How Japan changed my Olympics training on worlds hardest indoor boulders

Toby’s Paris Olympic Games preparation continues with 3 weeks in Japan to explore some of the worlds best indoor bouldering and to put a winter of hard training to the test. Tokyo - and B-Pump Ogikubo in particular - offers a combination of physical and technical boulders that are in a league of their own. Home to the infamous ‘black tape’ boulders mostly set by Katsu and Tsukuru - 2 of the worlds leading setters - Toby gets to grips with the worlds hardest indoor grades. Many of the hugely successful Japanese climbing team who have won countless World Cup, World Championship and Olympic medals call Tokyo - and B-Pump in particular - their home, including Yoshiyuki Ogata and Miho Nonaka to name a few. Further sessions at Underground, Basecamp Tokyo, Pump 2 and Tomoa Narasaki’s & Akiyo Noguchi’s private wall were further excellent training opportunities. Confidence was high going in to the trip… did it translate to easy tops of hard boulders? Toby’s Instagram: h