Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

day. For example, pondering past failures, allowing free rein to demeaning self-talk, or dwelling on the chance of falling will deflate self-confidence and sow the seeds of failure.
    Conversely, peak performers consciously narrow their thoughts and focus onto things that will fortify and build confidence. You, too, can do this as you prepare for an ascent, by taking a mental inventory of past successes, reviewing and believing in your skills and strengths, and acknowledging your preparation and investment in training. Do all this and you will grow more energized and confident as you engage the rock, and most likely climb your very best.

6. Use visualization to foster a peak performance zone.
     
    “The zone” is that state where everything comes together for a perfect ascent that seems almost effortless and automatic. The trick is being able to create this state on demand, despite stressful conditions such as the heat of competition or before a hard redpoint attempt. Here’s how.
    First, use visualization to reenact the positive feelings of a good performance in a past similar situation. Create about a sixty-second mental movie of this past event using all your senses. Make the pictures crisp and bright, and let the emotion and feeling of the success take over your body. With the positive, confident emotions of this past event now internalized for use in the present, you can begin mental rehearsal of the upcoming climb. Begin by visualizing yourself climbing the route from a detached on-TV perspective—it’s in this mode of visualization that you’d develop a sequence and strategy for the ascent. Next, close your eyes and climb the route in your mind’s eye—feel the moves play out successfully to create a mental blueprint for action (you’ll find more detailed instruction on visualization later in this chapter). Now open your eyes and take on the route for real, one move at a time.

7. Use preclimb rituals to create an ideal performance state.
     
    The things you think and do in the minutes and moments before you climb form the foundation onto which your performance is built. A shaky foundation generally leads to a shaky performance; a solid foundation usually gives birth to a solid performance. The nature of your foundation (sand or stone?) is influenced by the quality of your preclimb rituals. These are things you do to best prepare for the ascent, including scoping the route, visualizing the sequence, preparing your gear, warming up, and even your way of putting on your shoes. Everything down to tiny details, such as breathing rate, posture, and final thoughts, should be programmed into the rituals that lead up to the moment you step onto the rock.
    Develop your rituals based on past experience. What things did you think or do before some of your best ascents in the past? What did you eat or drink, how did you warm up, and how long did you rest between climbs? Awareness of all the things (little and big) that led up to your best performances is a key to being able to reproduce similar results in the future. Once your rituals become tried and true, stick to them!

8. Control stress and tension before they control you.
     
    This strategy is central to climbing your best, because tension kills performance. Period. Tension is often a physical manifestation of mental stress, although it can also develop in overstressed muscles or as the result of an inadequate warm-up. Either way, the outcome is the same—poor motor control (inefficient movement), unproductive emotions, and quite often failure. Here are two ways to control tension and stress on the fly. First, direct your thinking away from pressure-producing thoughts and focus only on the process of climbing. Engage the route completely and stay in the moment. Second, use rest positions to break from the process of climbing and direct your thoughts inward for a tension check. Use the six-step ANSWER sequence (described later in this chapter) to clear tension and return to center in less than one minute—perfect for use at every midroute rest position.

9. Engage in positive self-talk.
     
    Inside our heads, each of us has a “critic” voice and a “doer” voice that gab throughout our waking hours. While the critic voice can be useful in a few situations (such as evaluating weaknesses or performance errors), it’s the doer voice that compels action, keeps us positive, and, in fact, helps us perform effectively. Controlling this internal self-talk is