Getting New Rock Climbers Ready for Sport Lead Climbing
More progressions.
If you are a frequent visitor to our YouTube channel or our blog, you know that I am a big believer in progressions. My believe in progressions comes from my belief in the “exposure” theory of human adaptation to change.
Every new experience can (it may not, but it can) illicit fear. That isn’t exactly a stretch when we are talking about climbing or other moderately risky outdoor activities. The first time you rappel, you are dangling out over a cliff, trusting your life to a rope the width of your finger, a carabiner that weighs about an ounce-and-a-half, a belay device that weighs even less than that, and maybe (usually, for us) a piece of cord that is a backup but is only half the width of the rope. Now, all of this is actually perfectly safe, but it doesn’t feel that way. Your head knows the carabiner can hold tens of times of your weight, but the rest of your nervous system doesn’t. It is unnatural to back off a cliff.
That’s what I’m talking about. The way to work through the fear it to take the big skill of rappelling off of a cliff and break it down into smaller parts and smaller experiences. Do the rappel set up over and over again while on the ground (so you aren’t developing fear-based OCD as you set it up on top of the cliff); rappel a short distance in a gym or from a banister in your house (where a fall can’t kill you) before going out tens of meters above the ground on the real thing; have a more experienced person by your side ensuring you are double checked and ready to go so that you aren’t reliant on just yourself and your own careful practices (at least for the first number of times).
By taking small parts of the big event and “exposing” yourself to a little part of the event, you can work through the fear that comes with that step in the bigger process. And just like driving a car, you are no longer scared every time you climb in and start driving because you’ve done it so much. You body becomes adapted to the stimulus created by the activity until the activity doesn’t feel as scary.
That’s the psychological underpinnings behind my ceaseless attempt to progress my kids through these skills. I want them to have positive experiences that leave them enjoying the time we spend outside and excitedly looking forward to doing them again; that is not what we are going to get if the kids are terrified all the time. So, these small doses of exposure are given time and time again until they demonstrate they are ready to head out and do the real thing. Then, the real thing is fun and the kids feel the work paying off: ‘I practiced this a lot, and now I am doing it and doing it well.’ That positive reinforcement can lead to the type of profound sense of accomplishment that bring them back, again, or ready to try learning the next set of skills.