The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

frustrated, angry, say they suck, make excuses about weak forearms, etc.? Observing other climbers’ self-limiting talk helps you eliminate similar habits in yourself.
    Chapter 4, Giving
    1. Giving a Skill
    Setup : Choose a challenging route to climb. Then, identify specifically what will challenge you. Identify what strength, skill, talent, or experience you have that will help you deal with the specific challenge on the route.
    Set the intention : to give the skill you’ve identified as you climb the route. Stay focused on giving that skill to the effort.
    After the climb, reflect on how you felt and how you performed. Did you stay with your intention? Did you stay focused and discover that the climb was possible or not as difficult as previously thought?
    2. Metaphor Focus
    This exercise helps identify how you represent potentially stressful climbing situations to yourself. I’ve modified this exercise from a similar exercise that Anthony Robbins teaches. It begins with a free association, analyzes the results, and then explores a possible new association.
    Three climbing situations that typically cause stress are falling, leading trad, and climbing at one’s limit. (You can substitute another situation if you have one that causes you more stress.) The Metaphor Focus exercise creates metaphors for these situations.
    Begin with the statement, “Falling is …” and then fill in the blank with a word or words that come to mind. When you think of falling, what words come into your head? A possible metaphor might be: “death,” or “failure,” or “flying.” The words you choose are how you metaphorically represent falling to yourself.
    Let’s say you choose “death.” The second part of the exercise asks, “If falling is death, then what does that mean to me?” The last part of the exercise creates a new metaphor. Here’s a template for the exercise:
    Falling is____________________________________.
    Leading trad is________________________________.
    Climbing at my limit is___________________________.
    Now, using the metaphor that you’ve determined above, answer these questions:
    If falling is_________, then what does that mean to me?
    A:_______________________________.
    If leading trad is________, then what does that mean to me?
    A:_______________________________.
    If climbing at my limit is_________, then what does that mean to me?
    A:_______________________________.
    Now, change your metaphors to more empowering ones. What metaphor would be more empowering than the one you used? Clue: use a word or words that focus on learning .
    Falling is____________________________________.
    Leading trad is________________________________.
    Climbing at my limit is___________________________.
    This exercise builds awareness of how you represent stressful situations to yourself. If you represent them as something to avoid, then you will resist engaging them. If you consciously create an empowering metaphor, you will tend to respond in an empowered way.
    3. Imaging the Process
    I’ve noticed that climbers who naturally perform strongly—close to their potential—tend to image the process of a climb rather than the result. They see challenges as being within their ability because they see them made up of processes that are within their ability. For example, a climber wants to climb a 5.11 finger crack that is at his limit. He doesn’t image the destination of doing an on-sight or redpoint, but rather images the components that will lead to an on-sight or redpoint. He images placing pro, doing finger jams, pacing himself, climbing efficiently, etc.—all things he knows how to do. Therefore he images himself rising to the challenge and using his abilities.
    Find a route that will be challenging for you. Look for the components that will be required to climb the route. Image your ability to apply yourself to these components. After practicing this exercise on several routes, you will find that you are aware of many more routes that are possible for you. You’ve probably been walking past these routes year after year, thinking they were beyond your ability.
    Chapter 5, Choices
    1. The Lunge
    This exercise helps develop your ability to commit. The exercise is simple: instead of climbing statically, you’ll practice lunging or leaping for holds. Lunges are particularly committing moves, since if you miss the hold you’re lunging for, or don’t grab it well, then you will fall. You can’t just reach up and feel