Mental Control (Author Unknown)

I was going through all my documents and research I have built up over the years and I found this as a word document, I can't remember where it came from and who wrote it... so I can't credit anyone, but it is a pretty good piece on Mental Control and I thought it was worth sharing... 


Mental Control

Often the difference between winning and losing depends on your mental control. Getting and keeping your head together can be much easier if you use some of the tools of sports psychology: 1) Develop self-confidence; 2) use mental imagery, and; 3) control doubt and negative thoughts. These techniques help you develop and master mental control. Sports psychology is a large field requiring many years of study. In climbing, especially climbing competitions, routes are designed at the peak of a climber's ability. This information is not all-inclusive and is intended to provide a general overview of gaining mental control to improve your performance and spark your further personal study.

Develop Self-confidence to Enhance Mental Control

A climber's self-confidence is probably the greatest asset in developing your mental control over your body's reaction to stress. Self-confidence doesn't happen by simply deciding to be confident - it takes a deliberate and planned effort. Self-confidence is not a matter of "fooling" yourself into believing something false. Just the opposite - it is based on accurately knowing yourself. Self-confidence allows you to take appropriate risks and climb at the top of your ability.

The most effective way to build self-confidence is by setting performance-based goals. Set attainable and measurable performance goals and make sure you achieve them. Then set new goals and achieve them. Through this process you learn your own abilities. By knowing your own capabilities you avoid surprise failure and develop confidence in yourself. Believing in yourself helps you develop mental control
Your goals to attain mental control should be measured in terms of performance, not achievement. An example of an achievement goal is: "win the competition". This is not a good performance based goal. Examples of performance based goals are: "Increase pull-ups by 1 per week"; or, "increase endurance training by 1 minute per session"; or "increase dead-hang time by 10 seconds per week", etc. There are many aspects to achieving mental control to improve your climbing performance. Develop as many performance based goals as you can manage. Design your goals to be achievable within about a week or two weeks time. This will give you a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and help you develop a keen sense of your own abilities.

Mental Imagery (described below) is also useful for building self-confidence and control. This is useful if your lack of self-confidence or other "mind game" factors are interfering with your ability to achieve a goal. However, a note of caution. It is possible to use imagery to improperly build a level of over-confidence. Using imagery without rationally considering your actual abilities can lead to over-confidence and unexpected failure, which will cause a loss of confidence. Over-confidence is just as bad as a lack of confidence - maybe worse. Over confidence does not lead to mental control, it is a misreading of your own ability. If you are over-confident you will not give the climb 100% effort and may lead you to attempt something that you are not capable of doing. It can lead to an unexpected failure, which can destroy your self-confidence.
Self-confidence should come from a realistic understanding of your abilities based on incrementally achieving performance-based goals.

Mental Control using Imagery and Positive Thinking

Using imagery, you imagine smooth controlled climbing, proper rests, shaking, clipping, breathing, good technique, etc… all the way to the top. Imagery can and should be used during previews, before a difficult move, at night in bed, waiting in a line at the store, on a bus or passenger in a car (but not as driver). Think and imagine yourself climbing and moving like a climber you admire - or visualize yourself making a particular move. Visualize the feeling, momentum, and balance. Visualize only correct climbing technique and form. Gain mental control of yourself and the climbing route by focusing and creating positive mental imagery.
Visualizing reinforces climbing movement in your mind - so use it to reinforce good movement. Visualizing is training for your mind. Do do not dwell on bad moves. Analyze what went wrong then visualize the correct movement from the beginning of the sequence through the end of the section. Imagine the feeling of the holds/rock, your momentum, your breathing, where you chalk up - be as vivid with your imagery as you can. It is a skill that needs to be developed just like physical skill.

Imagery can also be used to help you relax and lower your stress level. This can be helpful in competitions or in many other situations in climbing. Imagine a peaceful, relaxing, happy or fun place. Make it as vivid as possible by visualizing every detail, the warm sun, feeling of joy, smells… every detail that goes with your "happy place". Use this imagery technique to reduce stress and maintain mental control.
Imagery can be used to push your limits, for specific moves, for general technique, to break through a mental block, to reduce stress, or to build up your self-confidence. Be aware that imagery can be used to an unhealthy extreme. Use imagery and positive thinking within realistic boundaries to push yourself to new heights and break through barriers. This is an effective tool when used correctly.

Mental Control over Doubt and Negative Thoughts

In the same way positive imagery "teaches" your mind through a visualized reinforcement, negative thoughts also teach your mind - the wrong thing. Get control of your mental thoughts. Make a conscious point not to allow negative thoughts to dominate. Answer negative thoughts with positive thoughts.
Sometimes negative thoughts are difficult to get out of your head. I may help to physically speak the positive out loud several times. If you are in a crowd or around other people do it sub-vocally. It is a stronger reinforcement when spoken. Respond to negative thoughts with positive thoughts based on clear and rational assessments of your known ability.

