Introduction

Climbing is clearly a 'psychological' sport, and the purpose of this chapter is to introduce some of the sychological skills, which can help you to improve your climbing while making it safer and more enjoyable. These are anxiety-control, self-confidence, attention-control and problem-solving skills. Just like physical skills they can all be learning and some people will learn them much more easily than others.

ANXIETY-CONTROL SKILLS

Every climber has experienced the negative effects of anxiety at some stage during climbing; and it is easy to think of examples of such negative effects, ranging from mild cases of 'sewing-machine leg' (a wobble produced by fatigue) to backing down from a route, which is well within your capability. However, anxiety can also have several beneficial effects, provided that you can stay in control. The symptoms of anxiety are usually considered to fall into two different categories- worry and physiological arousal. Essentially, worry involves thoughts or images about the consequences of failing or falling off, while physiological arousal is part of the body's natural defense mechanism- the famous 'fight or flight' response. Examples of physiological arousal include increased adrenaline, a dry mouth, sweaty hands and wanting to go to the
lavatory. These symptoms are not necessarily bad: for example, increased adrenaline raises heart rate and therefore moves more oxygen to the musculature where it will be needed; increased sweat in the pores of the skin reduces the probability of it tearing; and going to the lavatory reduces the weight which you will have to carry. On the other hand, increased adrenal also results in increased muscle tension –which is why climbers sometimes get 'gripped up' when they are anxious.

In an exactly similar way, worry can also play both a useful and distracting role. For example, worry is a
valuable source of motivation, not just to climb well but also, much more importantly, to concentrate and climb carefully. Lack of worry is probably one of the major reasons why so many accidents occur on relatively easy ground rather than on very difficult terrain. This is, of course, particularly noticeable in the Alps and other big mountain areas, where accidents frequently occur on descents. ON the other hand unrestrained worry can be a source of immense distraction on a route, which at best results in hesitancy and a lack of commitment, and at worst leads to mistakes and serious accidents.

The key to all this is probably fairly obvious. If you are going to use anxiety to your benefit, or even just
cope with it well enough to get up your route, you must be able to control both the worry and physiological
components of it. There are many different relaxation strategies, which can be learned to enable you to do this, but for our purposes they can be grouped into physical relaxation and mental relaxation strategies. Many top-class climbers acquire such control skills as a matter of course during their climbing. However, there is little doubt that many climbers of all grades would benefit from following a formal course in relaxation training. At least two relaxation strategies immediately sprs a technique to enable people to gain very precise control of each different muscle group in the body. It is thereforing to mind as having a lot of potential for rock climbers. Progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) was originally devised as not just a relaxation technique. IT can also have a direct effect upon performance by enabling you to 'smooth away' unwanted tension in a particular muscle group and thereby conserve energy.

Another technique, which appears to have a great deal of potential for climbing, is meditative relaxation.
There are, of course, many different types of meditation, but they all work by slowing down the metabolism and occupying the mind with something simple and harmless to quieten and calm it. Meditative relaxation leads naturally into another technique called cantering. Which is extremely useful for regaining control of yourself when a situation is starting to slip away – for instance, when you start gibbering on the crux!
The following exercises may prove useful.

Exercise 1

Relax for a few minutes, focusing your attention on each exhalation of breath. Breathe easily and slowly, using your diaphragm. Notice how comfortable you feel with each breath out.
Next switch your attention to your body and slowly scan up it, starting at your feet and moving on to your calves, thighs, buttocks, back, stomach, neck, head and face, then back down to your shoulders, upper arms, and finally your forearms and hands. As you scan your body, make a mental note of where it is tense. Do not try to change the tension; just be aware of it. Notice that, as you do this, your body relaxes itself!

After a few minutes, bring yourself back to the 'here and now' by taking five or six progressively deeper
inhalations. After the sixth, stretch and get u
Finally, if you do decide to learn some relaxation skills, try to choose a course of tape-recorded package taught by someone who knows what they are doing as good training programmes by necessity should contain a number of important safe-guards.