Yoda
One of my favourite quotes of all time! And it is so very relevant in the world of climbing…
- Fear of a route or situation holds us back, which if we are competitive in any way, will anger us.
- The anger we feel leads to hating that climb or situation.
- The hatred of those climbs or situations forces us to avoid them at all costs which leads to suffering in the way of being held back in our strife for better performance as we are not addressing our weaknesses.
In the last blog post, we had a look at “Fear” with respect to “Falling”. What was quite rightly stated by some people on the comments is that there are different types of fear that holds us back, not just that of something obvious and tangible like falling.
Fear of Failure
I have written a lot on this subject, but it’s always something that is good to continually re-address to remind people as it is the first thing usually forgotten.
Anybody that considers him/herself performance orientated will come across “Fear of Failure” (FOF) at some point in their life. I am naturally a very competitive person and am confronted by FOF on a daily basis. It pops it’s head up in many different situations, not all climbing orientated, but it’s always in climbing that it affects me the most because climbing is what I am most passionate about.
Here are a couple of examples of FOF in action:
Example 1: I am at the wall with a bunch of friends I regularly climb with. Everybody is trying a new set of routes recently set and are all trying to onsight them. I look at route 1 thinking, “doesn’t look too bad… I know I can Onsight this”. One of my friends attempts it and fails. Instantly I am energised to get on it and prove to my friend and myself that I can onsight it.
Competition among friends and peers can be difficult...
Suddenly, another on of my friends jumps in front and asks if he can have a shot. He gets on it and Onsights it with a bit of a fight at the top. This guy is one of the best of the group, probably a similar level to me. 
Suddenly I am feeling a little bit nervous, I don’t fancy trying this anymore, it looks a little tricky in that upper section, I think I will go try some different climbs… There is a harder graded route right next to it nobody has tried yet… I get on it and onsight it to the top!
If I onsighted this one, then really I should onsight the easier one as well… I’m a little tired now… I think I’ll leave it for another day J
Example 2: I have been trying this route for a few days now. When I first attempted it, it felt way out of my league! Now I am falling off reaching the last few holds but I keep failing at that section. Every time I get on it I feel a little nervous, sometimes slightly sick… I am so close to doing this climb but it just seems so far up the wall to fall of repeatedly. Why can’t I just do it and get it over and done with!
I have another attempt, I feel ill at the start, really nervous but I continue anyway. I make it past my previous high point but I fall again! AGGGGHHHHHHH!!! This is so frustrating… What am I going to do? I wasn’t even pumped!
I decide to have a rest day and try it again when I am fully recovered. All day I am thinking about the climb, re-hearsing the moves in my head… I have it dialled, I just need to seal the deal, then I can move onto something else!
I stand below the route, prepping myself to try it… I don’t feel right… I’m just not in the right frame of mind. I try it again but this time I am shaking with nerves, I fall off at the first crux – I haven’t fallen of this low on any of my redpoint tries! I am getting worse L
Redpoint stress is a difficult opponent...
So the main thing to take away from each of these examples is that the FOF has had a negative effect on the performances. One thing to note however is that in each example, the FOF stems from a slightly different source.
Example 1 is very common and although you might be sitting there thinking “I have never experienced this”, really have a think about it! I believe a very high percentage of boys most likely experience this on a week to week basis whereas girls are probably less so (but are still susceptible to it). Example 1 is all about the FOF brought on from how you are affected by what other people think of you. If you are very self-conscious (a lot of people are), then this will affect you massively!
What you need to do is recognise that nobody actually cares how well you do on something, only you do. You are the one putting the pressure on yourself, not them, they are just there climbing, get used to it! If someone you are very competitive with is climbing with you and does really well, use it as fuel to push you harder on your attempt.
I have been using competitions for years as a way of training myself to deal better with nerves. When you put yourself on the spot to perform well on a route you haven’t chosen, in front of a crowd, in a competitive scenario and at a set time, you can be guaranteed a good mental challenge! The National Open Competitions are good for this, but so are the little winter bouldering leagues. With those, I tend to go around with a group of friends trying the problems. I always like to go first and avoid taking beta from people who have already tried it so I can stack the nerves as high as possible. For me going first is the most stressful, I at least like to see a few people do the problem usually, that’s why I now avoid that scenario and instead opt for the more challenging option :P
Competitions are intense mental scenarios that can train you to better deal with the mental side of climbingCompetition climbing is one of the most stressful and intense climbing scenarios around
If you look at the situation in Example 1 you will see even at the end, when he onsighted the harder of the routes, he is still wary that he doesn’t want to jump on the one that he could potentially fail on and look bad. If I was in this scenario, I would challenge myself to get on it anyway and tell myself that even if I do fall of, that there is nothing to worry about because the only thing that matters is how I felt about the climb, and that nobody else’s opinion matters. A hard thing to do, but if it’s just training down the wall it doesn’t really matter, and if it’s a hard route outdoors, then there is a million routes to onsight outdoors so blowing one is not really a big deal.
