Mind Control Techniques - How to up your Headgame

Some people have better headgame than others. Since I´m not one of them I figured I´ll ask for advice or at least start a conversation here.

On harder trad routes, especially on onsight attempts, I find myself getting caught up with my inner dialogue too much. This often results in taking or grabbing the nylon jug. Especially on thinner cracks with no real rests I have a lack of head game.
A typical scenario might look like this: I´m looking up the crux from a good stance from where
I´m able to fiddle in two small pieces of gear. One of them is good, the other one is Okay. At this point my inner voice is already starting to warn me: "one piece will blow ... one piece will blow". I disregard the voice, try to calm myself with deep breathing and then commit to the crux. Often I climb through it, but as soon as I´m one or two feet above the gear the voice will get super loud again and I´ll get tunnel vision. More often than not, I´ll fiddle in a piece with ALL of my power and grab on to it whereas the finishing last hold is only one or two moves away from me. In hindsight I was in no danger at any time but allowed myself to get scared again.

I´m sure other people have experienced similar things while trying to "experience enjoyable flash on trad routes". How do you deal with it? Do you "shut off" your mind? Do you somehow overwrite the dark thoughts? Do you just block everything off? I found myself getting really bad tunnel vision when I block thoughts off and sometimes I then enter a dangerous state of panic.

Should I go to India and meditate for a year to clear my mind?

Thanks for any advice!

I'm not the most experienced but I have a solid head. I'd say your head will get better with experience and repetiveness. Also in learning and trusting your gear and placements. The more comfortable you are with doing everything correctly and you're backed up and safe, the more you can relax and focus on your climb.

Moritz B. wrote:Some people have better headgame than others. Since I´m not one of them I figured I´ll ask for advice or at least start a conversation here. On harder trad routes, especially on onsight attempts, I find myself getting caught up with my inner dialogue too much. This often results in taking or grabbing the nylon jug. Especially on thinner cracks with no real rests I have a lack of head game. A typical scenario might look like this: I´m looking up the crux from a good stance from where I´m able to fiddle in two small pieces of gear. One of them is good, the other one is Okay. At this point my inner voice is already starting to warn me: "one piece will blow ... one piece will blow". I disregard the voice, try to calm myself with deep breathing and then commit to the crux. Often I climb through it, but as soon as I´m one or two feet above the gear the voice will get super loud again and I´ll get tunnel vision. More often than not, I´ll fiddle in a piece with ALL of my power and grab on to it whereas the finishing last hold is only one or two moves away from me. In hindsight I was in no danger at any time but allowed myself to get scared again. I´m sure other people have experienced similar things while trying to "experience enjoyable flash on trad routes". How do you deal with it? Do you "shut off" your mind? Do you somehow overwrite the dark thoughts? Do you just block everything off? I found myself getting really bad tunnel vision when I block thoughts off and sometimes I then enter a dangerous state of panic. Should I go to India and meditate for a year to clear my mind? Thanks for any advice!

Honestly, it just sounds like you need to get more mileage under your belt, specifically, more falls (obviously make sure falls are safe before taking any practice falls). The more used to falling you are, the less likely your mind is to freak out by the possibility of falling.

Some people are not like this, but I even find falling on sport routes helps my head for trad climbing. Try it out, it might help you too.

although I can't say I have many scary trad routes under my belt, something that really helped me was downclimbing to a stance, focusing on breathing, and telling myself I'm not going to fall. also, in my head I repeat to myself, "When in doubt, run it out". That usually gets me into a state of mind where I just climb through it until I get to a good stance to get more gear in.

I try to make all the decisions before I leave the ground/anchor. By this I mean, when sizing up the route (if it's the kind of thing that's heads-up for you) look at everything. Read moves and stances, gear, even beta on here on your phone. If you can make all the choices on the ground (the gear is good enough, it's okay to fall here, but not there, I need to climb fast there, I'll climb through if that's wet, but back off if that's wet or if the gear's shit, etc.) when you're up there, you can have the mantra "I have already decided this is within what I accept" knowing that decision was made with a clear, not fear-influenced head.

Surprising to many, but bouldering at and above my limit has done wonders for my ropes headgame. When bouldering, you get used to pushing through and trying as hard as you can. When you fall, you tend to learn to orient yourself feet to the ground and push off from the rock, or aim for a good landing zone, etc. Similar to falling on a rope.

+1 -- the more you actually fall on ropes, the less scary it becomes.

Stuff to try in the gym:

1.) practice letting go at the top of routes and not grabbing the rope. Trust your system to hold you.

2.) tell your belayer not to take in all slack at the end of a route and just let go once you clip the last draw. You'll fall a couple feet maybe.

3.) don't clip the last draw when you finish a route. Just let go. Of course warn your belayer first.

