Overcoming Fear 💡🚨 Climbing Technique

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One the most reliable strategies I’ve found for overcoming fear in bouldering is through using controlled exposure to eliminate variables.

The goal here is to make it easier to fully commit by giving your brain a fuller picture of what you’re to accomplish. The most common way you’ll see this done in bouldering, is by climbing up to the hold you’re trying to reach, while using holds from another route.

Or - outdoors, this can be done by utilizing a power spot from a friend, stacking pads, or down climbing from another route - based on whatever options nature gives you.

Instead of experiencing the movement with the cumulative stress of the prior moves, this allows you to feel the position your body will be in, feel the size, texture, and shape of the hold, and then make a very calculated decision about if you want to proceed with the move.

I, personally, struggle with lots of fears in climbing - but I’ve found it helpful to be an arbiter of those fears off the wall. Essentially, I try to do all that I can to make sure things are safe - scoping the landing area, visualizing the trajectory of the fall, and feeling the body position of the move.

Once I’ve done all that, I’m ready to ask myself - “Do you really wanna go for this move?” And, for the record, there are problems that I’ve backed off from afterwards.

But most of the time, when you’ve done your mental negotiation from the ground, it frees up your mind to be fully committed when you’re actually on the wall.

Especially indoors, where there’s already so few variables, and so many additional holds on the wall to reach the necessary position, this process can be remarkably effective. Add it to your list of tactics, and you’ll be sending those spooky moves in no time.

#Climbing #RockClimbing #Bouldering