Example 2 is again another common scenario of FOF. This is Redpoint stress! I have had this many a time and still struggle with it. The source of the fear this time comes solely from your ambition to do the climb. Sometimes a spot of peer pressure if one of your friends is trying it as well (or has done it) also crops up, but keeping it separate from Example 1, in our scenario the climber is trying the route on his own.
He has been climbing the route for a few days and has in that time built up in his head that he can do it. His mistake however is getting too relaxed in thinking that the route will be sent shortly now that he has made a few high points. It is easy to get sucked into a hole of failing endlessly due to nerves if you put too much pressure on yourself to tick the route. A prime example of this is Dani Andrada on “La Rambla” (9a+). He has been trying the route for 15 years and has failed on the penultimate moves endless numbers of times! It might be now that he has developed a mental block on this route due to too much pressure - it will be a very hard wall to push through with 15 years of pressure built in front of him. But imagine the feeling of triumph the day he clips those chains!!!
SUCCESS!!!
Even after a rest day he has built the route into more of an issue than it needs to be and he ends up having a terrible first attempt. This is probably partly due to the fact that he has had a rest day and might be a little rusty on the climb – it is definitely worth warming yourself up a but by dogging the climb and brushing all the holds before your attempt. At least then you are reminding yourself of the moves and giving yourself the best chance at succeeding by brushing the holds and warming up specifically.
Some special tricks I have learned to reduce anxiety for redpoint attempts are:
- Listening to relaxing music
- Visualisation
- Positive Reinforcement
The three above all tie together. Usually I have a playlist of my favourite chill tunes that always get my relaxed and in a flowing state of mind. During my chill out period, I will be visualising the sequence both from an inner and outer view point as well as reinforcing my belief in myself as an individual climber and not as someone who is affected by outside influences such as peers, competitors or spectators.
This won’t work for everybody, but it works for me. Unfortunately it will be up to you to find out what works best, but it is worth experimenting with a few different things until you get one that sticks...
]]>As a climbing coach I am covering the dillema of fear with climbers of all ages and abilities basically every day of the week. There is too much out there to put into one small blog, but at least I can make a start at it.
Falling
The biggest barrier I have found facing 95% of the climbers I coach is the fear of falling. For everyone the challenge to overcome is slightly different, as are the symptoms it causes and the level to which it affects them. In every single example however, fear is holdin them back from achieving their potential...
A fear of falling is something that isn't unnatural to us. In fact, it's very much a natural reaction of our minds to escape the inevitable outcome of death (or pain) when falling from a great height. The difference however, is that if we are attached to a rope, the risks are greatly reduced irrespective of whether the route is a sport climb or traditional. For the purposes of this blog, I am going to be focussing purely on sport or indoor climbing, because that is the area that most of my clients have issues with.
Why then do we struggle to overcome our fears when the risks are lowered to such a degree that really, there is little or no risks involved? This is a question I have been asking myself for years and still have yet to come up with a true solution - the best work I have done towards helping climbers overcome their fears is simply through a lot of personal involvement in their climbing, trying to make them more confident climbers in general.
Climber A has been climbing only for a short while but is improving at a steady and positive rate. He can push himself on top rope fairly hard and even on something as steep as a cave or roof (if it's high), but when it comes to something only slightly overhung or vertical/slab, there is the fear again!
Climber B has been climbing for a fairly long time but goes through phases of being comfortable to push his limits and other times when he just stops and can't go any further...
Climber C is a very accomplished climber who has a long history of developing her climbing for high-end performances on rock, but struggles to push harder on terrain that she has not already climbed on top rope a number of times. And even when she has done this, she might still struggle to push it on lead until she has made it high on the route at least a couple of times on lead before shouting "Take!".
These examples are real-life people I coach or have worked with in the past (they will know who they are if they are reading this).
In each example, there is the element of fear that crops up that is holding them back from pushing themselves when they really need it - so how do they overcome this?
