GO ONE MORE

"When you're pumped and you trust your gear, you can just go for it!" Malcolm Matheson

Alex Hartshorne, onsights Hypertension 24

Pumped, scared, wincing you shout "take" and slump onto gear at your waist. We've all done it and we've all regretted. Reaching up and feeling the next hold, knowing deep down if we just had of made that next move we could have held on. The climb was ours, well not this time.

Theory has it that we have a limited scope of attention capacity, occupy it with thoughts of how pumped you are, how you just can't go on, how this hold is terrible and you might just fill your attention capacity and fail to concentrate on important cues like where the next handhold is, where your centre of gravity is, analysing the real risk in your current position, unlocking the correct sequence.

The process of thought-stopping and centering means to stop negative thoughts and replace them with good one and to recenter thoughts internally. There are four steps to the process:

1. Take a moment to stop negative talk, and replace with a positive comment.

"OH DUDE I'M SO PUMPED" vs "I'VE TRAINED FOR THIS"

2. Bring your focus inwards, take a deep breath and calm yourself.

CONCENTRATE, INHALE, EXHALE, RELAX

3. Bring you focus to the route, analyse the risk, find the next holds grips and footers.

LOOK, ASSESS, PLAN

4. Begin the next move and continue you planned sequence when you feel you have regained focus.

CRUSH

 So next time your pumped or scared or both! Take a moment go through these four steps, make an informed decision about the consequences of a fall and when safe; GO FOR IT! So don't sit on the rope knowing you could have given more because when you are safe with great gear or going for it on bolts you'll probably send, you won't regret going till you whip and it beats taking any day!

REFERENCE

Cox, H. C. (2012). SPORT PYSCHOLOGY Concepts and Applications. New York: McGraw-Hill