The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

adventurous, then we climb better than if we feel weak, clumsy, and meek. Climbing hard—and “hard” is always relative—involves making moves that feel improbable, and continuing when the situation seems nearly hopeless. If you have a low opinion of yourself, you will have difficulty imagining yourself doing the unlikely things necessary to make it through your climb. If you can’t imagine yourself doing these things, you won’t do them. You absolutely must have an image of yourself as one who is capable of pulling it off. All the training in the world will have minimal benefit to you if you don’t give yourself room to believe .
    Unfortunately, you can’t simply improve your self-image on a whim. You need to uncover the roots of your self-image and value system and reshape the hidden structure holding you back. Fortunately, this detective work doesn’t require an advance degree in psychology. The typical person’s self-image suffers partly from its attachment to past performances, which anchor us more than they need to, and partly from an externally derived sense of self-worth, which poisons motivation.
    Mentally speaking, past performance should function as a platform from which to move ahead, not as a limit on what we might accomplish. The strength of our arms and fingers is the most noticeable factor that affects climbing performance, but we put far too much stock in it. Some people climb at a standard far above ours with far less strength. When a climber runs out of strength, it’s usually because of the strength he’s wasted, not from an essential lack.
    Think about your best performances. Chances are the essential difference between these and others was something in your mind—a mysterious, unexplained confidence, or a feeling of joy from being in an inspiring setting. Your outstanding performance probably was in some essential way simpler than your normal performances. You had less clutter in your mind, better focus, and fewer cares. This is typical. Performance is most easily improved not by adding things, but by removing obstacles. Maybe the difference was an ironic but common one. You felt a complete lack of performance anxiety specifically because you were out of shape and had no stressful expectations to cloud your efforts. Think of a time when your mental state made all the difference, and use that as a proof and reminder that on any given day, you can exceed your past performances without being physically stronger.
    Our self-image shapes our day-to-day performances, dulling them down to what we consider “normal.” This concept of normal is essentially a habit. The most significant factor that differentiate top climbers from the rest of us is their habitual sense of “normal” performance is extraordinarily high. They may approach a 5.12 or 5.13 climb with the conviction that they will not find it difficult. This mindset, this self-image, goes a long way in creating that reality. The expert expects to find a way to climb through the hard sections so he quickly homes in on that way. He expects to be able to rest, and he finds rest positions. We, on the other hand, home in on the difficulties, the obstacles, and the certainty that we will become exhausted. The expert knows there may be difficult moves, but is confident he will find a way, and that he has enough reserve for a climb of this difficulty. We balk at the hard moves because we fear we won’t make it unless we do them exactly right. We fear the moves will exhaust our reserves, and we won’t be able to cope with what follows. These are mental habits produced by our image of our abilities. This image, not our lack of strength or technique, is our most limiting factor.
    Part of Becoming Conscious is to recognize that our self-image is not an objective description of our selves or our immediate capability. We can experiment with new attitudes, new self-images. We’ve experienced the expert’s mindset, even though we may have only mustered it for a climb rated 5.2. Our performances are constantly being sabotaged because we cling to a self-limiting self-image based on past performance. If you can fully embrace the new belief that your mind, not some external factor, is limiting you, then you open up powerful possibilities. You begin to hoist the anchor of your past performances.
    Habitual self-image is one limiting factor you can work on. Working on self-image involves redefining yourself. Another limiting factor is self-worth.