Experience is Everything
Mental training is a massive area in climbing, yet it is all too often overlooked. You may think that your bulging biceps, massive forearms and impeccable technique will get you up the wall no problem - but what happens when fear, nerves and doubt begin to creep into the equation?
I have been competing for over ten years now and am just starting to venture into the world of outdoor redpoint and onsighting. What are the differences between these two (or three) disciplines?
Competitions
I find competitions relatively stress-free and very rarely do I give up or get psyched out. Why? I believe it is down to experience after having taken part in numerous competitions since the age of 9. However, it is also a very personal challenge which differ from person to person - some people get more excited than nervous about competing (like me) and can perform to the best of their abilities. On the other hand, some people become so fraught with nerves and doubt that their performance is severely hindered. Whether it be personal pressure, pressure from parents or team members or intimidation from other competitors, these factors can all become major problems if the competitor cannot block them out.
My experience? I have always been very competitive and will fight for what I want to acheive. Competitions can be a very selfish environment, and to a certain extent, you have to be selfish to succeed in the arena of competitions. Perhaps selfish isn’t the best word - self-assured would be more appropriate! I am not in any way saying that you need to be arrogant or consider yourself to be superior to others in a nasty or demeaning manner, rather you you have to have the self-confidence and inner belief that you are the best climber in the event. For some people, believing this proves difficult, this psychology does not work for everyone! The best way of maximising your performance in a competition is to give it everything - and in mental terms this means having the assurance in knowing that you will try your very best, and whatever happens you cannot be dissatisfied! I clearly remember almost “giving up” in a final of a European Youth Series one year - I became frustrated and tired at a hard section of the climb and rather than fight hard for a podium place, I simply slapped wearily for the next hold. I had qualified in 2nd place for the final, yet was not in the right state of mind on the final route. Was it complacency?
Dealing with Negative Experiences in Competition
I remember another event much further back in my career when I was winning in a BRYCS youth final, with just the easiest boulder problem to go. I skipped up the problem and jumped for the op of the wall in youthful exuberance - yet much to my surprise slipped off the top of the wall (a sloped edge, unlike the good edge at my local wall!) In my over-confidence I had made a silly mistake which cost me a place and made me come 2nd overall. I learnt from this mistake and thankfully it has never happened again!
In other events where I have felt as though the competition has not gone my way, I look on these as incentives to improving and working hard in my training. It is easy to bring out excuses and mull over a bad day, but the best way of dealing with failure and disappointment is to view it as a learning experience - everyone has a climbing learning curve consisting of both good and bad experiences!
Experiences of Outdoors
Due to being primarily a comp climber in my early years, I never had the time (or funds!) to spend on trips and gaining rock experience, so since finishing school and starting university (“study” leave plus 4 month summers = lots of time to climb!) I have started learning about outdoor climbing and developing my movement skills on rock. I had done a fair bit of easier climbing as a youngster - seconding routes, going to Kalymnos for a week in 2003, and two or three trips to font - but not enough to really focus on sport climbing techniques. Trips outdoors were seen as a fun event, not to be taken too seriously and having safety as a priority. My first major trip was to Ceuse for 2 weeks last summer, where I managed to redpoint up to 7c and have fun with friends. I only had 12 days, so about 7 or 8 climbing days, and not enough time to really apply myself to ticking harder routes. I did rack up some easier mileage though! My next major trip was to Spain this April/May for 5 weeks - my longest trip yet! However, in my keenness to tick hard routes, I think I started focussing on hard redpoints too early when I desperately needed to do more mileage to build confidence and be cautious with my two finger pulley injuries. I had a hard time in the first two weeks getting frustrated with the pain in my fingers and seemingly getting nothing done. I had to change tactics. So I focussed on working my way through the grades and practicing my onsighting, doing some falling practice for my head and gaining confidence in my abilities. I even opened up an 8a.nu scorecard which enabled me to look at what I had done and where the gaps in my grades were. I ended the trip with a successful 8a redpoint tick, which really inspired me for more hard outdoor climbing.
