Comparison of books on mental game/mental training?

OP - where are you in your climbing career development? Are you pretty new to climbing in general? New to outdoors? New to trad? I took a long hiatus from climbing, and upon returning, felt like I was lacking in the headgame department. I read several of the books mentioned on this thread and found them to not be terribly helpful (though I haven't yet checked out MacLeod's book). You know what was? Buckling down, doing the work, and getting in the time on the rock and the gym.

If you aren't very mature in your climbing development (less than a year of regular climbing in your chosen medium, whether that is trad leading, alpine, whatever), then the single best thing you can do to help your headgame is to simply get mileage. There's a tremendous positive feedback loop between movement intuition, confidence, and decision-making / risk management.

Obviously getting mileage does not trade off with reading books in any zero-sum way; no reason you cannot do both. My $0.02, however, is that the confidence you want is going to come more from the development of base skills, movement intuition, and a sense of greater mastery of any technical aspects (placing pro, building anchors, clipping technique, whatever).

Apologies if you're already way advanced and this doesn't apply to you; I am inferring you are not mega experienced based on other threads you've started on clothing choices.

Also apologies for offering what is often a blanket panacea prescription - "climb more".

Regarding VM,it's possible the book is like, 37x better than the videos, but I was so unimpressed w the amateurish videos the guy posted I never even considered buying the book.

The one I rewatched part of this morning, the guy spent like 5 minutes explaining "when you start climbing, you undergo a "mindstate" shift, you shift from a state of "non-climbing" to (wait for it)..... "climbing"!!!.

He even had little squares of paper to cover up those two highly-mysterious words he was gonna reveal as he went along.

I'd starve if I had to depend on my public speaking skills for a living, but there's something to be said for knowing your limitations..if I was the guy I'd delete every single one of those videos before they did further damage to his book sales.

jaredj wrote:OP - where are you in your climbing career development? Are you pretty new to climbing in general? New to outdoors? New to trad? I took a long hiatus from climbing, and upon returning, felt like I was lacking in the headgame department. I read several of the books mentioned on this thread and found them to not be terribly helpful (though I haven't yet checked out MacLeod's book). You know what was? Buckling down, doing the work, and getting in the time on the rock and the gym. If you aren't very mature in your climbing development (less than a year of regular climbing in your chosen medium, whether that is trad leading, alpine, whatever), then the single best thing you can do to help your headgame is to simply get mileage. There's a tremendous positive feedback loop between movement intuition, confidence, and decision-making / risk management. Obviously getting mileage does not trade off with reading books in any zero-sum way; no reason you cannot do both. My $0.02, however, is that the confidence you want is going to come more from the development of base skills, movement intuition, and a sense of greater mastery of any technical aspects (placing pro, building anchors, clipping technique, whatever). Apologies if you're already way advanced and this doesn't apply to you; I am inferring you are not mega experienced based on other threads you've started on clothing choices. Also apologies for offering what is often a blanket panacea prescription - "climb more".

Hey Jared. No worries. No offense was taken. You worded your response in a very clear and compassionate way (which is something that I don't say much about online discussion forums). I've been climbing consistently for about 2 years; leading for just over 1. I would argue that you are completely correct. The best way to improve headgame is to get experience. And I definitely intend to do so. That being said, though, I find that my headgame is definitely holding me back, so I'll take all the help I can get to overcome this barrier. And although getting more experience will help me get more comfortable with placing pro, building anchors, etc. I do believe these books have their place in developing techniques for recognizing and responding to your emotional, physical, and mental state on climbs which I probably wouldn't have developed on my own.

As for the clothing posts, it's not that I'm necessarily inexperienced, it's just that I'm neurotic...

Mark E Dixon wrote:Here's what I remember- VM starts with a longish section describing the physiologic/psychologic basis for behavior. Emphasis is on "scripts" which are learned sequences of behavior/beliefs/emotions/etc. The basis for their advice is to replace old scripts with new ones by building new habits. This is followed by a section on falling, which I found very similar to Warrior's Way. Next is a series of sections on other issues- fear of failure, fear of performing in front of others, etc. IIRC, the "cure" for these was along the lines of "think about how little anybody else cares about your climbing and get over it." There is a chapter on how best to informally coach (and be coached by) your partner. On the whole, I think I have gone dangerously beyond my abilities trying to characterize the book from memory! I would be happy to be corrected where needed.

Thanks for the review!

The Self Coached Climber is a great resource for movement skills and drills early in your climbing career.
I feel strongly that "just climbing" isn't as effective as "just climbing well." I see a lot of people engraining bad habits that will eventually hold them back. Am guilty of this myself.

Mark E Dixon wrote:The Self Coached Climber is a great resource for movement skills and drills early in your climbing career. I feel strongly that "just climbing" isn't as effective as "just climbing well." I see a lot of people engraining bad habits that will eventually hold them back. Am guilty of this myself.

That one is on the Christmas list...