The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

brood, and feel sorry for yourself. Throughout this process, you are draining away power.
    You would be better served by an active mindset, where you claim control over as much of the situation as possible. You chose to play basketball, and you got injured. Those are the facts. Wishing that you weren’t injured doesn’t help. Blaming the uneven basketball court or your co-workers simply drains away attention that you might otherwise direct toward a tangible benefit, such as analyzing mistakes in your lay-up technique, or choice of footwear, and seeking out an aggressive rehab program.
    Even if your injury is more serious and the cause further out of your control, a position of choice and power is still available to you. Maybe you were blindsided by a drunk driver. Choosing not to accept responsibility for your situation keeps your attention focused on blaming and wishing, rendering you passive and impotent. Your attention is spent on things that can’t be changed, making that attention unavailable to work through your rehabilitation. The well-known climbers Eric Weihenmayer, who is blind, and Mark Wellman, who is paraplegic, are excellent counter-examples to the passive, blaming, wishing mindset. They have chosen to see their “misfortunes” as challenges which allow them to gain a fantastic sense of learning and accomplishment. They have gained far more in personal power than they ever lost through their physical setbacks.
    Many years ago when I lived in Wyoming and climbed frequently in Fremont Canyon, I had an interesting experience concerning the power of accepting a situation as it is. Steve Petro and I were working on making the second ascent of a crack route called Morning Sickness . The first ascent had been snatched away from us locals by Mark Wilford and Skip Guerin, two talented climbers who had visited from Colorado in 1983. Steve and I were eager to do the second ascent to see if we could match the skills of the visitors.
    The route was quite difficult and started about ten feet above the water of the North Platte River. It began with a five-foot roof and then continued vertically to the top. Surmounting the roof required a reach past the roof to a shallow jam. I could just barely make the reach, and moving on from there repeatedly thwarted me. Steve, being two inches shorter than me, had even more trouble reaching the jam. In fact, he kept complaining about being too short to make the reach. We worked on the route on several visits, and each time Steve would complain about being too short.
    Finally I got sick of his excuses, and more out of annoyance than warrior wisdom, I told him to quit complaining and accept how tall he was. I told him he wasn’t going to grow any taller and the roof wasn’t going to get any shorter. The next time we went to the route, we both made it. Years later he told me I had really shocked him by what I had said. My remarks woke him up to his shirking-responsibility behavior and allowed him to accept the situation as it was. When he quit wasting attention on complaining and focused directly on the challenge, his whole approach changed. He quickly figured out exactly what rock features were available to work with and applied himself fully to using those as best he could—which was all it took.
    Top-level performances occur when this sort of reality check is in effect. Sometimes our climbing seems effortless and we climb with great focus; other times we may struggle and whine. We finally get mad at ourselves, drop our excuses, and improve our focus in that reactive sort of way. The anger that comes with that approach, however, is extra baggage. The art is to maintain a calm and empowered attitude when a challenge requires time and/or effort. Lynn Hill summed up her attitude nicely in her video about her first free ascent of The Nose of El Capitan and the prolonged and intense training program she was engaged in. She made several epic attempts on the route, each of which was very costly in time and effort: “Throughout the months of preparation, I practiced an attitude of acceptance. No matter what the situation, I made an effort to remain patient and relaxed each step of the way.”

    Climbing in front of a crowd can give you insight into your inner motivations. Are you afraid? Driven to impress others? Analyze your feelings and learn to climb for yourself, alone or in the spotlight! Photo: Andrew Kornylak
    Shirking and Accepting
    The two worst enemies of Accepting