4.) try harder routes. Like routes far above anything you've attempted, as long as you can get the first 2-3 draws clipped safely. Then just go for it. You're in the gym. What's there to lose?

Baby steps.

A couple of things that paid of when dealing with the head game:

Bouldering (builds power, comfort with falling, and pushes you harder than the average route will)
Mileage on moderate routes (stamina, efficiency, lots of gear placement)
Building lots of gear anchors (you get efficient and comfortable with placing gear)

It is always a head game though and I've backed off of routes that I probably could have flashed because I felt wrong on a certain day. You won't always climb your best and it is okay to back off when things aren't feeling right.

Training, building experience, and gaining confidence all take time. Put in the time and the effort first, the head game will come.

+1 on bouldering^^
I credit a lot of my coolness on ropes to the years I bouldered. I feel strongest and smoothest when I've been bouldering often.

Try to keep in mind that (at least for me and I expect for most) your fear is warning you of something important. If you're saying to yourself 1 piece will blow then maybe you know the pro isn't that good, no matter what your inner dialog is trying to say. I would address what you are scared of situationally. Fear is an important tool, learn to use it. Trying to block your fear completely might lead to climbing into a panic situation, as you know.

climbing friend,

You are afraid of falling and of gear blowing. You must be conservative and smart but must trust gear. You must aid climb. You must fall more. You must trust the gear if you have two good pieces keeping you of a ground or ledge.

You must watch original star wars trilogy. You must harness power of the force and think on this in your meditiations on climbing. You must find a small, lovable, hairy midget with an accent to train with. You must remind yourself you climb the safe well protected route and not the r or x route where ye be truly afraid and have one tiny nut in 40 feet.

You make bold gear flash!

warriorsway.com/

It's entirely possible your gear is bad.

Mental fitness can be trained and increased just as physical fitness can. You have to put yourself in situations where it will be challenged. Folks have suggested mileage which is a good idea. However, you need mileage where you are getting pushed a bit. I'd recommend getting mileage on onsight attempts 2-3 letter grades below your onsight limit.

Your post would infer that you hold 'hard for you' onsights in high regard. I agree with that sentiment. Obviously you get one shot, so be patient enough to wait until an appropriate time. This has less to do with how you may feel and more to do with strategy. Wait for the right conditions (temps, sun/shade, humidity, etc.) Make sure your physical fitness is high, you properly warm up, and don't try to squeeze the attempt around general all day climbing. In other words optimize your attempt.

Thanks for all the tips from y´all!

So far I´ve gathered:
- Get more mileage. More is always better. I agree. Yet, I´m behaving in patterns on hard-for-me trad onsights.
- Headgame is day dependend.
- Take falls when not in danger (obviously)
- Make a plan BEFORE you leave the ground. I really like that one. No takes for me when I´ll go climb tomorrow.
- Go bouldering. Or highballing. Or Free Soloing
- Read the Warrior´s Way.
- DON`T push yourself to run it out 15 ft. above the blue Metholius and the Okay nut. Just don´t! Non-climbers would agree!
- Don´t waste your onsight attempts by not giving it 100%.
- Keep challenging yourself.
- Find lovable, hairy midget and learn 1970´s mind control (aka. the force).

Personally I just say to myself ok I am 50+ ft past my last piece of gear, there is no other gear here, getting nervous isn't going to help me not to fall. Take a deep breath relax and just go on being careful.

The more you do it the more comfortable you will get, but you just have to remember what you are doing is dangerous so don't take unnecessary risk when you are not in a comfortable place.

I have seen it happen on more than one person who can climb 5.12 sport route but will get up on a 5.7 trad route get freaked out and come down because they aren't sure where to go.

Not much you can do after you follow other others for a while and learn what you can. Nothing is going to teach you to onsight on gear for a route that you may not be sure where it goes until you just do it.

ViperScale wrote:Personally I just say to myself ok I am 50+ ft past my last piece of gear, there is no other gear here, getting nervous isn't going to help me not to fall. Take a deep breath relax and just go on being careful. The more you do it the more comfortable you will get, but you just have to remember what you are doing is dangerous so don't take unnecessary risk when you are not in a comfortable place. I have seen it happen on more than one person who can climb 5.12 sport route but will get up on a 5.7 trad route get freaked out and come down because they aren't sure where to go. Not much you can do after you follow other others for a while and learn what you can. Nothing is going to teach you to onsight on gear for a route that you may not be sure where it goes until you just do it.

This has zero to do with the OP's question. He isn't having trouble on 5.7. Where are these super rad routes with 50+ foot crux runouts?

ViperScale wrote:Personally I just say to myself ok I am 50+ ft past my last piece of gear, there is no other gear here, getting nervous isn't going to help me not to fall. Take a deep breath relax and just go on being careful.

