Rock Climbing through the Holidays

Hello Dragonwing girls!

I hope all of you are having a great school year and that Halloween was fun. It seems like a long time ago now!

This year, I dressed up as a tomato, by stuffing pillows in a big red shirt then putting on a green headband. Here I am with a few friends.

Dressed up as a tomato for Halloween

My rock climbing gym also put on a special Halloween comp for the youth programs. I was glad to place 2nd! The best costumes were worn by some kids who dressed up as our coaches.

Halloween girls at rocking climbing gym

I’m already looking forward to the next ABS regional championship, which is being hosted by USA Climbing on December 12.

I will happily be participating for my second year in this special competition and sporting my Dragonwing girlgear. Since this will be my second year in this competition, I think I will be more prepared and more confident in my climbing. I also think I'll be mentally prepared with techniques my coaches taught us like smiling, ways to read the problem, spending time more efficiently, and breathing.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday and break! I’ll be back in December!

Climbing Competitions & the Power of Smiling

It's September already!! The summer was one of the best and, sadly, the shortest. I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to be part of Dragonwing girlgear, an amazing company that supports active girls like me and many others. If you're interested in becoming an Ambassador, leave a comment or send an email. I'm an 8th grader this year and super excited with the start of the school year and with ABS season for climbing. I've already had my first local comp and it was a blast! I placed 8 out of 15 but tried a majority of the problems they set. (My Un-Dee Mini Workout Shorts are great for climbing!) Dragonwing teen ambassador Madi in rock climbing competition My next competitions are coming up very quickly and I can't wait for them. On September 26 - this weekend! -- is another comp of mine, a Youth American Ninja Warrior competition! That will be super exciting, and I hope my mom will catch some great photos to share. Subscribe to this blog so you won't miss them! In climbing class, we've just finished our endurance phase, which is always the hardest, and now we're hopping into the strength phase. This season, our coaches are challenging and helping us a lot. One of my coaches taught us a "centering" technique that helps if you're nervous or anxious at a comp or class. One of the strategies was smiling! That may sound weird, but smiling (just moving your face into a smile) usually makes you feel better in a stressful situation even if you don't have a "real" reason to smile. Try it! That's all for now. Until my next post, remember to smile! Dragonwing teen ambassador stress relief strategy is smile
Hello December...and almost January! - Dragonwing Girl

Hello December...and almost January!

I know, it’s been a couple months…when I said I was a busy girl, I wasn't kidding. But I’ve made it through the rough patch of my senior year, and, more importantly, I’ve made it through another full year. They say that these last few days of the year are a time to reflect. We think about the milestone events that happened in the past 12 months. We think about the best days we had, the vacations we took, awards we achieved, tournaments we (almost) won, and friends we made. However, sometimes only the biggest events (like starting senior year, or going to the Justin Timberlake concert) come to our head. Sometimes, the bad events might even overpower the good in our memories, so we can’t smile and be proud of our year. Good or bad, that’s a lot of things to keep straight and remember about the past 12 months. Every year is a good year, it just might be tough to remember why. So, to solve that exact problem, starting January 1st of last year, I decided I was going to write down all of the highlights from the year. After every fun day, exciting night, or memorable moment, I would write down all the details of the great day. I like to include the tiny details, like “when my friend and I smiled across the room at an inside joke that our teacher said”, or “he said these exact words to me” because they’re details that can only be remembered if they’re written down. I put them on a small piece of paper, and into a jar that doesn’t get opened until December 31st. Last year, opening the notes was incredible. There were a lot of big events that I remembered, but there were also lots of little sayings or small moments that I had completely forgotten about, and opening all of them put a huge smile on my face. Since I enjoyed it so much, I decided to do it again this year, and my jar is twice as full as it was a year ago. Now, just a few short days stand in between me and all of my memories and I can’t wait to reminisce, and then start all over again next year!