The Mental Game

Petzl Rock Trip - Getu, China
One of the destinations on my upcoming trip.

As I’m sitting here sick and unable to train, with an upcoming climbing trip to Asia, I can’t help but think of the psychological obstacles involved with climbing and training. For me right now, it’s the psychological stress that I may not be where I want to be with my training before I leave, I may not be able to climb the routes I have dreamt and aspired to climb in all these different countries… but why do I do this to myself?

The mental aspects of climbing and training are obviously not just goal oriented; they also revolve around fear, laziness, etc. It revolves around every single decision that we make in our lives; we are constantly battling with our minds to be a better person, a better climber, or whatever we want to be. Conquering our minds can be a huge step or a small step for different people and different situations, either way the battle needs to be won to truly improve ourselves in this mental game we play. Whether it be a fear of falling, people watching or judging you, changing your diet, laziness… we all go through these games, and the ones that go further will be the ones winning these games, continuously pushing themselves to more, but there will always be a psychological game that we will have to overcome, the key to dealing with it is realizing this, training ourselves to overcome these obstacles easier. Training, not just the body, but the mind… Look at Alex Honnold for example, to us climbers we know that he is not the strongest climber or the best climber, but look at the psychological obstacles that he has to overcome to do the things that he does, and at the same time you can go to some crag and see a stronger climber than Honnold getting the leg shakes on a 5.10 because they haven’t gotten over the psychological fear of heights, or doesn’t want to make a move because the hold is too sharp and it hurts too bad to deal with that short temporary pain…do we really want these simple things to hold us back?

Alex Honnold "Honnolding"
Photo by Jimmy Chin

Now for the mental games surrounding training and the overall health aspects, such as the normal laziness that most people have…yes, it is laziness, stop coming up with every excuse in the book to give different reasons on why you cannot train, like you work and go to school and don’t have time to train. Even you know that it’s an excuse because you just plain don’t feel like doing it when the time comes, and even if the time doesn’t come, you can create different workouts and training to do while at school or work (ex. Leg raises in your chair). If you truly want to improve yourself, than start earning it. Change your diet, drink more water, and make the changes that are needed, overcome what is keeping you from doing that. Yea I love taco bell too, but do you really need it? Go home and make homemade spicy turkey tacos, they are much better for you and most likely cheaper. The more of these mental games that you overcome, the easier the thought of overcoming the next will be.

How to improve your mental game? You want to overcome these psychological obstacles that you have? Well for training and health choices you could spend money listening to positive affirmations, getting hypnotized, altering your brain waves, or listening to subliminal messaging, but the truth is there are no shortcuts… you need to earn this, yes you can read this and get motivated to actually get up and train or eat healthy, and that might work for an hour, a day, two days…but what it really comes down to is conquering your mind, really making that change, not just for a day or two, or a week, but a lifestyle change, you have to truly want to be a better you.

Improving your mental game while climbing? Continue to face your fears, push yourself further, deal with those sharp holds a little bit longer, put yourself just out of your comfort zone. The only shortcut is actually dealing with these psychological obstacles, becoming not just a better climber, but a better you. If it were easy, everyone that can train could be an awesome climber, but these psychological obstacles are what separates us, they are what keeps the average climber from getting really strong training, and what keeps the really strong climber from making those moves when it really comes down to it. Do you really want to let your brain, your thoughts, and your laziness, keep you from being the best that you can be? Not just in climbing…but in life.  You are the only one that is holding you back, nobody else, nothing else. You are your own worst enemy, so put yourself out of your comfort zone every day, learn to persevere, and these psychological skills will become automatic, your new psychological behaviors will become a part of your life.

Challenge: Try taking ice cold showers everyday for a month! Teach your mind to persevere through uncomfortable situations, and improve your health in the mean time! This should allow you to make lifestyle changes easier, when you realize you can conquer your mind.

I feel like I have left a lot out on this subject, but it is endless... If you have anything that you want to learn or have more research on within the mental aspects of climbing and training then let me know...I'm sure another post involving the mental aspects of climbing will come soon.