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

fear.
     
     
     
     
    Fear

     

     
    Assessment
     

    Dealing with fear is an ongoing process since our fears are always changing. Review each poor performance and identify what fear(s) may have contributed to your difficulties. To help you with this analysis, here’s a primer on four basic climbing fears: fear of falling, fear of pain, fear of failure, and fear of embarrassment.

Fear of Falling
     
    Fear of falling is inherent to climbing. Interestingly enough, it’s not really falling that we fear but not knowing what the fall will be like. This explains why your first fall on a route is the scariest, while subsequent falls are often much less stressful. Beginners probably need some hands-on proof that falls can be safe. The best way for a would-be leader to gain trust in the system is by taking some intentional falls. Find a steep climb with bomber protection, use a good rope (and double-check your knot and buckle) and belayer, and then take a few practice falls. Start off with 2-foot falls and build up to about 12-footers (with the gear just a few feet below you). A more experienced climber fearful of falling on an upcoming on-sight climb can counter the fear during the preclimb warm-up. The tactic here is to mentally replay some past inconsequential falls and to believe fully that falls on this climb will be no different (if that is indeed the case—some falls are obviously deadly, and only a fool would ignore that possibility).

Fear of Pain
     
    When pushing your limits, fear of pain can become a critical weakness. It causes you to give up long before your body has reached its physical limitations. The pain of climbing a continuously strenuous route is akin to that of running a mile at full speed—it freaking hurts! Fortunately, the pain is brief and perseverance pays big dividends. Decide to push yourself a bit further into the discomfort zone each time you’re on a hard route. Soon your pain threshold will be redefined, as will your limits on the rock.

Fear of Failure
     
    This deep-seated fear is often instilled during childhood when almost every action is classified by our family, teachers, and friends as either a success or a failure. We’ve all had childhood situations where the fear of failure was so gripping that we became immobilized and time seemed to stop. Fortunately, adults generally don’t react quite this intensely, but it’s still common for us to imagine all the bad things that could possibly go wrong. Once triggered, these negative thoughts can snowball and, more often than not, become self-fulfilling prophecies.
    In climbing, fear of failure causes you to hold back. As your attack on a route becomes less aggressive than required, you’ll find yourself second-guessing sequences in the midst of doing them, your breathing will become shallow, and you’ll begin to overgrip the rock. You may even fall prey to paralysis by analysis.
    Eliminate fear of failure in one of three ways. First, focus on what is probable instead of what is possible. Sure, it’s human nature to always consider the worst-case scenario, but this almost never comes to pass. Counter these thoughts by considering what is probable and realistic based on past experiences.
    The second way to nix this fear is to focus all your attention on the process of climbing, instead of pondering the possible outcomes. Concentrate on the things immediate to your performance—precise foot placements, relaxing your grip, moving quickly onto the next rest position, and so on. Your limited supply of energy is too valuable to waste worrying about how high you will climb or the eventual results. As William Levinson points out in his book The Way of Strategy, “To succeed, we must not care if we fail.”
    Along this same line, you must adopt the attitude that It’s okay to fall (assuming a safe fall) and that Falling won’t bother me. I’ll just get back up and give it another go. By willingly accepting this fate (if it should even happen), you totally dissolve the fear of failure that handcuffs so many climbers. Therefore, by being okay with falling, it’s less likely you will. This simple idea is one of the most powerful in this book.

Fear of Embarrassment
     
    Finally, there is fear of embarrassment and being dissed. Get over this now or you’ll never fully enjoy climbing, or reach your potential. Realize that occasional bad-performance days are inevitable. Instead of trying to avoid them, simply accept that they happen,