The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

you can stay on for a dozen moves or more while becoming increasingly pumped. You’ll need a partner, and a pointer such as a broomstick. Get on the wall, and have your partner point to the next handhold for you to grab or foothold to step on. Let your partner direct you to climb up, to stop, to climb down, go sideways, or climb in any manner that will keep you uncertain of what will happen next. Your partner should be able to notice when you are getting pumped so he can direct you to a rest or to larger handholds to recover. Then he can direct you to climb again. Continue the exercise until you fall off. When someone else directs your climbing, the destination is taken away. You have no choice but to focus on the journey, be in the moment, and find efficient ways to move.
    Set the intention : to listen to who is directing your climbing and to climb efficiently.
    Putting It All Together The Rock Warrior’s Way Approach
    When you put all of your warrior skills together, you create a style for taking risks. A “risk” in climbing is a single-effort event that may be an entire climb, but often is only part of a climb. It’s effective to envision a risk as the distance you need to climb before you’ll get a chance for a new preparation phase. For a sustained sport-climbing redpoint, this may be the entire climb. On a sport climbing on-sight, the risk may be to climb to the next bolt or to a rest. A trad-climbing risk might be the distance from your current stance to the next rest. Find routes that will challenge you and that have a certain level of unknown.
    Set the intention : to apply the complete Rock Warrior’s Way approach, as outlined below.
    Preparation Phase
    1. Observe leaks of attention . From the Witness position observe if you are leaking attention into phantom fear or what others will think of your performance, etc.
    2. Center yourself by doing a strong exhalation, shaking your face to remove any grimace, checking your posture by bringing your hips in close to the rock, and then breathing calmly. Talk to yourself by saying, “Calm down, breathe, shake out, regain,” etc.
    3. Accept the consequences . Discover the details about the risk you’re facing. Look up to see where the risk will end—the next pro or rest. Where will you end up if you fall? In this stage, dispel all illusions and accept the situation as it is. This is not the time to say “yes” to the risk. Simply accept exactly what it is that you’re considering, both the effort and the fall consequence.
    4. Focus on possibilities and what you can do to climb through the risk. For on-sighting: Think of general possibilities, such as the types of holds and sequences. For redpoints: You already know the sequence, so create an image that the climbing is possible for you.
    Transition Phase
    5. Commit to taking the risk or not. There are only two possible outcomes: you climb through or you fall. You assessed the fall consequence in step three, which means you no longer wish the consequence to be different or less severe. In Choices, you weigh the fall consequence against your experience of responding to those consequences. Now, decide whether or not to take the risk. If you can accept both outcomes, and you choose to take the risk, then you are ready to transition to the action phase. Set the intention : to commit forward to climbing. Don’t go before you are ready, but when you go, go!
    Action Phase
    6. Trust in the process by climbing and breathing continuously. By climbing this way you maintain your momentum. You are in the risk now, focusing forward 100-percent. Your conscious mind, however, will try to pull you back into the comfort zone. Expect your conscious mind to create “comfort” thoughts and realize they are not true representations of your ability. Remind yourself to stay with your intention to commit forward to climbing.
    7. Keep attention in the moment by looking for comfort in the risk rather than at some destination. Don’t let your attention stray to the top of the climb, to the next rest, or to your last pro. You’ll either get there or you won’t. Find comfort in the chaos by staying balanced, relaxing your grip, and pacing yourself well. Relish the journey.
PREPARATION PHASE
1. Observe yourself from the Witness position.
2. Center yourself with a strong exhalation, shake your face, position body positively, and talk to yourself.
3. Look up for the next pro placement. Look down to check out the fall consequence.