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

analyzing risk, visualizing the ascent, preparing your gear, putting on your shoes, and tying in to the rope. Use this same ritual before every climb and you will consistently create a high level of focus.
    3. Use the Pinpointing Your Focus exercise (page 46) as your final task before beginning up the route.
    4. Strive for process-oriented thought, and avoid dwelling on past outcomes or what’s ahead. Stay in the moment.
    5. If you discover that your focus is scattered, simply acknowledge this and redirect your attention to the move or action at hand. Consider using the Pinpointing Your Focus exercise again.
     
     
    Experiment with different rituals and analyze what seems to work best. An effective preclimb ritual doesn’t need to be extravagant or long. In fact, a short, concise ritual that quickly gets you prepared and focused to climb is best. Upon developing a ritual that works, stick to it!

Mental Wings Strategies to Enhance Problem Solving and Learning
     
    I conclude this chapter with six mental strategies to enhance your skills at problem solving and learning of a difficult sequence or complex route. Being able to quickly decipher perplexing cruxes while conserving mental and physical energy is a master skill. Learn to utilize these skills effectively and you’re on your way to becoming a grand master at flashing.

1. Focus on problem solving, not performance.
     
    One thing I love about working a hard boulder problem or project route is the challenge of studying a complex problem and gradually seeing a beautiful, unique sequence take form. Just like piecing together a puzzle when you were a kid, you can best solve a rock puzzle by remaining focused on the task and having fun regardless of how the long the puzzle takes to complete.
    For instance, when working a boulder problem or crux sequence, ponder the beauty of this rock puzzle and feel the joy of being engaged in this challenging process. This disposition will shift you out of the must-not-fail mind-set of frustration and help turn your focus away from the problem and onto finding a solution. Remember, the brain naturally magnifies whatever you focus on. Obviously you want to magnify the possible solution, not the problem, so always be solution oriented.

2. Relax and remain positive.
     
    Both problem solving and motor learning occur most rapidly in a stress- and anxiety-free state. Therefore, controlling tension through deep breathing, positive visualization, and remaining process-oriented is crucial for accelerating these processes.
    It’s also fundamental that you eliminate thoughts of need to flash the route or have to redpoint the climb this attempt —these are both positions that work against you. By entertaining such needs, you create stress and anxiety that may prevent the very thing you desire. Instead, acknowledge that falling is part of the learning process and accept each fall as providing a clue for success—so don’t ignore it! Predetermine that you will accept a fall (and find the clue) if it happens and believe completely that success will come with creativity, effort, and patience. In doing so, you create the optimal state for learning and succeeding most quickly.

3. Chunk down the route.
     
    Chunking down a long, hard route into a series of short problems makes the climb less overwhelming and easier to learn. Furthermore, these short problems or chunks can each be viewed as a short-term goal to be reached or accomplished. So, while you may fail for several days on the project as a whole, you will experience short-term success as you solve each of the individual chunks. This sense of success helps keep you energized, positive, and on track to eventually succeeding on the route.
    When working through the individual chunks, avoid becoming obsessed on any one of them. Beating yourself up on, say, the second chunk of a six-chunk route is self-defeating: Even if you eventually solve this chunk, you’ll be too mentally and physically wasted to put in meaningful work on the others. Therefore, it’s best to move on to working the next chunk upon the onset of frustration or any judgmental self-talk, such as I can’t do this or I’ll never figure this out . If allowed to burrow into your subconscious, such judgments form the basis for reality. You are much better off solving the rest of the route before returning to the problem section.
    Long-term achievement of a formidable goal (where short-term failures are inevitable) demands