Mind Control Techniques - How to up your Headgame

This may be obvious, but one thing that has helped my mental strength as a climber is climbing run-out bolted routes. In this case, there's no way to fiddle around with gear or worry about the worthiness of a piece. You just empty your mind and make the moves until you get to the next bolt. In other words, you eliminate one of the rationales of your inner voice ("That piece isn't good") and have to focus on the climbing itself. Of course, when you get to that next bolt and it's a ugly looking quarter-incher...but you get the idea.

SteveZ wrote: the mindset and approach changes between easy/dangerous and hard/safe. I would even expand it to say you could flip those mindsets multiple times on the same pitch. Headpointing for example, as you move in and out of no-fall zones.

I agree. I actually find that flip to be quite difficult when going from easy/dangerous to hard/safe. After climbing very cautiously through 50 feet of runout 5.9, it can be hard to turn down the caution and turn up the try-hard for the crux, even after you get good gear in.

The other direction I find easier. If you pull through a hard/safe section, which is then followed by an easier runout section, I think it is easier to tell youself "OK, I'm through the hard part, and now its easy and I'll be fine"

Also, I think I may have oversimplified things when naming those two types. The middle situation may actually be most common and the most challenging--sort of hard, sort of protected--where you are climbing a bit below your normal onsight level, on slightly fiddly or questionable gear. This is the zone I find intimidating, actually, since it carries the most uncertainty, and there is no factor that you can hang your hat on. In hard/safe mode, you put total trust in the gear. In easy/dangerous, you put total trust in your ability to climb in control. In the middle zone, though, you probably won't fall and the gear probably won't fail, but you could fall and the gear could fail. For me, the best example of this is all those Eldo 5.11s with RP protection. The uncertainty makes this type of terrain thrilling/rewarding for many climbers, which is why we end up doing it, but it is also the type of climbing that most seems to have the most likely path to an accident.

Of course, there is also hard/dangerous, but most of us don't spend much time there.

It may seem odd but I have noticed after climbing with many partners over many years that there is a huge correlation between likelihood of onsighting and whether you keep records of whether you onsighted/redpointed.

Those who keep detailed records and actually write in the guidebook if they onsight led are much more likely to actually onsight and push through the fear/pain/doubt.

May simply be correlation and not causation but I believe the trend is very real.

Reading through all of your comments is really a joy. Thanks for taking the time to reply and to lay out your own personal strategies. Michael E. and Dave Collins have made really good points. It encapsules what fubar said, focus on what you got and how good it is.
It's super cool how different people approach this situation.

It has also helped me lately to turn a scary situation into a funny one. I basically made fun of myself for being scared and turned up the fun instead of being timid by joking around, hollering jibberish or doing other acts of goofyness.

Before the climb say "KAPLAH !!! Today is a good day to die!!!"

During the climb start screaming "OMG !!! I dun wanna die !!!"

After the climb shout "I am invincible !!!"

If you fall go "Uh oh spagetti-O"

Thats all there is to it

;)

For what it's worth, the only thing that gets my head straight climbing on gear is falling on things that I thought weren't going to hold. Other than that, I mostly just don't say "take". If you have to fall, just do it. Commit to all the slim but dark possibilities. You'll most likely be mostly okay, and probably happier that you didn't give up before your absolute physical limit forced you to.

bearbreeder wrote:Before the climb say "KAPLAH !!! Today is a good day to die!!!" During the climb start screaming "OMG !!! I dun wanna die !!!" After the climb shout "I am invincible !!!" If you fall go "Uh oh spagetti-O" Thats all there is to it ;)

This is far better advice than anything I can offer.