UKH

Hi, 

I thought I'd start another post! This time more positive than my last "three nights under gly talk" and "full time being a killer"  Starting with the question of

1.

"what do you say to yourself, when the climbing gets tough, scary, bold or hard?" 

2.

"Do you talk to yourself before, on the ground, of a hard lead. If so, what are you saying and how does this impact your experience, choices or success on the route ans post climbing" 

I respect you might not want to add anything to this. If so, you dont have to. Just sparking discussion and seeing what works for different people in different situations. Feel free to add anything!

In reply to BC:

When things get a bit spicy I start to hear in my head, or begin to hum, the riff to ‘This must be the place’ by The Talking Heads. Not sure why, could be to do with the scene in Stone Monkey of Jonny Dawes making the first ascent of a seemingly featureless E5 (6?) face and taking a huge pendulum whipper, screaming with excitement as he drops. 

The tune seems to soothe me anyhow.

JRJG 

In reply to BC:

When I'm climbing well (which hasn't been for a couple of years) I tell myself there are two options. Carry on up or retreat. If I decide to carry on up I literally turn my head off there and then and crack on up the climb.The alternative to this is jibbering all the way to the top of a route with doubts setting in left, right and centre, a much more dangerous proposition. 

The problem is getting into that first state of mind is difficult. For me I need to be climbing a lot, be climbing with the right person, and really, really want the route. It's rare! 

Being able to get into this state of mind is so much more important to success in trad climbing than any fingerboarding or training downing the gym. It's also the most difficult to learn which I think is why most people tend to skip it.

In reply to BC:

1. i find giving myself a running commentary helps me to rationalise everything and make things seem more positive "that holds not too bad", "my foot Shouldn't slip off there" and so on. 

2. if leading something at the top of my grade i normally just want to get on it with minimum fuss. no talking to myself or anything like that. i think that is partly to prevent myself an opportunity to talk myself out of doing the route!

In reply to BC:

"Come on arms, do your stuff" ® Big Ron

In reply to BC:

1. "Don't be a wuss, don't be a wuss..."

2. I visualise topping out, and go through the motions of a warm-up. I used to orienteer quite seriously and trained myself to use the warm-up to get in the zone. By mimicking that I gain lots of focus and a sort of mindfulness removal of distractions.

I find all this much harder to do on second such that I honestly find it scarier which is obviously daft.

In reply to tlouth7:

"If you fall off here, you will die" works for me as a motivator

In reply to BC:

On route....

a) when it is easy I whistle or sing.

b) when it is quite tricky I swear a lot

c) when it is downright dangerous I go very very quiet.

In reply to JRJG:

It's the Wallace and Gromit theme for me for some unknown reason

In reply to BC:

"top rope, top rope, top rope, top rope..."

"pump is an illusion, pump is an illusion, pump is an illusion"

"breathe, remember to breathe" (very occasionally followed by breathing)

"f*ck me nearly there, don't cave in now, arrrgh"

"woah!"

In reply to BC:

I hum 'Singing in the rain'.  Every now and then I'll talk to myself in a condescending tone - 'Come along now, poppet, you'll be fine'.  Seems to work.

In reply to BC:

I don't climb anymore but when I did especially in the early years and I found myself spooked I'd generally be humming some little ditty or endlessly recycling a fragment of an irrelevant song off the radio, not necessarily dealing very well with the situation, partially distracted from it. Basically just keeping myself company and from fixating on what was concerning me. Latterly my head was quieter when things went wrong but with more experience the available options were expanded slightly and the unknowns were often lesser too, I could generally work my way through them methodically, choose, then get on with the task in hand without need for distraction.

These days when it becomes unavoidably apparent I've exhausted my meagre gliding talent beyond the reach of home there's a very clear moment where a slightly freaked out voice in my head erupts "****, this can't be happening again!" then shortly after and fairly calmly I just get on with working through the necessary tasks. More like my latter years approach to climbing than the slightly distracted denial of my earlier years.

Funny things brains.

jk

In reply to BC:

The theme from the A Team.

The nice thing about it, is you can sing almost any words to the song.

"fuck this shit, fusk this shit, fuuuck this shit fuuck this shit"

"This is hard, this is hard, why are we here, whhhy we here"

"that don't fit, that stupid nut don't fit, what can we do, tryy not to poo"

In reply to BC:

"Watch it, slow, steady, easy..... Watch it, slow, steady, easy..... Watch it, slow, steady, easy....."

Keeps me calm, focused, non-panicky

In reply to Alex Riley:

I don't need motivation not to fall off, I need motivation to make scary moves. Somehow I'm not sure that would do it...

The other thing I tell myself is "you'll regret it if you bail out here, it's supposed to be fun".

In reply to BC:

Usually "f*ck that" followed by "lower me off"

In reply to BC:

"I'm on a top rope! I'm Jerry F*cknig Moffatt!" Seems to work if you whisper it quietly to yourself. 

In reply to BC:

Nothing. 

In reply to BC:

I've only done it once in my life. I'd soloed some easy 3000er in Austria; just before I got to the top I moved round an arete and was greeted by a golden eagle coming the other way and putting the brakes on in full flight, about 6 feet in front of my face. It still remains about the most magnificent thing I've ever seen in my life. It threw me off so much that I lost the route on the descent and found myself halfway down a steep and incredibly chossy face with no idea where I was heading, and very scared. I think the loudly spoken monologue went something like: "You're going to try that hold. Ok. Three points. Foot down there. Slowly. Shit. Try that one. Ok. F+ck. You're going to drink a beer at the hut, you're going to do this. Next move." ... and so on for the 5 minutes it took me to get into the saving gully.