Less steep lead climbingClimber A needs to spend more time on less steep walls - initially dropping the grade they climb and just leading on routes at that angle with a lot of success and no falling. Eventually, introducing a bit more challenge to the sessions by trying something harder is required. When you begin this, it will be a good idea to also start practicing lead falls on the same bit of wall with someone you trust to belay you. Start of taking small repetetive falls with your harness at the clip until you can take bigger falls with your hips just above the clip. Continue like this 2-3 days a week for around a month and you will see big gains in confidence! It's important not to let yourself slip back into fear though, keep up with the fall practice and start attempting routes at a harder level again until you feel that you are capable of pushing it on hard onsights with little fear holding you back... Climber A is going to have average progression as he has only just started climbing.
Climber B is half-way there. He has already shown improvements in his ability to deal with the fear, but it is still holding him back. He needs to keep battling it out and not lose focus of what is most likely the biggest factor holding back his lead climbing performance. Remember that although there may be other aspects of your climbing performance that need work on, your fear of falling is actually driving them back as well whenver you tie onto a rope with the intention of leading something. You climb worse, you over grip, your technique turns to crap, etc... If you are confident and free to give a lead your all, you will improve every other aspect of your climbing for lead so much faster!
Climber C has got stuck in the rut that so many climbers get into. She has been in 
Taking the Lead Fall!this place for a long time now and has no doubt developed her climbing style, tactics and goals based around her fear of falling. For her it is going to be more difficult than anyonelse to overcome and it comes back to the age old question of, "Do you really want to overcome it?". Is it holding her back from what she wants to achieve or is it something that she can get by with forever. In the end of the day, climbing in a way that reduces the chance at failure during a lead climb AKA "A fall", is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does seriously slow down progress and the development of good technique and style. In my opinion, all effort should be bent towards overcoming this over everything else if you find yourself in this situation, because if you do overcome it, you will get so much more enjoyment out of your climbing!
Falling is something everyone eventually is challenged by. It might be the fear of:
- Hurting Yourself
- Being dropped by belayer
- Mistrust in Equipment
- The actual sensation of falling
- The unknown... (The actual fall itself is fine but the moments before are agony)
Whatever it is, you will most likely encounter it at some point in your climbing career, the important thing to remember is not to let it take advantage of you or latch onto you for too long otherwise it can soon become a metaphorical 100kg weight pulling you off the wall!
A recent 8a.nu forum post described the notion that if most 7a climbers climbed with the white hot intensity and fearless confidence of that of a 9a climber, then they would be hitting the 8a mark pretty soon... This isn't a rule nor is it necessarily true of everybody, but I can tell you this... I have yet to coach one person so far who I think couldn't improve their grade at least by a couple of grades with more confidence and ferlessness on the wall...
My good friend and faithful photographer, Will Carroll and I were sitting down to lunch the other day discussing our next photo-shoot when he suggested a new book for me to check out. The book is called "The Talent Code" and is written by Daniel Coyle. I searched on google and came up with the authors website and blog. Intrigued to see what words of wisdom this guy may have imparted, i began to read. Not long into the blog I came across a video of an American football coach discussing his thoughts during a day of coaching with his team whilst in the gym. He says that amongst the team there on the day where a multitude of different levels, at different stages of the athletic ladder i.e. kids in their early teens to those in their early 20's. Now everyone in the group was a good athlete, but some would fall by the wayside whilst other achieved their potential in the sport, but why is this? Many turn to science and quote superior genetics as a major factor, however the coach (Vern Gambetta) stated that the players whose focus was on the session and not elsewhere got the best out of each days training and improved the quickest.
This is something I am very familiar with now having read a number of interesting books about this particular notion of "focussed" practice makes perfect. I am also very aware of this as a coach who coaches kids and adults across a wide range of abilities and personalities.
Gambetta states that there were three main levels of focus you can have towards a training session.
Level 1: Ticking the Box
You basically do the minimum necessary by showing up, doing as your told on your training program and ticking every box as it comes along. A climbing example could be completing 20 problems but choosing only those problems that you either had totally wired or knew you could do with the least amount of effort.
Level 2: Looking for Weaknesses
You show up and do the session but actively look for areas of weakness. You structure your training to better improve these areas in future sessions. A climbing example could be doing the above but actively looking for problems in your circuit that challenge you rather than ones that you find easy.
