Page 36 - 2016 AMA Spring

Getting your
Head into Gear
Brain Stretch
To warm up your mind before a climb, begin by warming the body with some easy traversing or an easy route. Focus your attention into your body – start by feeling the feet, each movement, each sensation, breathe into you feet. Work up to your centre of gravity, your hips, again feeling each sensation and breathing into the centre of gravity. Repeat through the hands, particularly mindful of over-gripping and finally the face, where we often hold tension through grimacing, gritting teeth or frowning. If you find it difficult to keep your awareness within your body, try climbing very slowly and absolutely silently, so not even a foot-fall is heard as you traverse sloth-like in a continuous graceful fashion.
By Dr Rebecca Williams
Blinking our way out of winter hibernation and hopefully emerging with a honed sense of excitement and expectation, many climbers will be thinking: ‘This is it! This will be my
Season.’ A magical six months between April and October, where it feels like we might, we just might, make our climbing dreams a tangible reality.
Bodies and souls may be itching for some real rock after what’s been one of the coldest winters for years, but brains must be re-ignited and engaged if we are to climb to our fullest ability. In this new series, I’ll be bringing in principles from cognitive-behavioural therapy and mindfulness, as well as hypnotherapeutic techniques, together with demystifying some of the sports psychology literature and distilling it all into practical exercises for you to try at the crag.
To help train your brain to enhance your climbing - it’s a muscle that needs exercising just like your fore-arms – we’ll be working through a simple cycle.
The Cycle
As you step outside this spring you need to pay attention to these four critical elements:
Setting Your Intentions...
Prepare
Spending time visualising ‘real rock’ will pay dividends. Brains can get a little rusty, so kick-start it by seeing, thinking, drinking in rock and routes. This includes reading articles, guides and books, walking under crags, spying out boulders, gazing at inspiring pictures.
Set your goals, and be sure to elaborate these away from merely say ‘Cemetery Gates’ to something richer such as ‘to go for an early morning lead on Cemetery Gates, feeling fit, focused and alert, with a partner I trust, ready to flow over the rock and see what unfolds.’ Can you see it, taste it, smell it and dream about it?
Be Aware
How will you tiptoe towards your goal? What skills do you need to work on? What techniques, moves, gear placements and rock types? What are your weaknesses? These are all important questions to ask yourself.
Envisage how you will develop concentration and focus on the rock, tuning in to how your body moves. Become aware of self-talk and autopilot phrases that may have limited you on past climbs. Become aware of when and how you drifted out of the present and into mental dialogue. Your belayer is a valuable asset in this, as they will have often noticed tension or habits before you become aware of them.
34 ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Consolidate
Your plan should be to start with routes that aren’t too challenging; focusing on how you climb them, the here-and-now rather than thinking too far ahead, how gear is placed etc. all in minute detail. Imagine how you are going to tune in to the movement of muscles, spending time consolidating technical skills, improving weaknesses, or working on your dream route’s specific types of move on similar routes.
Feedback
Elaborate your past successes and analyse but do not dwell on what didn’t work. Focus instead on solutions and on seeing all the little things you did do well. Plan to focus your energies this season on what you wish to feed and grow. The intention is not to self-criticise.
When Climbing...
Prepare
Warm up! Your brain needs to warm up as much as your body, yet so few climbers spend enough time on this vital part of the day. Attend to the route, spend time visualising it, spot your rests and gear, even on climbs you know well or which won’t challenge you. Practice within your comfort zone what will need to be automatic when you have left it. Make sure your belayer understands what it is you need from them for this route.
Be aware
Become aware of your pre-climb routines. Are they helpful to you, aiding the process of tuning in? Notice whether your attention wanders mid-climb. Practice ‘locating’ different parts of your body with your mind – where is your weight? Which muscle is most tense? Being able to direct our awareness to exactly where we want it is a skill that takes time to learn.
Consolidate
Focus on the process, develop routines and habits that keep your mind in the HERE AND NOW. Practice re-anchoring yourself in your body and the rock when your attention wanders (as it inevitably will).
Feedback
Review the day’s climbing in video-journalism detail. This will help you develop planning, sequencing and visualisation skills, in addition to reinforcing a positive mindset. Keep a logbook perhaps and remember success is found not only in completing a route but also in each well-executed move, each carefully constructed belay, and in the shared moments of inspiration found within wild landscapes.
Prepare
Be aware
Consolidate
Feedback
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