The Mental Game

The Mental Game

Posted October 13, 2009 at 8:30 am · Comments { 9 } ·

Will Gadd had a series of posts recently where he shared a handful of random training thoughts, most of which espouse the benefits of actually doing an activity (i.e. climbing) rather than simply training for it. I found the discussion on the physical side of things interesting, but it was his latest post about mental fitness that really got me thinking. Here is how Gadd framed the subject:

Nobody wants to think about mental fitness. It’s a lot easier to keep track of physical improvement than mental improvement. To become stronger mentally you have to look inside yourself and realize that, even if you can do a one-arm pullup with an engine block in the other hand, the ultimate limiting factor is your head And most people are simply too weak mentally to actually get stronger mentally. For many people the area between their ears is completely dark, off-limits and filled with soul-twisting demons that just can’t be faced much less slain. But, unless you know how to hit your ideal mental performance state, all your training is quite literally a waste whether your competing at a world-cup level or trying to set a PR of some kind.

For me, the mental aspect of climbing is a paradoxical game. On the one had, the longer I climb the more I feel like my experience helps me get up climbs I don’t feel physically prepared for. I can take months off for my latest injury and return to climbing near my previous limits in fairly short order. I attribute this partly to improved technique, but I mostly attribute it to a mental confidence that I know I should be able to climb something that was within my previous limits, so I just do.

On the other hand, when trying something at my limit I’ve always had a difficult time breaking through the mental ceiling of doubts; doubts about whether or not I have the strength, stamina, time, skin, etc. to do whatever it is I’m trying. These are aspects of climbing that all climbers deal with, but in the almost 10 years I’ve been climbing I don’t think I’ve ever sent something unless I was able to do it within a handful of tries. It seems that the longer I try something the harder it gets, at least from a mental standpoint. Other climbers seem to thrive in these situations, but I certainly do not. There are a lot of reasons for this beyond simple mental hurdles (like the fact that most of my projects are 8-12+ hours away), but I need to figure out a way to use the mental confidence I have on easier problems when climbing at my limit. Some day soon perhaps…

What about you, are you the type of climber that can try something 40 times in a day and still send or are you more like me? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Mental Fitness?

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Check out the rest of Gadd’s post for a few “key ideas in good mental training regimes”.

Posted In: From The Narc

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  • http://outdoorhabit.blogspot.com Doug Lipinski

    I’m definitely in the same boat as you. I’ve very rarely stuck it out for a long term project. Maybe I just have too short of an attention span and get distracted by other things or maybe I just get frustrated because the moves feel impossible.

    I think this is one of the biggest differences between the average (or above average) climber and those who climb at a world class level. I think Will is right when he says building mental strength requires mental strength. In the end, I think it just comes down to REALLY trying hard on everything you get on, much easier said than done.

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  • Joey Jimenez

    well said, building mental strength requires mental strength.

    There’s certainly a lot of room to travel within the comment made about physical experience (with regards to learned / acquired technique) and “knowing” you should be able to climb at a certain level or number grade. Agreed. There is both a physical confidence (able to do) and a mental confidence (know that I can do) developed from time invested training. Word.

    I do like Gadd’s statement above about the dark space living between most of our ears, that I believe, is one of the most significant (if not the most) significant contributing factor to our ability to climb at a higher level. A good friend recently told me, “if you want to slay dragons (in my case, a difficult route), you have to hang out with dragon slayers”. My environment effects my belief about myself – I may hang out with somebody who only climbs V-easy and then never grow obsessed with climbing V10…never believe it could even be possible for me. Most climbers have surpassed their presumed max climbing potential at a given time solely through the belief/encouragement of another climber. I hear “venga” used as encouragement now a the crag more than ever before, and wonder how many people know what it actually means. I’m mexican, I have an advantage. Truth is, somebody believed enough or wanted it enough and a climber was able to move past their limit.

    I guess I like the thought that what you believe about yourself (your mental game) determines your behavior or ability. This certainly extends beyond climbing, but in our case – if I believe, truly believe, I can crank my goal of 5.13 this Spring, my behavior or training this winter should (hopefully) reflect it. This isn’t a “i like to climb” mentality though (most beginners), it’s a “you’re going down route!” (more serious climbers) mentality and therein lies the difference. You want to go after something. That’s the arena in which projects go down.

