In this post I’m going to focus on the mental aspects of rock climbing. I’m going to split those into 2 distinct areas:

• Managing stress / fear
• Motivation & focus for performance

Managing stress

Does fear ever get the better of you when you’re climbing? For most of us, at some time or other, fear has affected our performance when rock climbing.

Fear is a perfectly normal and necessary emotion. It exists to prevent you from becoming a victim of misadventure through being reckless. Fear only becomes a problem when you allow it to impede your performance.

When climbing, if you allow the yellow monster to get the better of you, it can prevent you from being able to see your next move. Your focus will zoom down to a tiny area of rock right in front of your face, and the only thing you will be able to think about is falling off. Thankfully there are strategies which you can adopt to help you to deal with this fear.

1. Controlled falls
For many people, the fear of falling off is paralyzing and prevents them from climbing anywhere near their potential. One technique that is often recommended is to take controlled falls. This should only be practiced on sport climbs where there is zero chance of protection failure. The concept of controlled falls is that you gradually expose yourself to bigger and bigger falls, training your mind to believe that you are actually not going to die if you fall a few metres on a sport route. Kerbing this fear enables you to be able to focus on your climbing.

To practice this technique, make sure that you maintain a safe distance from the ground. Be sure to factor in rope stretch.

Clip your rope into a quick draw and climb until the quick draw is level with your knees, then allow yourself to fall off, your belayer will arrest your fall. Repeat this process, each time climbing a little further past your protection before letting go. Make sure you don’t go so far that when you fall you reach the ground!

Personally I don’t believe in this technique. Relief from exposure of this kind doesn’t tend to last very long. You will probably feel better during the session but by the next time you climb the anxiety will probably have come back. It’s also pretty hard on your rope, and let’s face it they don’t come cheap!

2. Deep breathing
It sounds like a cliche, but deep breathing is a great technique for dealing with fear. When stressed, your body’s reaction is to take short shallow breaths. This leads to an increased heart rate which further elevates the feeling of panic. Slowing everything down and taking deep, controlled breaths reduces your heart rate making you more relaxed. It also increases the oxygen supply to your brain, helping you to spot that hold that has eluded you while in your panicked state. I find that if you can see that a climb is going to challenge you mentally, it’s best to start out taking really deep breaths and moving slowly and deliberately throughout the entire climb. Concentrate on placing your hands and feet really accurately. When you pull the rope through to clip, do it slowly and deliberately. This will help you and your belayer to relax.

3. Focusing on technique
If you really focus on your technique you will prevent anxiety from creeping in. Enjoying each and every move and position will make those gaps between protection points feel smaller. If you focus heavily on your next piece of protection all the time, it will always seem a long way away and your technique will be poor, as you won’t be thinking about the moves.

The indoor wall where I train has some routes that are pretty much vertical until about the last 5th of the climb where they have a really overhanging part followed by a not quite as steep overhang to top out. I have made a complete mess of these routes in the past because I spent the first 4/5ths of the climb thinking about the overhang to come. I didn’t climb the first part well and found myself in a state by the time I reached the really challenging part of the climb. Concentrate throughout and try to enjoy (and style) every single move – you will have loads more fun and your climbing will almost certainly improve.

Motivation / focus

1. Have fun
Remember the buzz you felt when you first started climbing? When you first begin any sport your personal expectations are low, and progress rapidly. As you get better that progress slows down and your expectations in your ability increase. If you fail to meet your elevated expectations you can quickly become frustrated.

I have been the world’s worst offender for punishing myself when I felt my performance to be under par. This has inevitably lead to having a completely duff session as my mood has spiraled downwards. Focussing on failures is really destructive and can ruin your confidence. I now always try to remain positive whether I climb well or not.

Mentally reward yourself for each climb you perform well and shake off the climbs where you don’t. If you’re having an off day/night, try something different to your usual routine. If you lead trad / sport routes, spend an hour doing some bouldering. If you boulder, try some sport or trad routes. Persevere and you will find enjoyment. You will finish on a high and look forward to climbing again. Always remind yourself that you’re climbing for fun.

2. Visualisation
This is a really powerful technique, and is used by many of the world’s best competitive climbers (and athletes). Before you start to climb a route, visualise yourself climbing it. Visualise your route, and your body positions before you touch the rock. This applies to being the second on a route as much as it applies to leading a route. It’s really easy to underestimate a route because you don’t have the pressure of leading it. The climb is exactly the same so why treat it differently?

The key message here is never to underestimate the power that your mind can have on your rock climbing performance. I would say at least as important as technique and strength.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any tips or advice that you would like to share, drop me a comment.

Climbing techniques – a plan to raise your game: Week 10 – Improving your mental strength is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

1. Climbing techniques – a plan to raise your game: Week 3 – strength conditioning and grip
2. Climbing techniques – a plan to raise your game: Week 7 – A review
3. Climbing techniques – a plan to raise your game: Week 8 – Core techniques