The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

wishing behavior. We call this category of power-sappers power leaks .
    The first power leak is ineffective mental habits , things we do automatically with no conscious involvement. Certain habits adversely effect climbing performance. One example is placing too much protection on a trad climb—too much meaning more than is needed to keep you safe and provide reasonable back-up for pieces that might pull out. You might do this even though the effort you expend to place protection causes you to fall.
    Consider the habit of chalking your hands. Some climbers spend so much time nervously chalking their hands that they lose the ability to climb smoothly and continuously. As you become more conscious of your climbing habits you can begin to analyze them and discard the ones that inhibit your performance.
    The second power leak, intertwined with habits, is inner dialogue . Your inner dialogue is the voice inside your head that seems to accompany and advise you when you’re facing a challenge. Most climbers’ inner dialogue, however, is not an effective climbing coach. Instead, its function is to reinforce habits.
    For example, when faced with a difficult move, the voice inside your head might say, “I don’t trust my pro.” You may then react by not pushing yourself to the point of falling. If the pro really is untrustworthy, the voice is legitimate. But too often, the voice derives from a more complex agenda. The details vary, but you may recognize this unhelpful mental game. You react to the voice by placing more pro, thus using up so much energy that you give yourself an excuse for not climbing. You slump onto your gear, claiming (to yourself or your partner) that you got pumped because the pro was so strenuous to place. In fact, you had solid pro at your knee, but you were listening to a habitual inner dialogue. You really did trust your pro, but your Ego wanted to hide an embarrassing fear—the unjustified fear of having to risk an obviously safe fall. Placing unnecessary gear allowed you to get too pumped to move past the pro you had placed, thus eliminating a real leader fall. Your effort, however, was sabotaged.
    A second form of limiting self-talk happens after the climb. It seeks to fossilize your recent behavior into a permanent aspect of your self. We touched on this earlier when we discussed identifying ourselves with our performance. After taking a long time to lead a pitch, it may be accurate to say, “I climbed slowly.” It is a great leap, however, and not a logical one, to say, “I am a slow climber.” As objective observers, we may analyze our climbing performance and conclude, “I gave in, gave up, and let go.” It is incorrect and self-limiting, however, to turn this into an absolute, and say, “I give up when it gets hard.” Yet this is a mistake we often make. A warrior takes responsibility for each time he gives up. To talk as if giving up was a permanent personality trait is simply a power leak.
    Inner dialogue tends to be self-limiting. If you can’t silence it, then you will be a slave to it, doomed to act out those self-limiting thoughts. You will have difficulty learning, since your inner dialogue reinforces your previous state of unconsciousness. Your perception stays fixed in its original position, unaware of any options. When you diminish inner dialogue you become silent, and possibilities open up. Switching off that nagging inner voice takes time and practice, and we’ll return to it later. The first step in the process is simply to become conscious of your limiting self-talk.
    The third power leak is reacting —emotionally and rigidly—to an unwanted event. You react when you receive an outcome different than what you wanted or expected. Let’s say you didn’t want to fall off a climb, but you did. You react by becoming angry and kicking the rock. Why? Chances are, you don’t know why you’re upset. You are reacting unconsciously to a scenario of self-worth set up by an external Ego orientation. The Ego surrounds itself with external rules such as “falling is failing,” or “5.10 should be easy.” If your Ego is in control of the situation, you will react when these externals are threatened. The Ego’s security and identity is threatened, so you become defensive and react.
    The key to stopping reacting behavior is awareness. You can practice awareness on the rock or at home. Personally, I have a greater tendency to react, to get offended or defensive, when