    There are so many thoughts / comments one could made with regards to visualization and climbing. If you can’t visualize yourself climbing something, you wont. So much to go on there that relates to the mental game, but I’ll let somebody else pick up there.

    I do like the discussion though!

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  • daniel

    I have noticed a positive effect (shamatha/concentration) meditation can have on my mental strenght. It certainly helps to get into the zone and experience the flow.
    Attitude certainly has an effect, too. In times when I desperately wanted to send my project I punted even more. I think, the key of succesfull projecting is to shift the attention from sending (goal oriented approach) to climbing (process oriented approach). This, in turn, increases the chance of flow, which, in my opinion, is the best (i.e. most helpful) mental state for actually sending something.

    Or like Chris Sharma said:
    “I have to be feeling strong, but not too confident. I have to have the desire to do it, but not be too attached on getting to the top as much as just enjojying the climbing.”

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  • http://www.climbingaction.com Darryl Roth

    Like Will, I’m no kid. I’m fifty and climbing is deeply in me and always will be. Recovery takes longer and keeping the edge requires diligence.

    Enter mental training. Having a fairly extensive background in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing) I’ve learned how to do mental olympics that, had I had the skill when I was doing the hardest routes of my career, I would’ve easily bumped up a few letter grades. Learning some of these things is pretty esoteric (like Richard Bandler’s DHE), but they can totally transform my outcomes and on good days, when everything is just, right I can still hit V7. That’s an insignificant number these days, but not bad for an old fart.

    I’m convinced that having an absolutely unstopable desire to hit a project makes a difference and I’ve only given up on a few in my 30 years of climbing.

    As Klem Loskot said: I can’t climb just a little. I need to crank like a bastard.

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  • thedirtbag

    I’ve gone through a pretty similar experience in the last few years. I’ve seen my time to climb diminish — my own decision. I’ve had my share of injuries at the worst possible times — but I enjoyed drinking beer by rivers instead. Now, I’m often no where as strong as the 25-year-old me who sent a lot but also left a lot of projects to finish up later. Somehow I make up for it by trying a lot harder. I can’t really explain it, but when I’m up there I know how to slow myself down — kind of like gadd’s 10 minutes in bathroom stall (I don’t want to know what he was doing in there) — I often look at the moves and decide in my head that I am willing to go to the hospital…cause that is the worst that is going to happen. I shut up,put in a wire and do it versus, taking or lettting go. I think at times I’m more out of control than the 25 year old version. I make more noise (I used to think that any little squeak signaled that I was too desperate and not in control of my heart and breathing) and generally I think I have more fun and send harder…well that’s probably not true. Maybe each day just means a little bit more because at some point in the day I decided I was willing to sit on the couch for five months for thirty seconds of pure concentration.

    Climbing is rad…cool topic.

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  • mark

    Honestly, I love getting my but kicked on a problem and I love going back for more. I will spend hours and hours working a single move until I can do it. Then I move on to the next.
    Maybe it’s easier to project a boulder than a route. Who knows….

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  • Ian

    I have the same experience as you Brian, the mental aspect of climbing always seem to get the better of me. If i do not manage to send within the first 5-10 tries then the next days i try the problem never feel right. My brother and i call it the “sending sickness” it feels like intense butterflies in your stomach and forces you to think rather than just flow. The longer we have been waiting and wanting to send a project the worse it gets. It seems that anytime i do manage to send a problem that has taken me awhile is on days when i dont feel as confident or as strong and im not nervously anticipating sending it the whole time and messing myself up in the process. The days when i dont expect to send are the only days that i do.

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Thanks for the thoughts everyone, I think you all make excellent points. In the end, I think the mental battles are part of what make climbing such a fun sport to do!

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  • Ken

    Hey, I’m the same as Darryl Roth (except for the Linguistic Programming)! And my equally-aged climbing partner and I were just talking in the gym today about old age and treachery overcoming youth and brawn –at least some times if the route is technical enough. As I’ve pushed into higher grades I’ve felt some of the greatest growth in my climbing has come from the mental aspects –mainly, being able to take larger and larger “emotional bites,” which includes learning how to stay focused, mentally relaxed and connected when the body is at its limit and is anything but relaxed.

    As for projecting, I love it. I’ll work a route for years if that’s what it takes. I never abandon a project. I thrive on the process of refinement, of dialing in the micro-beta. This is another way of climbing at or a little above your physical limit –by squeezing maximum efficiency out of the sequence and executing the moves as perfectly as possible.

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