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When you first start bouldering, you look at the wall in the gym and you might think
“wow, this is high for climbing without a rope.”
When you really climb up and look down, you realize “wow! this is actually really high.”
You start gripping the holds harder than needed.
Your palms start to sweat.
Your heart starts racing.
You are afraid of falling.
You are feeling fear.
Before we talk about how to conquer the fear of falling in bouldering, we need to talk
about the science of fear.
Fear is an induced response from the amygdala to the combination of risk and consequences.
“Risk” is the actual likelihood of falling, and “consequences” means the severity
of what may happen to you if you do fall.
There are two kinds of fear, rational fear and irrational fear.
Rational fear in bouldering is the good kind of fear that prevents you from suffering the
consequences, which is getting injured.
Your mind reminds you that you don’t have enough preparation, so the risk of falling
is high, and it tells you to avoid it.
There are three main ways to combat rational fear.
First, learn and practice down climbing.
Once you are high up in the wall, knowing that you have a way to climb down with minimal
strength required will give you peace of mind.
I made a video detailing the techniques of down climbing a few months ago, so check it
out if you haven’t.
Second, recognize what kind of situation is riskier and be mentally prepared for it.
For example, pay extra attention and press your toes harder on slippery footholds.
I can’t count how many times I fall off the wall because I didn’t expect the foothold
to be that slippery.
Be mentally alert when you are in certain positions, like high heel hooks, horizontal
climb.
When climbing outdoors, take into account that the landing might not be flat and the
crashpad is smaller than gym pads.
Third, learn how to fall to minimize the potential consequences.
When you fall, land with both feet simultaneously and then roll back.
Do not omit the roll.
You might think you can just stick the landing, but if you don’t roll, your lower back,
knees will absorb the impact and you will definitely feel it when you get older.
When you roll back, do not reach the floor with your hands, otherwise you might hurt
your wrists and elbows.
When you practice falling, you can start with a lower height, and once you get more used
to it, you can slowly increase the height.
Now you know how to deal with rational fear, but some of you might have experienced irrational
fear.
Irrational fear is your mind playing tricks on you and telling you that you are in a dangerous
situation, but really, if you look at it objectively, you’re not.
One example could be that when you boulder on a wall higher than usual, even though the
consequence is higher than usual, the risk of falling is close to zero because the holds
are good.
To overcome this mental hurdle, you can apply a three-step technique called the “Systematic
Desensitization.”
The first step is to learn muscle detensioning.
Here is how it works.
Take a slow deep breath, contract one muscle group, for example your upper thighs, for
5 seconds to 10 seconds, then exhale, and suddenly release the tension in that muscle
group.
Relax for 20 seconds, and then move on to the next muscle group.
While releasing the tension, try to focus on the changes you feel when the muscle group
is relaxed.
The second step is to create a fear hierarchy, starting at stimuli that create the least
fear and building up in stages to the most fear-provoking situation.
For example, it could start with hanging on a rope equivalent to the height of the highest
point of a bouldering wall.
Next, climb to a certain height and stay there for 15 seconds with a spotter around.
Slowly increase the height to the highest point of a bouldering wall.
Rinse and repeat without a spotter around.
The third step is to work the way up the hierarchy.
As soon as you feel fear, apply the muscle detensioning technique.
Once you feel comfortable with this, move on to the next stage in the hierarchy.
Repeat till you reach to the end.
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See you in the next video.