I’m too scared for climbing

This week I discuss my difficult journey with fear and how it affects my climbing. I've developed a few methods that have had a noticeable improvement on my anxiety particularly when lead climbing, although some of these techniques help me when I am bouldering too. Hopefully these can be of use to you also.

Filmed by:
James Peart
@Kim_Norrie

Thumbnail:
@Kim_Norrie

Edited by:
Mike Boyd

[denislejeune]

Personally, what did it a lot for me was projecting, getting so obsessed with a route, a series of moves, that I stopped thinking about the falling. Of course I knew that no fall would be dangerous anywhere on those projects, which helped.

[federicograziani]

22:13 That "it's okay" makes all the difference in the world. It happened to me to climb with people that were more experienced than me, and with them it was not "okay" to be scared. You just had to grind your teeth and push through. To them being scared was something to be annihilated, not embraced. Remember guys to have supporting mates around, climbing can be really harsh on your mind!

[alexrichard]

“Can fall anywhere” is definitely true for the gym, and I’d say many routes above 10c-11a outdoors. But most 5.10b and below I’ve run into outdoors, I really don’t want to fall on many of the bolts due to ledges or just overall runout bolting of “easy” routes.

Kind of a cruel irony for new outdoor sport climbers, haha.

[drewcarter]

Here's something that worked for me. I noticed that I was often afraid of taking the same size fall leading as I would from a boulder, but the latter was never a concern. Why? Because landing on a mat is a controlled variable - you become used to the distance you are going to fall, what you are landing on, and consequently how to arrange your body and feet in a split second. Leading does not have this known factor, as the distance you'll fall is dependant on how far above the bolt you are. I was often scared even to let go and fall of my own volition, preferring for it to take me by surprise so I wouldn't have to think about it. So, to make the fall a more predictable experience I practiced climbing above the bolt, just a little bit, and estimating where my feet would hit the wall, and visualising how and where I would land. What I discovered is that I was always way off - totally underestimating or overestimating how and where I would come to a stop. After only a session's practice I was able to already dial in this uncontrolled element, and I was soon taking big, controlled falls with almost no fear. It was suddenly like a rope swing! I think that this falling awareness aspect is something very young climbers intuitively understand. It's worth trying if you find falling scary - just repeatedly take deliberate falls with all the concentration just beforehand on where your feet will land, and how it will feel, and where your body will be. See how far off you were and then take another from the same height with the new knowledge in mind. It will feel completely different, and over time you'll get better at estimating!

[Egg.]

I love your climbing content and how while you're publishing videos on climbing, you aren't currently another 'Magnus Midtbø' 9a level climber.
It makes your content much more relatable for me! xD

[durabelle]

Your observations on reducing fear are spot on! I work with fears a lot as an animal trainer, and there's so much incredibly harmful "fall practise" happening on that field too. People think they're doing desensitisation, but end up just sensitising their animals even more to whatever they were afraid of.

Desensitisation as a method works, but only if it's done correctly. Barely stepping out of the comfort zone for a short time, then returning before the fear has a chance to grow. It takes lots of succesful repetition over time, done in relatively short sessions to avoid trigger stacking. (Trigger stacking basically means exposure to multiple scary triggers at the same time or in quick succession without an adequate recovery time, so the overall stress level keeps growing. Physiologically it means stress hormone levels rising higher and higher, since it takes time to get rid of them. Hence even smaller things suddenly feel too much.)

Pure exposure to prove that something is safe can only work if the individual doesn't get a bad experience. Nobody else can decide what counts as a bad experience for you. If you try a method and it makes the fear worse, it means it was an overall bad experience, even if you didn't crash to the floor or physically hurt yourself. For someone else the exactly same thing might be perfectly fine, or even fun.

[leograndmusicandsound]

One thing I'd like to point out, that really helped me, is forgetting about the grade. I noticed in this video you put a really big emphasis on 7a being your limit. This can be good to know what grades to try but when your climbing this can hold you back. I used to always have the thoughts "oh this is my project grade so i know Im going to fall" or "I cant climb that its above anything ive done before". About a year ago i really worked on it and without really gaining any more strength i shot up in what i could climb because i was able to relax a lot more.

