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Episode 01: Fear of Falling in Climbing

Author – Kevin Roet

Probably one of the greatest aspects that holds back most people is, the fear of falling in climbing.  Where the feeling of fear prevents us from trying moves where we think we may fall off, instead prefer to downclimb 4-5 moves to the safety of a tight rope, as an example.

We train physically to get stronger, learn climbing technique and acquire skills, and expect to be able to deal with falling straight off.  Whether you learn skills and technique on a course, or from friends, we have an expectation to be able to deal with falling from a great height, or maybe we just don’t know how to learn this aspect within climbing.

 

Why?

There are no training courses for this, or most coaches do not have the information on how to teach this.  Just like expecting the day after you pass your driving test to be able to drive an F1 car, or expecting after a few sessions being able to drop into a big half pipe with a skateboard.  All unrealistic expectations.  Why do we expect to be able to cope with sometimes extremely high levels of fear, in falling in climbing, like going from 0 to 100mph.

Just like learning to ride a bike, we start slowly and a little at a time.  Even when we are first cycling by ourselves, it still looks like we may fall off.  Every time we go out on our bike we get a little better.  This is exactly the same in falling in climbing.  We start small, and build this up slowly over time.  If we push too hard too soon, this can have the opposite effect, and leave us traumatised to never return to climbing.  Or even unable to push our own boundaries, and staying within our comfort zone.

The fear of falling in climbing can be a real hindrance in our performance and enjoyment.  It is a built-in mechanism with its sole purpose to preserve our life.  And falling within climbing is something we need to build up slowly over time, and desensitise ourselves to.

 

What can we do about it?

To gain a better understanding of fear, and how it manifests in the mind/brain and what we can do about it, we are able to help.  We run workshops, one-to-one coaching and even online coaching to help you achieve your climbing goals.  Please check the link below:

WORKSHOPS
ONE-TO-ONE COACHING
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