Now I am in Ceuse and and after a week and a half am trying to get out of the desire to get on hard routes and spend all my time on trying to tick a couple of 8a’s - I have realised what I need to do is get on lots of different routes of lower grades first to build my confidence up, before moving onto the harder stuff. I am agonisingly close to my current 8a project, so I will keep trying it alongside my mileage routes, just to keep my head in the game. A major problem for me at the moment is fear of falling - I am normally ok indoors, as long as I have been training leading. For the last 9 months or so I have been purely bouldering, which has caused me to lose confidence on routes. I am currently pretty strong from bouldering but my endurance is not quite what it was, but my plan is to build that up through doing lots of mid-grade routes. I know that if I focus on gaining experience in this way, my projects will be realistic goals in the last two weeks or so of the trip! At the moment it is frustrating not feeling 100% on harder routes, but I just have to be patient and I know I can do it if I take it slow and put my mind to it
ROBBIE PHILLIPS’ EXPERIENCES
Mental training is such a big facet to a climbers performance. My experiences of competition, outdoor sport, bouldering and trad climbing have all taught me this. When I was younger, all I was focussed on was competing, trying to be the best, wanting to be the best and thats all I had on my mind. When you get older and more mature, you realise that that is not what its all about. I used to get so nervous going in for competitions, I would put myself on an impossible pedestal of achievement and if I didn’t achieve my expectations, I would be destroyed mentally and emotionally. Its hilarious thinking about it now, to get so worked up on a little performance on one or two climbs in a day, comparing yourself against other climbers, etc… but I guess its a similar story to my life now as a climber who now focusses on outdoor pursuits? I am constantly challenging myself, building new pedestals in which to reach, the difference now is that I can deal with failure a lot better, I know that one failure isn’t the end of the world and that its only strengthening my climbing in the long run.
Competitions
My competition career was very different to Nats. I started a lot later, 8 years later to be precise, when I was 15 years old! My approach to competition climbing was very different to Nats since I hadn’t benefited from years and years of competition experience. I had been thrown into an environment of other kids who had been brought up in climbing competitions from a very young age and I had only just started climbing myself. Nat talks about different peoples ways of dealing with competition e.g. Nat is very cool and collected,
whereas I like to get psyched out my mind and ready for battle! When I started doing better in competitions, it was actually the moment that I realised that competitions weren’t really about beating everybody-else (for me) and more about improving on past performances and developing myself as a climber overall. I started to see climbing competitions as times when I could meet up with friends from around the UK (or world), go climbing and push my mental and physical boundaries to thelimit. Really, my best experiences in climbing are when I climb for myself and not for others or in an outwardly competitive way.
Outdoor Climbing Experiences
My biggest achievements in climbing haven’t been in the competition circuit (unlike Nat), they have been on rock. When Nat talks about believing in yourself at the competition,
“to a certain extent, you have to be selfish to succeed in the arena of competitions. Perhaps selfish isn’t the best word - self-assured would be more appropriate! I am not in any way saying that you need to be arrogant or consider yourself to be superior to others in a nasty or demeaning manner, rather you you have to have the self-confidence and inner belief that you are the best climber in the event.”
I think she is right! Some may disagree with this, but my experiences of pushing boundaries both in competition and on rock encompass this idea that I am good enough to do what I am setting out to achieve. When I confront a hard rock climb, I always have a routine, the most important of which is when I psyche myself up! I have to believe that I can climb the route beyond anything else, I build my confidence upwhilst going through all the moves by splitting the route into sections and visualising myself climbing through each of them with ease and in a strong style.
By the end of my visualisation process, I believe without a doubt in my mind that I can climb the route no matter the grade and will be ready to fight “A Muerte” for the send! If I don’t do this, I feel a little empty in my performance and will be lucky if I can properly give a full “Sharma style” effort to any climb I attempt.
Negative Experiences
In terms of performance, negative experiences can do two things:
- Hinder you
- Make you stronger
I always opt for the latter of the two, but you need to be strong minded to do this and not let the experience get the better of you. If you have a failure attempting a hard route, you need to walk away having learned more from that experience than when you had stepped onto the wall in the first place. If I fall off, I am instantly hauling my way back up the rope to my failure fall point to try and work out why I fell and how I can improve my sequence or strategy to better my performance next round. Yesterday I fell of a 70m 8b+ on the last 5m of climbing… It took me a while to come to terms with what had just happened, but I still got back on the rope and learned a new sequence for the high crux so that I can do it better next time round. I also used the time to look at other parts that I thought hadn’t been executed as well and tried some new beta for them which worked better, thereby making my next attempt a higher percentage success rate.
If you let the performance get to you and make you feel bad, then you will struggle more than ever to do the route in future attempts. It will affect your nerves, your confidence and even your physical ability to climb the route. If you are nervous you are less likely to be dynamic and trust smaller footholds which will hold you back massively. I was doing this a bit on the easier sections of “The Black Bean” (8b+) yesterday and noticed it, so I know for next time not to do this and be more relaxed.
Conclusion?
Experience is everything! Build up the mileage over the years and you will see the advantages. Both good and bad experiences will aid your progress to being a well rounded, confident and successful climber in any discipline whether its sport, bouldering, trad, winter, alpine or competition. Most importantly, enjoy what you do, if your not having fun then your obviously doing something wrong…
Keep it real
ROBZ + NAT