How to get Overcome Fear in Climbing ( 2024 Guide )
The Fear of falling is one of the biggest obstacles to climbing. Climbers for all types of climbers: trad, sport and bouldering. The fear of getting whiplash can keep you from presenting your project, achieving your goals, and limiting you more than you think.
The fear of falling is real, and the only way to overcome it is to accept your fear and do something about it.
This article is for those who believe that the fear of falling may hold them back and provides exercises that can be used to overcome the fear and ultimately overcome the fear of falling.
Tips to Overcome Fear of Falling
Start Practicing Falling
To more easily overcome the fear of falling, you need to get used to falling. Climbing experience helps, but actively falling will speed up the process. Start incorporating fall exercises into your workout. Start at the bottom, move up and slowly move up until you are out of the cutting range.
It’s scary to force yourself to fall, but it will benefit your ability to climb.
In his book 9 Out of 10 Mountain Climbers, Dave McLeod says, “The hardest workout for a loser is the first, and if you train more thoroughly, each workout will be easier than the last.”
Do some exercises before each climbing session and you will find that you will feel more comfortable.
And don’t limit yourself to the gym: to feel comfortable falling, you need to do it on real rock. Internal comfort is not the same as external comfort.
Don’t limit yourself to the gym, you also have to practice falling on a real rock. Just because you feel comfortable indoors doesn’t mean you’ll be equally comfortable outdoors. Practicing falling on real rock is something most climbers do every year as this is the season they begin to gain confidence in their falling abilities.
Retrain Your Mind
Falling feels wrong, and that’s what makes it so scary. It’s normal to feel nervous when you suddenly get whipped. However, this “wrong feeling” can be reprogrammed. This feeling will probably never go away completely, but the more you practice falling, the more you will become accustomed to the idea of falling.
It is unlikely that you will feel any significant difference after drop training. Even if you are more comfortable making “intentional” mistakes, there is a difference between intentional mistakes and unintended mistakes. Unless you feel completely comfortable with the latter, you will remain stuck in your comfort zone and panic every time you step outside of it.
To retrain our brains, we need to practice falling repeatedly in different activities, from different heights, and in different situations.
Pay attention when you’re scared
Often we get stuck on a particular problem and blame the wrong thing for what we failed to achieve. “My fingers aren’t strong enough,” “I don’t have enough reach,” and the list goes on. Often the problem is not one of access or power, but of fear.
Coming back from the ankle injury, I felt I had lost a lot of strength and stamina. I expected a drop in performance, but the difference was much larger than I expected. Do I suck now?
I quickly realized that the problem wasn’t strength or stamina, but that I was simply afraid of putting too much stress on my right ankle. I force myself into ineffective situations. Once I realized this, I knew I would never get back to my pre-injury level until I felt confident in my ankle again. So I faced the fear and slowly forced myself to put more and more weight on my ankles.
Using the same technique I recommend to climbers overcoming their fear of falling, I overcame my fear by gradually forcing myself to put more and more weight on my ankles.
When we are afraid we cannot perform. If we are afraid of falling we clench our fists, which wastes a lot of energy. We will avoid risky situations out of fear. We will not put pressure on ourselves. We will get tired quickly and feel tired.
Admit your fear. Notice how and when it stops you. Whenever something isn’t working, ask yourself if fear has something to do with it. This happens often.
Only by paying attention to your fear can you work on it. Soon you will stop controlling yourself excessively and forcing yourself into more comfortable but ineffective situations.
Although it’s always scary to push the limits, as climbers we need to be comfortable enough to trust our grip, trust our feet, and trust our technique.
Materials to help you overcome your fear of falling
Material consumption is a great addition to your climbing training. I truly believe you can become a better climber by watching other climbers on YouTube or reading climbing books. So, in this section of the article, I will recommend some of my favorite resources that address the fear of falling and will help you deal with it.
About 90 percent of climbers use the same mistakes.
One of my favorite mountaineering books, 9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes by Dave McLeod (mentioned above), has a great chapter on the fear of falling and how to overcome it.
If you’re not familiar with this Scottish mountaineering legend, he has a YouTube channel which also contains lots of valuable free information, some of which is about fear.
My fellow climbers love a good climbing book full of tips and anecdotes, 9 out of 10 climbers get a chef’s kiss.
Fear Of Falling Hard Series It is easy
Here’s a great video series from Hard Is Easy documenting Hannah’s process of overcoming her fear of falling during the transition from indoor quarantine to outdoor recreation. The full playlist consists of 7 of the highest quality climbing videos YouTube has to offer. Add it to Watch Later and you won’t be disappointed.
Conclusion:
Fear of falling may seem like a big, scary monster, but with the right tricks and practice, you can turn it into a friendly companion on your climbing journey. Remember, every climber faces fear, but the bravest ones face it, conquer it, and climb to new heights. So, gear up, little adventurers, and let the fearless climbing begin!
