Bouldering: 4 tips to unlock your ‘try hard’

Flo Tilley

Professional climbing and mindset coach Flo shares some key strategies for improving focus and building a solid mental foundation to up your bouldering game...

To truly access the full extent of your physical and mental effort when you climb, complete focus and presence is essential. To start with, reflect on where your attention is focused before, during and after you climb. Your attention might be focused on certain thoughts, beliefs, or on external sources such as others climbing. Do these focuses of attention enable you to give the move everything you have?

The following tips will help you develop an awareness of where your attention is focused, how to deal with distractions and increase presence and focus so that you can put in maximum effort…

1.  Embrace failure

Becoming frustrated by failure is a distraction and can negatively impact confidence. It diverts focus to what you haven't achieved rather than what you can do. “I’m not strong enough”, rather than “Am I giving this move everything I have? How can I find more tension for this move by shifting my body position”. Failure is an essential element of pushing your limits as it provides opportunities for learning and growth. On the flip side, confidence increases our trust in ourselves so finding the right challenge zone where there are still opportunities to experience success is important. 

2.  Cultivate playfulness

A playful approach encourages experimentation and intuitive movement, combining being calm and connected with focused and mobilised energy, allowing your body to climb naturally without the need to over-control every move. Create silly challenges or wild beta on your projects, make it social and laugh at your mistakes.

3.  Develop a pre-performance routine

A well-practiced pre-performance routine prepares your mind for the climb, increases  focus, boosts confidence, and helps you enter your optimal "zone" for intense effort. Experiment to find a routine that suits you, even if it's as simple as: 

• 4 deep breaths, followed by 

• Route reading, followed by

• Feel the chalk on your fingertips before pulling on

  
  

Remember, practice and experimentation are key to finding what works for you!

4.  Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness, the practice of non-judgmental attention to the present moment, enables you to recognize when your mind has wandered and gently guide it back. Maybe your attention is drawn to who is watching or the noises you can hear. Maybe more internal such as fear of falling or the possibility of sending. Having the skill to bring attention back to the feeling of a crimp or the generation of momentum off a foothold is essential for channeling your full effort into a climb. Being more mindful of the state of your body may also help as a reminder to take longer rests! 

• Off the wall, practice mindfulness with apps such as Headspace or Waking Up to improve your ability at noticing and redirecting attention. 

• On the wall, if you notice the mind wandering in an unhelpful direction- bring it back to doing just “one more move”. See what happens - you might surprise yourself!

  
  

Feeling inspired to unlock your 'try hard'? Find out more about Flo's Mindset Coaching For Climbers.