Become aware of your thoughts. Normally thoughts will come and go and you will hardly notice. Watch for feelings of inadequacy, criticism, feelings of stress, worry. Awareness is the first step to gaining more mental control. As you become more aware of your thoughts you can learn to control them.
But how do you not think of something? If someone says "do not think of a red balloon", you immediately visualize a red balloon whether you want to or not. Not thinking of something is more difficult than thinking about something. When you get a thought that is counter productive, make a conscious effort to visualize it's opposite. Speak the opposite if possible, or at least speak it sub-vocally. For example: "red balloon": now think of a green balloon and say "green balloon" out loud. It is now green. Use this technique to conquer doubt, negative thoughts and reinforce your good technique, confidence, and positive self-image. You are what you think, so think what you want yourself to be.

Summary

These are simple tools you can use to help break through mental barriers, maintain mental control under stressful situations and build new self-confidence. It may well take you to a new level of climbing. Top athletes, coaches and trainers in every sport agree the proper application of sports psychology provides a significant boost in performance level. Self-confidence will help you climb at your best. Using mental imagery and controlling doubt will help you press through mental barriers. Developing these simple techniques are as important as your physical training.

Resting

Resting is the ability to recover energy/strength while still climbing. It is a skill that is learned and should be trained. Many top climber attribute their success not to their strength but to their ability to rest and recover on a route. In general the steeper and harder the route the harder it is to find a resting position. This chapter will deal with funding resting positions, how to maximize the resting position and how to train your resting technique.

Finding a Resting Position

Resting positions are places where you can relax one arm then the other for at least a short period of time. The best rests are obviously no hands rests where all your weight is on your feet. When looking for a resting position try to find somewhere where you can take as much weight as possible off your hands (stems, heel, hools, big footholds...) and where the handholds are close enough together to switch back and forth. The reason that you need to switch back and force easily is that you do not want to be wasting energy moving between the resting holds.

Maximize the Rest

When resting, it is important to try and relax your arms as much as possible. The quality of the resting position, the amount that your arms are pumped, the difficulty of the next series of moves and how far you are from the top will all factor into how long you choose to stay in the rest. If the rest is a slightly strenuous one then you will have to think about how much you can recover before the rest itself starts to tire you out.

Even a quick shake between holds can be enough to recover a little bit of strength.

As you enter the rest position try to place your feet well first. This does not mean that your feet have to stay where they are as you switch hands, in fact in most cases you will have to adjust your feet and certainly your weight distribution as you alternate hands. If you are pumped going into the rest start by alternating your hands quite quickly. As you start to lose your pump a little bit you can start holding on with each hand slightly longer, giving the other arm a longer time to recover. The hand that is holding on should be as relaxed as possible but there are lots of options for what to do with the arm that is hanging.

Concentrate on your breathing and force yourself to take long slow breaths, this will again help you relax and slow down your heart rate. As you rest continue to evaluate your feet and determine if they are in the best spot, or can you improve them.

Eric Horst talks about a method of depumping in his article: http://www.nicros.com/training/articles/g-tox/

This method uses gravity to help drain the used blood from your forearms to allow new blood with more oxygen into them. The trick is to hold your forearms above your head as you shake out. You do not have to hold you arms up the whole time but it does help to do this for about 10 seconds at a time.

Try to relax the resting arm as much as possible, try stretching your forearm out against the wall, against your thigh or against your hips if necessary. This will open up the arteries and veins in your forearm and allow you to recover faster.

As you alternate hands concentrate on shifting your weight directly below the hand hold and onto your feet as much as possible. If you are matching on a hold and your feet are directly below you a little shuffle of the hips should be all that is necessary to help you relax. If the resting holds are not equal in quality (one is harder to hold than the other) then minimize the amount of time spent holding onto the bad hold.

A good tip is to use the rope itself to take the weight off your hands. If it is possible to make a clip above you and downclimb to the rest without too much difficulty then you should do this. Once the rope is clipped above you and you are back in the resting position try and weight the rope a little. The weight of the rope and rope drag going down to your belayer should be able to take some weight off of your arms. As you shift between hands you may need to shift your hips higher every time and then sit back down on the rope.

Your belayer will not notice the difference at their end of the rope.

When you decide that it is time to leave the rest, start breathing harder again and alternating your hands back and forth quicker. Concentrate on the next series of moves coming up. This will better prepare you for any hard moves coming up that you need to pull down on.

Learning to Rest and Training

Most people when first told to rest will complain that the rest tires them out too much.

It is more work to rest than the strength that they recover. Resting is a skill and there is a technique to it. You have to force yourself to rest in order to learn how it feels.

