Fear: How much does it hold you back? (Part 2 - Failing) (http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/blogs/entry/mental/fear-how-much-does-it-hold-you-back-part-2-failing.html)
11 February 2013, 1:13 am
“Fear leads to anger… Anger leads to hate… Hate leads to suffering…”
Yoda
(http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/images/images-3.jpeg)
One of my favourite quotes of all time! And it is so very relevant in the world of climbing…
- Fear of a route or situation holds us back, which if we are competitive in any way, will anger us.
- The anger we feel leads to hating that climb or situation.
- The hatred of those climbs or situations forces us to avoid them at all costs which leads to suffering in the way of being held back in our strife for better performance as we are not addressing our weaknesses.
In the last blog post, we had a look at “Fear” with respect to “Falling”. What was quite rightly stated by some people on the comments is that there are different types of fear that holds us back, not just that of something obvious and tangible like falling.
Fear of Failure
I have written a lot on this subject, but it’s always something that is good to continually re-address to remind people as it is the first thing usually forgotten.
Anybody that considers him/herself performance orientated will come across “Fear of Failure” (FOF) at some point in their life. I am naturally a very competitive person and am confronted by FOF on a daily basis. It pops it’s head up in many different situations, not all climbing orientated, but it’s always in climbing that it affects me the most because climbing is what I am most passionate about.
Here are a couple of examples of FOF in action:
Example 1: I am at the wall with a bunch of friends I regularly climb with. Everybody is trying a new set of routes recently set and are all trying to onsight them. I look at route 1 thinking, “doesn’t look too bad… I know I can Onsight this”. One of my friends attempts it and fails. Instantly I am energised to get on it and prove to my friend and myself that I can onsight it.
Competition among friends and peers can be difficult...
Suddenly, another on of my friends jumps in front and asks if he can have a shot. He gets on it and Onsights it with a bit of a fight at the top. This guy is one of the best of the group, probably a similar level to me. (http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/images/Sam--Friends-Routereading.jpg)Suddenly I am feeling a little bit nervous, I don’t fancy trying this anymore, it looks a little tricky in that upper section, I think I will go try some different climbs… There is a harder graded route right next to it nobody has tried yet… I get on it and onsight it to the top!
If I onsighted this one, then really I should onsight the easier one as well… I’m a little tired now… I think I’ll leave it for another day J
Example 2: I have been trying this route for a few days now. When I first attempted it, it felt way out of my league! Now I am falling off reaching the last few holds but I keep failing at that section. Every time I get on it I feel a little nervous, sometimes slightly sick… I am so close to doing this climb but it just seems so far up the wall to fall of repeatedly. Why can’t I just do it and get it over and done with!
I have another attempt, I feel ill at the start, really nervous but I continue anyway. I make it past my previous high point but I fall again! AGGGGHHHHHHH!!! This is so frustrating… What am I going to do? I wasn’t even pumped!
I decide to have a rest day and try it again when I am fully recovered. All day I am thinking about the climb, re-hearsing the moves in my head… I have it dialled, I just need to seal the deal, then I can move onto something else!
I stand below the route, prepping myself to try it… I don’t feel right… I’m just not in the right frame of mind. I try it again but this time I am shaking with nerves, I fall off at the first crux – I haven’t fallen of this low on any of my redpoint tries! I am getting worse L
(http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/images/robbie-migranyaprofunda_5.jpg)Redpoint stress is a difficult opponent...
So the main thing to take away from each of these examples is that the FOF has had a negative effect on the performances. One thing to note however is that in each example, the FOF stems from a slightly different source.
Example 1 is very common and although you might be sitting there thinking “I have never experienced this”, really have a think about it! I believe a very high percentage of boys most likely experience this on a week to week basis whereas girls are probably less so (but are still susceptible to it). Example 1 is all about the FOF brought on from how you are affected by what other people think of you. If you are very self-conscious (a lot of people are), then this will affect you massively!
What you need to do is recognise that nobody actually cares how well you do on something, only you do. You are the one putting the pressure on yourself, not them, they are just there climbing, get used to it! If someone you are very competitive with is climbing with you and does really well, use it as fuel to push you harder on your attempt.
I have been using competitions for years as a way of training myself to deal better with nerves. When you put yourself on the spot to perform well on a route you haven’t chosen, in front of a crowd, in a competitive scenario and at a set time, you can be guaranteed a good mental challenge! The National Open Competitions are good for this, but so are the little winter bouldering leagues. With those, I tend to go around with a group of friends trying the problems. I always like to go first and avoid taking beta from people who have already tried it so I can stack the nerves as high as possible. For me going first is the most stressful, I at least like to see a few people do the problem usually, that’s why I now avoid that scenario and instead opt for the more challenging option :P(http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/images/198667_10151428700855828_2001310623_n.jpg)Competitions are intense mental scenarios that can train you to better deal with the mental side of climbingCompetition climbing is one of the most stressful and intense climbing scenarios around
If you look at the situation in Example 1 you will see even at the end, when he onsighted the harder of the routes, he is still wary that he doesn’t want to jump on the one that he could potentially fail on and look bad. If I was in this scenario, I would challenge myself to get on it anyway and tell myself that even if I do fall of, that there is nothing to worry about because the only thing that matters is how I felt about the climb, and that nobody else’s opinion matters. A hard thing to do, but if it’s just training down the wall it doesn’t really matter, and if it’s a hard route outdoors, then there is a million routes to onsight outdoors so blowing one is not really a big deal.
Example 2 is again another common scenario of FOF. This is Redpoint stress! I have had this many a time and still struggle with it. The source of the fear this time comes solely from your ambition to do the climb. Sometimes a spot of peer pressure if one of your friends is trying it as well (or has done it) also crops up, but keeping it separate from Example 1, in our scenario the climber is trying the route on his own.
He has been climbing the route for a few days and has in that time built up in his head that he can do it. His mistake however is getting too relaxed in thinking that the route will be sent shortly now that he has made a few high points. It is easy to get sucked into a hole of failing endlessly due to nerves if you put too much pressure on yourself to tick the route. A prime example of this is Dani Andrada on “La Rambla” (9a+). He has been trying the route for 15 years and has failed on the penultimate moves endless numbers of times! It might be now that he has developed a mental block on this route due to too much pressure - it will be a very hard wall to push through with 15 years of pressure built in front of him. But imagine the feeling of triumph the day he clips those chains!!!
(http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/images/6071643986_7e9806b222.jpg)
SUCCESS!!!
Even after a rest day he has built the route into more of an issue than it needs to be and he ends up having a terrible first attempt. This is probably partly due to the fact that he has had a rest day and might be a little rusty on the climb – it is definitely worth warming yourself up a but by dogging the climb and brushing all the holds before your attempt. At least then you are reminding yourself of the moves and giving yourself the best chance at succeeding by brushing the holds and warming up specifically.
Some special tricks I have learned to reduce anxiety for redpoint attempts are:
- Listening to relaxing music
- Visualisation
- Positive Reinforcement
The three above all tie together. Usually I have a playlist of my favourite chill tunes that always get my relaxed and in a flowing state of mind. During my chill out period, I will be visualising the sequence both from an inner and outer view point as well as reinforcing my belief in myself as an individual climber and not as someone who is affected by outside influences such as peers, competitors or spectators.
This won’t work for everybody, but it works for me. Unfortunately it will be up to you to find out what works best, but it is worth experimenting with a few different things until you get one that sticks...
Source: Training Blog Team (http://www.robbiephillips.co.uk/blogs/latest.html)