I agree with Jon Clark on this one; this really isn't relevant to this thread. The problem that the OP is having is with committing to hard moves that are already adequately protected, not with easier climbing in de-facto soloing territory.

More broadly, there are a number of different scenarios for "headspace", and having a good head for one scenario will not neccesarily help you in another. Climbing easy but dangerous terrain is totally different from hard bu safe terrain. On easy/dangerous terrain where you CAN'T fall, it is all about staying calm and in control, making sure you can reverse moves, and moving with caution. On hard/safe trad pitches (like the OP mentions), you have to do the opposite, moving quickly and confidently through punchy crux sections, and accepting being a bit out of control (i.e. you could fall). A hard and runout headpoint requires yet another mindset, as does a hard and runout onsight (I avoid these...).

A climber can often be good at one type of climbing but not the other. I know a number of solid trad climbers who can be very confident on wildly runnout 5.8, but once they start getting into mid-5.11 terrain where they encounter moves they could fall off, they are unable to commit; they are too used to being in complete control and are not used to feeling like they could fall off. The opposite is also common: the strong sport climber who will be perfectly happy committing to a hard crux section and taking repeated (safe) 25 foot falls, but gets very uncomfortable when they must maintain complete control in no-fall terrain, even if it is easy. Both attributes can be developed, but the process of doing so is different for each.

Anyway, developing a "good lead head" is a complex set of processes, and there are many sometimes-conflicting attributes to develop. It helps to know what type of headspace you are weak in, and what type of headspace you need to develop. It sounds like the OP has alreayd figured out where his weakness lies,a nd there is some good advice already about how to develop it.

^^I agree. There is a difference between boldly running out a climb at or just below your onsight ability. Sure it can be scary, but convincing yourself that you won't fall usually gets you through. Contrast that with the fear of pushing through moves where you are not sure if you can make the, they feel insecure, and the probability of falling is much higher. The headspace required to evaluate and trust the gear and push through this is very different than running out or even soloing stuff that you are confident about.

It all comes down to the same thing. Doesn't matter what is scaring you, you just have to understand the risk and keep pushing forward or come down when the risk exceeds you limit.

Doesn't matter if the risk is a 50ft run out on 5.8 or a 10ft 5.12, you still control your mind the same way. It is simply a form of meditation where you have to block out stuff and control your body against it's natural instinct.

Lets face it the fact that you are rock climbing at all is going against your natural instinct.

Panic will never help you, my biggest falls were when i panicked and tried to rush a piece of pro off of a shitty hold when there was the biggest jug on the route sitting right there.

Ben ASCO wrote:Try to keep in mind that (at least for me and I expect for most) your fear is warning you of something important. If you're saying to yourself 1 piece will blow then maybe you know the pro isn't that good, no matter what your inner dialog is trying to say.

Not as a blanket rule. Irrational fears are those that aren't based on reality. Phobias are obvious examples of this, but the concept of irrational fear goes beyond phobias. It's quite possible that a "1 piece will blow" inner voice is wrong in some cases, and that the piece is actually fine.

But to your point, yeah, confidence can be irrational, too: disregarding reality and being inappropriately confident about the situation.

If the OP is describing an obviously marginal piece, then that may be a rational fear. But what comes after it? A fear that if the piece blows he'll be injured? I'd ask, is that fear rational? It may be, but it may also be just an irrational fear of falling...

The challenge is to sort out the valid fear from the irrational fear. This article describes it as correctly deciphering the odds of various possible outcomes.

+1 to The Rock Warrior’s Way: Mental Training for Climbers

ViperScale wrote:It all comes down to the same thing. Doesn't matter what is scaring you, you just have to understand the risk and keep pushing forward or come down when the risk exceeds you limit. Doesn't matter if the risk is a 50ft run out on 5.8 or a 10ft 5.12, you still control your mind the same way. It is simply a form of meditation where you have to block out stuff and control your body against it's natural instinct. Lets face it the fact that you are rock climbing at all is going against your natural instinct. Panic will never help you, my biggest falls were when i panicked and tried to rush a piece of pro off of a shitty hold when there was the biggest jug on the route sitting right there.

I don't see them as the same at all. Maybe they are for some, but I don't think I am unique. I can pretty comfortably run out climbs that are just below my OS ability. I enjoy and do ok at runout slab climbs with bolts/gear every 20-50 ft because I can convince myself that the climbing is within my ability. I struggle much more with even small runouts when the climbing is less certain (just above my OS) even if I know the gear is good and the fall clean. I see people with the opposite problem sometimes too. They don't mind risking safe falls on hard climbs, but become terrified when they have to runout routes well below their ability. So the solution may be the same for you, but it is not necessarily true for everyone.