitive or recreational. I like the idea that as circumstances change, the sheer variety of climbing and mountain-related activities allows us to maintain interest and novelty by shifting focus to different branches of the sport. As someone in the wrong half of my 60s, this certainly helps me to continue to really enjoy climbing and hill-related activities. 

Will there be a corresponding piece, but male orientated? Just for the sake of equality?

Males are affected by puberty and obesity as well.

You can write us one if you like. Not convinced you actually read the article though. 

Yes, my impression of watching the kids at Ratho is that the girls either get taller while maintaining their waif-like shape and are suddenly pushing 8a or else change shape and are never seen again. On the other hand the boys all get taller, then all grow muscles and then all push 8a (unless they get distracted by other stuff).

Great article Natalie thanks. I've been trying to spread awareness about this for some time. I often think that adult climbers, especially men, have no idea how vulnerable pubescent young women are, and have no idea of the possible impact of their comments. 

I also think that it's a major issue in adult climbers too, there's still a massive culture of maintaining a very minimal weight in order to push the grades, and although that might be fine for the majority of adults it can be extremely dangerous for those struggling with eating disorders or those in recovery from eating disorders.

Just because someone doesn't look anorexic doesn't mean they don't have serious issues around food and weight, and the amount of times I've heard that the best way to improve climbing is to lose a few pounds/kg is worrying, despite these comments coming from well intentioned people.

Thank you for writing this, really great read. I recently read the article about Katelyn Tuohy and although a lot of the things that the author said were true, I just felt uncomfortable after reading it. It focused so much on the negatives of female puberty. Almost as if Katelyn's career was now doomed, although as you said, most of the best female runners are women who've gone through puberty and not young girls. Climbing is still such a young sport, and I really hope any athletes competing now and in future will always consider their health first. Hopefully this article will help young climbers and athletes to realise that puberty is not the end of the world, and they can come out the other side stronger than they were before.

I only came to this through the French translation.

Really interesting and well written article Natalie, a real insight for this middle aged bloke.

As an aside the quality of writing on ukc has improved hugely over the last few years, thanks for your efforts.