When I got back to the hut they told me that I'd been off route on the way up as well (I was 19). That really pissed me off, considering it was a well-defined ridge route, so I had another couple of beers and decided I had to start getting my sh*t together.

In reply to BC:

I’ll usually tell myself to just carry on. Normally the talking to is only needed (or indeed possible) in a resting position so I’ll just ask myself if I want to stay here for much longer or get on with it. In extremis I can’t remember ever having a thought I could put into words.

In reply to BC:

For me it's all about the breathing. When I was doing kung fu obsessively, we used to experiment with sitting and doing "Chi breathing", which was basically the usual meditational breathing with mystic frills, designed to "switch off", or get real "zen",or get "in the moment", whatever you want to call it. Once in the zone, the aim was to then attempt to hold that state, stand up, and start sparring with a partner and maintain that headspace and simply react to your partner's attacks on an almost subliminal level. I'm a very sceptical soul, and did not buy into any "spiritual" side of this, but it certainly had an amazing effect on controlling the fear that went with sparring, and occasionally, very occasionally, I found that I was reacting without any conscious thought, which was truly incredible. This, I would say, was the closest I've ever come to feeling "in the zone". Some years later, when I started climbing, I spent a short time with a guy who could climb F8a. He encouraged me to do something similar to what I'd been doing in kung fu, which was, before starting up a route, to just touch  the rock with both hands, breathe deeply, and meditate...just briefly (chi breathing), and then start climbing. I still use this now, just a brief communing  with the rock (yes, all spiritual, touchy-feely-like), then once I'm focussed on calm, I start climbing, trying to keep the breathing and focus. Works for me (not always!)...it's a calm place I can refind relatively easily if the shit starts hitting the fan somewhere higher on the route. For some reason the "touching of the rock" has some symbolic power to get me in the zone more effectively. (Time for another spliff).

In reply to BC:

"this would be a particularly bad place to panic ..."

and sometimes "pay attention to detail"

In reply to BC:

"I must not fear, fear is the mind killer."

or

"A committed foot never slips."

Throw in a few f-bombs and it usually sorts my head out.

In reply to BC:

I sometimes find myself making up lyrics to songs describing the predicament I'm in.

Recent good ones have been (to the tune of all the single ladies) "if you liked it then you shoulda put a sling on it" and (to the grand old Duke of York) "when there were nuts there were nuts, and when there were cams there were cams, but when he was was only half way up, there were neither nuts nor cams!"

In reply to BC:

I use what I read in Mark Twights book extreme alpinism - I listen to the sound of a carabiner gate snapping shut and use it to trigger a "relax" moment. I take a deep breath, and start to look around me, scanning for holds and take in where each one is before beginning to move again. I might also note where the next gear is, whether there is a particularly large good resting hold coming up etc. Failing that I just chant f*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck in my head.

In reply to Durbs:

Whenever I used to say that it meant I was screaming for one.....   

In reply to BC:

Not much going on up top with me. Maybe "Come on". "Come ON" when you've fallen off the boulder problem for the 8th time. Or "come on, come on, come on, come on" for a more sustained effort.

In reply to BC:

Take!  But I say it out loud.

In reply to BC:

I usually make a positive running commentary on the climbing: 'that's a good foot, go on, step up on it', 'that hand is fine', 'that move is well within my abilities', 'there's nothing to hit below me', 'the gear is bomber', etc (obviously only if it's true that the gear is bomber or it'd be a safe fall!). I've also jokingly stolen a couple of Jerry Moffatt's favourites from Mastermind - particularly 'I can shake out on any hold!'. It's patently not true, but it does good things for the mind

I used to often make quite a negative running commentary - 'come on Mark, stop being shit' and such things, but it took me a while to realise that that really isn't helpful in the slightest. It's amazing how disproportionate an effet that sort of negativity can have on your performance or mindset.

In reply to BC:

Watch me! WATCH ME!!

In reply to BC:

If I'm intimidated at the bottom it usually starts with the mantra "Don't die. Doooooooon't die. Don't die". Started as a bit of a joke but now it happens involuntarily. 

If I'm pumped and/or scared higher up it's replaced with lots of "F*CKIN'ELL!" followed by "F*CK ME!" once I'm through it. I should wash my mouth out with soap. 

In reply to Tialneques:

The dune phrase is exactly what i use!

In reply to BC:

I tell myself 'I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!' then I laugh maniacally, then scream 'i'm alive!'. Laughter helps.
 

What a hilarious post.

In reply to BC:

I thin k when I get myself into a tricky position, I tend to say, in pretty positive tones, "if in doubt run it out" then climb fast.  It's quite an exciting zone to be in!  All about being in the moment and enjoying what life brings next.  So far it's worked...

In reply to BC:

'Focus on performance'. 

Nicked it from Mr Randall, but it's a cracker. Forget the rest and just do that one move as well as you can. And then the next one. 

In reply to BC:

Some of the Rock Warriors Way advice is good here - particularly  the bit about reminding yourself you're here to enjoy it. This is what you've chosen to do so so relax and do so