The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

attention. Know when it’s time to back down and get off the route.
    Chapter 6, Listening
    1. Liar, Liar
    Many climbers “decide” to fall when they are convinced by their conscious mind that they can’t continue climbing. Basically, they don’t give 100-percent; they give up. We tend to give up when our discomfort becomes “too much to bear.” Seeking comfort, our conscious minds lie to us, and decide for us to fall.
    Setup : Find a route that will be challenging for you, either an unknown route at or above your maximum current on-sight grade, or a redpoint project you are working on. It’s best to do this exercise on lead rather than on toprope. Make sure the route has fall consequences that you have some experience with; you will very likely be falling so you want to minimize the chance of injury.
    Set the intention : Instead of “deciding” to fall, intend to climb until you fall. In other words, if your conscious mind is convinced that you are about to fall, continue climbing anyway. Do the next move instead of “deciding” to fall. Focus all your attention on that next move—and the one after that if you find yourself still on the rock—and don’t let your attention be distracted by the lies of your conscious mind.
    As you enter the risk zone, a crux of some sort, expect your conscious mind to create “comfort” thoughts. Examples include: “I’m too pumped to continue,” “The hold is too small for me to pull on,” “The fall is too scary,” “I need to grab the draw,” or “I had better down-climb and rest on the bolt.” Recognize that these thoughts are not true representations of whether or not you can continue climbing. When you are in the risk zone, acting out the risk, the conscious mind is a liar. It will try to pull you back into its realm: the comfort zone. Recognize “comfort” thoughts and remind yourself of your intention: to commit forward into the climbing.
    By making the next move anyway you stay with your intention to climb and therefore make your intention more unbending. Doing this will help you break through the mental barriers of the conscious mind.
    2. Continuous Climbing
    This is an intuitive climbing exercise. By setting your intention on constantly moving your arms and legs, you’ll be forced to respond to intuitive signals and disengage from conscious thinking.
    Setup : Choose a route that is easy for you. Climb on toprope, to keep your task as simple as possible.
    Set the intention : to climb with continuous movement without stopping to rest or think. Climbing rapidly will help you minimize conscious thought, but keep your focus on continuous movement rather than speed. When you can do this exercise on easy routes, move on to harder routes until you are able to climb continuously near or at your limit.
    You can do many variations of this basic exercise.
    A) In the gym, find an area that has numerous holds and climb continuously and rapidly within a ten- or fifteen-foot circle. Moving one limb at a time, begin climbing up, down, sideways, and around in small circles.
    B) Do the exercise while leading sport climbs. Move continuously, whether climbing, placing draws, or clipping the rope. Integrate your movements, perhaps placing a draw with one hand, climbing up a move, and then clipping the rope with the other hand.
    C) Do the exercise on trad leads that are easy for you. Incorporate the movements of placing protection into your continuous movement. Integrate the climbing moves and the placing of protection moves, for example holding on with your right hand to remove a piece of gear from your rack and place it, then moving up to a higher left handhold to slip a runner off your right shoulder. Continuous movement doesn’t mean you should mindlessly “plug and chug.” If a protection piece doesn’t fit well, remove it and place a quality piece. Simply concentrate on making motions continuously rather than stalling out and thinking too much. Once you master this skill on easy routes, move on to harder trad leads, making sure you safeguard your effort by focusing attention on setting quality placements.
    3. The Eyes Have It
    This exercise is a spin-off of Continuous Climbing and is designed to increase your awareness of your body’s intuitive knowledge of how to move without your conscious involvement. It helps show that the conscious mind doesn’t have to think everything through in order for you to climb well.
    Setup : Pick a route that is easy for