Simple But Effective Mental Techniques

by paddo

Posted on 2019-10-12

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In this post I will present to you some mental techniques. As with many sports, bouldering is a physical activity but also requires good mental skills. There are two mental techniques I find particularly useful in bouldering and in any challenging life situation. The first one is visualisation and the second is controlling our attention. These techniques take time and practice to build, just like a muscle takes time to build in the body. How do we do this? Well by practice! I will explain each technique and also give you ways you can build and strengthen these skills with some exercises. It is important to understand it does really take time to build these skills, it won't happen overnight. Persistence is the key!

Visualisation 

Visualisation involves utilising the senses and rehearsing in your mind accomplishing the goal you want to achieve. You may also hear it called rehearsal, because that is exactly what you are doing, you are rehearsing for the real thing, much like a pianist rehearsing before the concert, for example. When using visualisation in bouldering try to imagine what the holds feel like, how you would be grasping them and the feeling of executing the moves on the rock. It can be hard to visually picture in your mind what you are trying to achieve, so instead focus more on how it feels when rehearsing the boulder problem in your mind or whatever task you are visualising. 

Controlling Attention

Controlling attention is about focusing on what you are doing while allowing thoughts or feelings, but not allowing those thoughts and feelings to capture or shift your attention, but remaining focused on the task at hand. We can be distracted by thoughts that we choose to pursue, by giving them our attention. You can try a couple of simple exercises. Sit still and focus on your breathing. Every time your attention is pulled away from your breathing by a thought or emotion or feeling just focus it back on your breathing. Do this for 5 minutes and you will see it is quite a challenging exercise. You can also practice sitting still and let thoughts float into your mind, however do not allow yourself to get hooked on a particular thought or pursue it. Just let them come and go.

These are a couple of techniques I use. If you have any more useful mental techniques you can leave a comment.

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