Level 3: Winning the Session
This is again the next step up in which you do all of the above except give every performance your utmost attention, concentration and effort. You critique everything you do, analysing in depth every performance during your session to get the most out of it. You treat every session as if your goals and ambitions will be fruitless without total dedication to every facet of it. A climbing example would be to route read every route/boulder you climb, attempt each one with the white hot intensity of Adam Ondra's tantrums until you top or fall, analyse every detail of your performance and learn from it as if its teaching you the most important lesson you'll ever learn.
Like Daniel Coyle wrote in his blog, I really like Gambetta's style here. He has listed the type of sessions we have into distinct levels which I can clearly identify with. I'd like to say that I am at level 3 every time, but that just isn't true, however if we can reach this level 70-90% of the time then I think we are on for a winner.
It also highlights the one thing that I tell all my clients, the only way to get better is by "focussed" practice. Without this key "focus" any amount of practice will not make the big differences. Like Gambetta says in his video, anything you do will make you better, however its the way in which you do it that makes you the best!
Check out the video here of Mr Gambetta (Legend!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-EcAjs6nqc&feature=player_embedded]]>
My good friend and faithful photographer, Will Carroll and I were sitting down to lunch the other day discussing our next photo-shoot when he suggested a new book for me to check out. The book is called "The Talent Code" and is written by Daniel Coyle. I searched on google and came up with the authors website and blog. Intrigued to see what words of wisdom this guy may have imparted, i began to read. Not long into the blog I came across a video of an American football coach discussing his thoughts during a day of coaching with his team whilst in the gym. He says that amongst the team there on the day where a multitude of different levels, at different stages of the athletic ladder i.e. kids in their early teens to those in their early 20's. Now everyone in the group was a good athlete, but some would fall by the wayside whilst other achieved their potential in the sport, but why is this? Many turn to science and quote superior genetics as a major factor, however the coach (Vern Gambetta) stated that the players whose focus was on the session and not elsewhere got the best out of each days training and improved the quickest.
This is something I am very familiar with now having read a number of interesting books about this particular notion of "focussed" practice makes perfect. I am also very aware of this as a coach who coaches kids and adults across a wide range of abilities and personalities.
Gambetta states that there were three main levels of focus you can have towards a training session.
Level 1: Ticking the Box
You basically do the minimum necessary by showing up, doing as your told on your training program and ticking every box as it comes along. A climbing example could be completing 20 problems but choosing only those problems that you either had totally wired or knew you could do with the least amount of effort.
Level 2: Looking for Weaknesses
You show up and do the session but actively look for areas of weakness. You structure your training to better improve these areas in future sessions. A climbing example could be doing the above but actively looking for problems in your circuit that challenge you rather than ones that you find easy.
Level 3: Winning the Session
This is again the next step up in which you do all of the above except give every performance your utmost attention, concentration and effort. You critique everything you do, analysing in depth every performance during your session to get the most out of it. You treat every session as if your goals and ambitions will be fruitless without total dedication to every facet of it. A climbing example would be to route read every route/boulder you climb, attempt each one with the white hot intensity of Adam Ondra's tantrums until you top or fall, analyse every detail of your performance and learn from it as if its teaching you the most important lesson you'll ever learn.
Like Daniel Coyle wrote in his blog, I really like Gambetta's style here. He has listed the type of sessions we have into distinct levels which I can clearly identify with. I'd like to say that I am at level 3 every time, but that just isn't true, however if we can reach this level 70-90% of the time then I think we are on for a winner.
It also highlights the one thing that I tell all my clients, the only way to get better is by "focussed" practice. Without this key "focus" any amount of practice will not make the big differences. Like Gambetta says in his video, anything you do will make you better, however its the way in which you do it that makes you the best!
Check out the video here of Mr Gambetta (Legend!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-EcAjs6nqc&feature=player_embedded]]>
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
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
I suppose I am going to have to explain a bit about what i mean with "aggression". I'm talking about the attitude of the climber whilst on the wall. It's very easy to be complacent and not give a climb your best effort, to just let go or not fight to stay on the wall, but if you are like this on a boulder problem you won't get far. On routes it is easier especially if it's an endurance route, but not every route is going to be sustained easy moves to the top. I can tell you from experience, as i used to be that climber who couldn't fight, that you need to start learning to be aggressive to get the best performances.
