Brain Scan of Alex Honnold

psakievich wrote: I think "completely freak out" is a bit of an overstatement... His foot slips and then he clips with a little bit of urgency. If that's completely freaking out then words can't describe how I've reacted on some pitches

For alex that is freaked out imo. And that is probably the most freaked out I have ever been on a wall before (I just don't control it as well as him and it last longer than half a sec).

Like I said look into his eyes during that video and that is being completely freaked out. He or anyone else can say whatever they want but it is true terror in his face. It only last for a fraction of a sec but it is still there and the ability to control it is what makes him the king of free-soloing.

My problem is once I get nervous my legs start shaking and it is hard to get them to stop, I have had to basically get past the hard section and into a safe position and close my eyes to recover before and stop the shaking.

adventuroushabits.com/the-b…

Great look in this episode of BMS on how athletes like Honnold and others keep their nervous systems in check through habituation - preventing the flow of cortisol et al by suppressing the sympathetic nervous system response. Less stress hormones = less stimulated-CNS symptoms (sweaty palms, rapid breathing, tunnel vision etc), and clearer thinking to play it cool.

If I remember correctly they also give a nod to training this for the average person - something about exposure to cold showers...

ViperScale wrote: ... My problem is once I get nervous my legs start shaking and it is hard to get them to stop, I have had to basically get past the hard section and into a safe position and close my eyes to recover before and stop the shaking.

lol. My legs shake even in control.

Sanllan wrote: lol. My legs shake even in control.

That's called getting old!

How someone could watch that vid and say Honnold is in sheer terror is beyond me...

Shaking is a sign of fear and his entire body shakes from it. Not the slip where he shakes and than you see a secondary shake afterward = fear. I don't think he was just sitting there all comfortable and shivered from the cold.

Nah I disagree. Foot slips and you see him recover, might as well be on a ten foot boulder.

That foot slip isn't panic let alone terror it's a unsurprising foot slip that's it, he's surprised. A real freak out would be when he froze on thank god ledge.

So that big breathe he let out after getting clipped on the bolt wasn't from him finally relaxing?

If you don't consider that panicking I guess I am the ultimate climber who has never had nerves at all.

ViperScale wrote:So that big breathe he let out after getting clipped on the bolt wasn't from him finally relaxing? If you don't consider that panicking I guess I am the ultimate climber who has never had nerves at all.

If you have ever solo'd anything big then you know the feeling, it's the same feeling you get when you reach a large ledge or even a massive jug.

Never soloed anything big but I can think of one time I let a big breathe out like that when I ended up soloing (not on purpose) a 150ft wall that I wasn't comfortable on and was scared to death doing everything I could to stop the shaking.

I can think of lots of other times when I have taking a big sigh of relief out and they were never on easy stuff I was comfortable on. Lots of run outs or really hard sections that were to tuff to even bother trying to place gear. You pull that ledge and clip an anchor or piece and there is a big sigh of relief. Never once have I ever done that while on something I was really comfortable / chill / relaxed on.

Morgan Patterson wrote:Seems like more self control and not some genetic adaptation.

Or he has a genetic adaptation that allows him greater self-control...

Also, don't read much into the Half Dome videos, as they were staged and he may have been just acting for the cameras. He did describe having a momentary panic on the thank god ledge on the original ascent, so it's not to say he doesn't experience fear at all...he just has a very high threshold and is a master at getting it under control due to a likely combination of genetic advantage and training/experience.

from the man himself, "that's good filmmaking"

"the slip" commentary starting around 12:25

enormocast.com/episode-49-o…²/

that guy named seb wrote:That foot slip isn't panic let alone terror it's a unsurprising foot slip that's it, he's surprised. A real freak out would be when he froze on thank god ledge.

Fun fact, if you read his book he didn't freeze on Thank God Ledge. That was a dramatization for the video. He did have a freak out on that climb, but not there. I think it was after the ledge, IIRC.

climbing friend,

I would not be afraid.

All your flash are belong to me.

All your solo are belong to me.

Ted Pinson wrote: Or he has a genetic adaptation that allows him greater self-control...

Sure, unlikely though

Saying a person has more "self-control" than another only raises the question: Why?

If the "self-control" behavior is itself caused by other factors, genetic and/or environmental, is it really "self" control?

vgw wrote:from the man himself, "that's good filmmaking" "the slip" commentary starting around 12:25 enormocast.com/episode-49-o…²/

I think that is my point though it was a problem and you can see it in his body that it affected him when he slipped but he is so good at controlling it that it didn't last but half a sec and he was over it like nothing happened. Most people had they slipped like that wouldn't be controlling it and could have lead to them falling.

You can know exactly how someone is going to try to scare you and your body will still naturally react to it and jump, even if you aren't "really" scared by it. It is a natural body reaction and it is all about minimizing / controlling it.

Morgan Patterson wrote: Sure, unlikely though

Based on...

ViperScale wrote:He has fear... at around 1 min 10 secs you see him completely freak out, he just has learned to control it.

Sure is an interesting theory how he's 'learned to control it' across such a broad set of stimuli (risk and reward stuff, emotional and physical stuff, etc...).
BTW - maybe even control is the wrong word - he's not even REACTING to the stimuli. IE - burned out circuit, not a circuit with a control mechanism.

Also - he does not describe his reaction to the emotional stimuli that is not risk related as changing over time - and it should have. He's not so jaded to the stuff (IE: "I used to find that hard to look at, but now..."), he seems to find it generally surprising that it would garner a reaction at all.

So yeah, that's why I, among others, hypothesized that he is wired differently and does not experience fear in the immediate sense the same way as others.
And to that point, I asked him publicly about that possibility in a talk he was doing several years ago which I believe several people on this forum should recall. His public response at the time was that he 'experienced fear like anyone else... if an alligator was going to bite him, he'd also be afraid like others.'

Of course, he has no frame of reference as to what others might experience.
But he also never said 'that's changed over time' and he should have had an internal frame of reference.

So I'd speculate, and I'd think that most people with education in there areas (perception, neurobiology, brain and behavior, neurochemistry etc) would tend to agree, that the circuit is off line and likely always was.