What i do now is try to fall in love with moves. I look at a climb, asses the moves, and look for areas or parts of a climb that are fun and exciting and try to think "ooo id love to try that move up there". This reminds me of your bouldering video where u started projecting and you shifted your mindset and you were able to climb so much harder. I think the same thing can be applied to sport climbiing. Grade chasing is one thing but letting a grade hold you back due to fear of difficulty is also just as valid and totally possible

[ryanbauer]

Something that hurts to think about mentally is that clipping from the intended clipping position tends to be safer. When you are clipping from below the bolt, you have even more slack out than normal, and the holds/positions that you are on tend to be worse. It's hard to train on harder routes, but making sure to do this on easier climbs helped me a lot. Also saves more energy, so you can save more!!

[Andreastheduck]

your climbing has gotten so much better, keep it up!

[dandantrash]

I was shouting 'Feet!' at the screen every time you got out of your comfort zone! You would really flail with your feet most times before taking a fall, then as your confidence of the route grew, you would move your feet just fine at the same point on the route. Something that helped me was when I felt near my limit, instead of looking for the next hand hold, look to your feet instead. I have saved myself from falling by finding a better foot position so many times!

[khx-xh]

For me best way to get over fear of falling was while warming up on an easy lead, belayer shouts up 'Fall!' - when we started did absolutely mini falls, gradually make it more and more every session so that it's never bad (and because you are (meant to) fall off straight away, don't have the same issues with shouting down and thinking about falling for 20s), do it as part of the warmup, becomes no big deal pretty quick

[Ben_the_real_one]

Guys please clip between shoulder and waist height not at Maximum reach

[Patrick-szsn]

bored as fuck been scrolling youtube for 5 minutes finding nothing, this pops up from 30 seconds ago, the heavens answered

[devonm]

Hangdogging is brilliant. Honestly it's the best way to gain exposure and really learn a route.
Mike, I'd recommend trying to 2nd go a route like the one in the video after a thorough hangdog mission, like you did here. But with another bit of key tactics I use for 2nd go attempts: Climb the crux sections again while being lowered, Have your belayer stop in a handful of places on the way down so you can find the rest positions, look for efficiencies that will save you energy - i.e. anything that might give you trouble on the way up. It requires a patient belayer for sure, but I think is an excellent use of time and tactics. That way, when I pull on for the 2nd go off the ground, I've got as much information as I possibly could retain and a better plan than if I didn't do the extra rehearsals on the lower.

[Neym]

Omg that green 7a looks like such a dream, what a nice route 😍

[Mike-ozcv]

Regarding pre-clipping the first 3 quickdraws: In most indoor routes you don’t have to do any risky clips for the first 3 or 4 quickdraws (unless the route is way above your skill level). As long as you are focused it’s highly unlikely you’ll fall. Indoors they also intentionally place the quickdraws below 5m much closer together.

[grantroesner]

Yo Mike, been watching you sense I was a kiddo and you came out with some Rubik’s cube video. Loved your mindset and followed you sense. Love to see you working the climbing mindsets as I remembered you when I had to develop mine. Trust your gear and send man!

[arnaudlemay]

Totally agree about your point on fall pratice. I find that throwing for a move and letting go is so much more valuable than letting go which just feels so unnatural and scary.

[stefanofalero]

some things ive changed to make flaking/prepping my rope easier: coil the rope with one strand instead of pairs of strands to avoid tangling later (it appears the pairing technique was used because of how the bights pair up); when using a rope tarp, avoid coiling and roll the tarp more often, like a tight crêpe so to avoid the rope flowing over itself; in the gym use a big open tote bag, like an ikea bag and its ready to go, rarely ever needing to be flaked.

[leorizzi]

Nice mentality here: "Yes, it takes away from the pure send, but I don't care." And you shouldn't. Setting the right priorities 👌 4:35