It's amazing how much more power you can get out of being aggressive. I can't imagine doing any of my hardest climbs without it. Watch all the top athletes and you'll see them using aggression techniques to better their performance. In tennis they are encouraged to scream when they hit the balls for more power (ref: William's Sisters). I have even heard of athletes who would make themselves believe horrible stories about their advisory in order to collect the anger inside to give them power to defeat them. Maybe not a real-life example but the only one I can think of at the moment because I just watched the movie about 10 minutes ago:
William Thatcher from the movie "A Knights Tale" is told by his team that his next match in a game of medieval jousting has looted and pillaged his own people in order to scrape up enough money to pay for entry into the jousting event. This sends Will into a rage and he defeats the opponent (even though it was all a crop of lies).
A climbing example is Adam Ondra, who you will see power screaming his way up every route and boulder. When he fails there is a momentary burst of aggression (probably due to it having been built up on the route), but it certainly does show the passion that goes into sending some of the hardest climbs around.
For those if you who are female climbers, coach female climbers or young girls, it is really important to look into the area of aggressive climbing early on as it's something that girls find very unnatural to do. Boys on the other hand are the complete opposite, you will find it much easier getting them to fight on a climb. My best examples being the team of youth boys training in Edinburgh.
Angus Davidson (12) will fight until he explodes, he can switch on his aggression very easily now becoming almost machine like on the wall leaving only devastation and a trail of bloody finger prints on every hold : P
Sam Harlend-Sendra (10), one of my newest recruits is an absolute beast on the wall showing up everyone when he switches on the animal inside.
Rory Whyte (8), probably the next Sharma, will power scream his way up any boulder problem in Ratho with sheer determination as if his life depended on him matching the final hold!
Obviously, it's apparent that boys in general harbour a more adrenalised nature compared to girls, however, when girls do show this quality, they outshine everybody and will show performances on a climbing wall that you will not believe. You don't see these qualities in girls often, but when I have, it's from world champions and women climbing in the upper echelons of female performance.
In the past few years, I have run a number of sessions specifically on coaching this including one workshop for kids, and the things I have found to work really well for coaching this are:
1. Bouldering
2. Angry Face
3. Group Power Scream Sessions : P
The last two are not jokes. Bouldering is super intense and if you challenge yourself regularly on problems at your limit, you will develop automatically a more aggressive style. The key to this though is making sure you are trying problems that suit an aggressive climbing style I.e. Overhanging and dynamic. I forced myself to venture outwith my usual bouldering scene of EICA: Ratho to climb at the dedicated bouldering wall Alien Rock 2 in the centre of Edinburgh where the problems tend to be more basic in style on steeper boards. In Ratho there are just too many features and vertical panels to learn proper aggressive climbing styles. When I started climbing at A2, I quickly learned to have that aggressive style otherwise I would get totally schooled and fail miserably on everything.
"Angry Face" is something i brought into sessions with the EICA: Ratho Youth Team after watching my friend Eddie Barbour climbing. He looks like he's off on every move but somehow doesn't ever let go... On closer inspection, it appeared that he was gripped out of his mind and so determined to succeed that it overcame any pump or strength issues. His face contorts a bit and creates a kind of angry face : P reading up a bit on how your body language and facial expressions can associate how you feel at a given time, I also learned that they can affect how you feel. So by getting your "angry face" on whilst climbing, you will naturally become more aggressive! It's a fun session to have with a big group of kids, they learn a lot from it but it's also hilarious watching everybody's angry face on the wall.
Group Power Screaming sessions are definitely one of my favourites and can turn into a bit of a nightmare in a smaller wall or church halls that echo, but luckily at Ratho screams just die out in the sheer volume of space, plus people are accustomed to hearing the screams of the public as they take the initial jump of our aerial assault course above the climbing arena. Treat these sessions similarly to the angry face ones, even better, just combine them, make it a bit of a laugh but also stress how it is important to climb aggressively on the wall during hard bouts of climbing. Some kids will pick it up immediately whilst others will struggle, this is where your work as a coach needs to shine through. Take the extra step to watch your kids at the wall even outside of their sessions with you and see if they are making use of these new aggression techniques (as long as they aren't using it against their parents or other kids).
Some climbers aren't into the whole being openly aggressive on the wall, but that doesn't mean that aggression isn't a part of their climbing e.g. Natalie who is generally a very static and quiet climber might look like this on the wall, when actually she is digging deep and in a whole world of rage in her mind to never let go!
The mind of a climber is a complex one indeed, but why complicate things by thinking to much? Just get angry!!!
HULK SMASH!!!!!!
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