Resting Drills

To learn how to rest set a boulder circuit or routes on slightly overhanging walls. At the start of the circuit, or at the bottom of the routes, place two holds that are not huge but that you can hold onto quite easily. If you are just starting this drill give yourself very generous feet, as you become more comfortable resting use smaller and smaller feet.

Climb the circuit until you start to feel pumped then get to the rest. Force yourself to stay in the rest for a fixed amount of time even (say five minutes) even if it seems too long. Make sure that the rest allows you to switch your arms back and forth and doesn't allow a no hands rest. Concentrate on the points listed above such as centre your weight, weight your feet as much as possible and concentrate on your breathing.

After awhile you should be able to make the rest harder. Make it more difficult to switch your hands back and forth, make one hand harder to rest on than the other, give yourself only one foothold, etc... After time you should be able to find rests easier and know how much recovery you can get from a rest. You should also be able to determine when you are too pumped to recover and when you need to rest. Play around with this drill at the end of an endurance session.

Summit Interview...

What do you currently do?

Where do I start... some people say too much! I run The Tower Climbing Centre in Leicester, through this I became involved with the Climbing Wall Committee which promptly led to editing and writing the Climbing Wall Manual along with Rob Adie.

Following on from this I have taken on the task of rewriting the Leicestershire Guide which at first seemed like it would be straightforward but with a combination of access issues, bad weather and so much work needing done in the area it is taking longer than expected.

Anything else?

erm... would being the Midlands Area Chair and writing the Midlands Area Newsletter count??

Running a Climbing Wall sounds like a dream job, how did you get into that?

Originally I did a Design Management Degree and worked as a graphic designer for a well known car magazine, although I enjoyed my job I was becoming more and more involved with the wall and decided trying to split my time effectively between the two was impossible, so I chose to go down lifestyle route and didn’t look back!

Any regrets?

I do not regret changing jobs, although it is time consuming, I try to balance my home life, job, team and BMC commitments along with making sure I get time to climb and remember why I do what I do.

So running a Climbing Wall you must spend loads of time climbing?

I wish! Sadly it is not that simple, we do try to do a staff session once a week and along with route setting I will possibly climb twice a week at the wall, I imagine most of the customers at the wall don’t know who I am! I don’t usually get finished up till late and I find it hard to stay on and not get involved in work when I have finished for the day... I usually end up in Grade Debates with customers!

Trad, sport, bouldering, mountains... what grabs you most if it is not the indoors?

I am split between Ice and DWS, right now I suppose Deep Water Soloing. It’s exhilarating, fun and adventurous with virtually no serious risk and hassle with ropes and gear and need to stress about gear placements etc.. it is just a shame we have such a small window in this country for the right weather and the right tides.

There is not much DWS or Ice in Leicestershire is there?

Well that depends on how much rain we have had... Leicestershire is a county made of disused quarries and small outcrops... but no, there is no DWS in Leicestershire ... Yet!

Yet.. sounds interesting?

There are a few routes that go above water, the aptly named Baptism at Markfield being one. But sadly with current access issues and a big fence these routes are suffering at the hands of mother nature and becoming overgrown.

Is access the biggest problem in Leicestershire?

Due to the nature of climbing in the county, much of it is on Private Land or quarries, so there is a fine line of negotiation to be had, landowners seem to perceive the risk of climbing higher and assume we will sue as soon as something goes wrong. So rather come to an agreement they just go for the all out ban which is never a good solution. There are some very good landowners and there are rules in place for these locations. As long as they are upheld they are happy for people to climb in what is effectively someone’s back garden.

What do you enjoy about climbing in Leicestershire?

Proving people wrong when they assume there is no good climbing in Leicestershire.

In what way?

Leicestershire can’t be compared to the likes of the Peak, Yorkshire, etc. What Leicester has is a good selection of small venues that suit people for a few hours after work or for an afternoon, be it bouldering at Beacon Hill, easy stuff in Markfield or hard steep slate in Forest Rock or the Brand. When these are combined you have the makings of a great day out on all sorts of different rock.

What Would a Great Day Out be?

All the crags are in relative close proximity and take 10-15 minutes to drive between, there are no big walkin’s, so you could have 3 hours bouldering at Beacon Hill (Hornstone), 2-3 hours doing scary relatively unprotected VS-E1 at Craig Buddon (Granite), 1.5 hours on some steep E1-E5 at Forest Rock (Steep Precambrian Slate) and then finish with some very committing HVS – E8 routes in the Brand (Slate) if you have any strength left!

What are the plans for the Guidebook?

Well, hopefully getting it finished this side of Christmas, and out next year. I have started the layout and so far there has been a great response to the initial sections. Just finding the right weather and conditions for photos and topos now. The BMC are publishing it so it is in the BMC style.

Chocolate Flapjack, Cream Horn or Fruit Slice?

I had a moment with a Swanage Badger over a fruit slice so I would be inclined to go for the Flapjack.