Climbing Performance Dilemma

Hello all,

I have come to this forum in search of peoples thoughts on a predicament I am trying to solve. Climbing is something I am extremely passionate about and enjoy it greatly(I sure hope everyone here agrees). After yearning to climb mountains as a kid, I figured starting out bouldering would be the best bet. Sure enough I was hooked and I really enjoyed the process of the whole thing. After a few years of slowly advancing to the outdoors, along came rope climbing, turns out there’s even more to love in climbing than I thought. Hard rope projecting was something quite intriguing for myself and last year I put a lot of time into this. Now more motivated than ever, I trained more often and all I thought about was my projects(not so healthy). And when the time came for a red point burn I was a nervous wreck. Definitely not the mental state you want to be in. This wasn’t a fear for safety, falls were fine and all. After much consideration and reflection I believe it to be the amount of pressure put onto myself. And as soon as I was on the wall many doubts flooded my mind, and even when they didn’t, if I ever took a fall that was all I could think about days after. And what if I had sent.

I believe this could have arisen from multiple events. Perhaps with all that time training I could have set high expectations, comparing myself to other climbers on the media, needing to prove myself to others around me, and probably numerous other reasons.

With this, projecting definitely isn’t as enjoyable even, if I feel so passionate about it. It’s interesting, it’s different than bouldering, I don’t nearly feel the same pressure that comes with projecting on a rope. I have spent much time reading Eric Horst’s “Training for climbing” book on the mental aspects in regards to projecting. But just can’t seem to break the mental block of pressure. Something else that occurs for myself is the feeling of always needing to improve. I think there’s a fine balance between over training and properly training and I am struggling to find that. I totally understand rest is of utmost concern, but I often forget this and believe I am just lazy that day. I think this is another down side to social media, in regards to comparing yourself to the pros and other peoples success. Thinking more volume=better climber. 

Back to my original point, I am curious if any of you fellow climbers have experienced the same. The need to always perform. And if there are any solutions that helped. It’s pretty epic that such a seemingly simple sport can influence so many different thoughts. If you did happen to read all of this, you’re amazing. And if anyone out there can relate let me know!

Hope you all have an epic spring season!

Cohen

I've never projected much as I felt similar pressure/stress about it. As a result my highest onsight is only half a grade below my hardest red point but onsighting and high route count days are more fun to me than a higher grade ticked

My advice would be:

Get really clear with yourself about why you are climbing, what you like about it, what you are hoping to experience when you go climbing and why. This will help illuminate where all this pressure is coming from and why.

Read Carol Dweck on mindset. The rough framework is growth versus fixed mindset. It sounds like you might benefit from exploring a more growth oriented mindset.

Reframe success from “sending the route” to “making progress” if the project is hard for you you will have many many times more attempts where you do not send and maybe one where you do. If every time you dont send is just a failure, it’s easy to have a bad time. if every attempt you learn something, that’s progress, that’s a success, suddenly you can always be succeeding, and it’s much easier to enjoy the process, and let sending kind of just happen. 

I see “projecting” as slightly different than casually red-pointing. For me, a project is a climb at or beyond my limit that will take many tries over the course of seasons. Just developing good beta and linking moves may take a long time.

But most of my red-pointing isn’t that hard.  It’s a few grades lower and I can usually send in 2-8 tries.  It’s still performance climbing, but I’m less invested and no one route dominates my attention.  I recommend this kind of climbing as a way to progress performance without beating yourself up with limit climbing.  And it’s more fun!  

+1 What Caleb said.

When you really start pushing yourself to climb harder, you soon realize you can't perform at your best every time you go out. In fact, it is probably an unrealistic expectation to place on yourself. First, be clear about what your goals are for that day. Don't forget to have fun. Forget about the red-point today. Maybe you just need to work on that one move for a while.

I learned from competitive swimming, where your real opponent is the clock, that performance is directly related to preparation. This lesson has only been reinforced in rock climbing. Another sport I was involved in was wrestling. As a coach I told my wrestlers that 9 times out of 10 the match is won or lost before anyone even sets foot on the mat. The same is true for climbing hard routes. Think about your hardest red-points; you know its going down today. You're confident, you're ready, you feel it. And, when you don't feel it, it don't happen . . .

Maybe you need to do more highball bouldering and trad routes that have consequences. Now, don't go out and get hurt. The point is that when you are doing routes that have consequences it forces you to be brutally honest with yourself about where you are at, mentally and physically, on a given day. You're going to make damn sure you're feeling it.

Man, thanks for the responses. These are all definitely useful in multiple ways. I really see a comparison on being in the moment, perhaps focusing on the problem and have no expectations for how the end plays out. And really building up a patience for rope climbing, as in general it takes much more time than bouldering. Thanks again! I love a different point of view.

The feelings that you are describing are probably experienced by a high percentage of climbers, and in my opinion, part of the game. Enjoy the process and embrace the style that makes you happiest. 

Climbing is fun!

Rich Ludwigwrote:

Think about your hardest red-points; you know its going down today. You're confident, you're ready, you feel it. And, when you don't feel it, it don't happen . . .

This hasn’t been remotely true for my hardest redpoints, but maybe true for my 80-90% hardest redpoints?  If it’s really hard, I know I’ve prepared myself to the greatest extent possible and tie in hoping that will be enough without truly knowing it.  That gamble/uncertainty is a significant part of the fun and adventure of limit redpointing for me. 

Max Tepferwrote:

This hasn’t been remotely true for my hardest redpoints, but maybe true for my 80-90% hardest redpoints?  If it’s really hard, I know I’ve prepared myself to the greatest extent possible and tie in hoping that will be enough without truly knowing it.  That gamble/uncertainty is a significant part of the fun and adventure of limit redpointing for me. 

I'm curious if you do more project/sport climbing, or more on-sight/trad climbing?

Rich Ludwigwrote:

I'm curious if you do more project/sport climbing, or more on-sight/trad climbing?

Through the course of a year it’s usually a combination of everything.  The past year or two I’ve been traveling a ton and haven’t had the opportunity to focus on single projects as much, but historically would spend 2-3 months per year (if not more) working single pitches near or at my limit.

Edit to add: I’d argue that if you’re consistently sending your hardest routes when you ‘know’ you can do it, you’re probably not actually climbing at your limit.  Personally I think part of the definition of limit climbing is that you aren’t quite sure where your limit exactly is, but are giving a project everything you have anyway and seeing what happens.