UKC

For some reason I have developed a fear of falling after practising indoor lead lobbing and it seemed to get worse, not so much on top ropes though.. I know that it's further to fall and the increase in fear is natural, but not this much! I don't know if there's something I should do like eat more bananas! but i thought i'd ask anyway... what does everyone else do to curb their fear?

In reply to warpig: I would try eating budgies and start to flap alot

I'm scared to death of heights and falling, when reaching the top of a climb, god help anyone stood in my way as I try to get away from the edge!

In reply to marie:



In true Top Gun form:"You can climb with me anytime(second that is!).

In reply to warpig:
just try and relax. Don't consider falling inside as a bad thing as it almost defintely won't hurt anyway, well as long as your not doing somethine stupid. Being tense not only makes your body work more, but will also inhibit your brain from finding the easyist method up there, therefore over exerting yourself. Also tends to make you grip holds too tight

I find the biggest thing which improves my climbing inside is just relaxing and believing that if I give it a go I can most likely climb it. If you concentrate on these types of thoughts it is a lot easier to climb than concentrating on the thought of the fall.

In reply to warpig:

Fear of Falling, wasn’t that title of an Equinox programme on Channel 4 back in the 90’s?

In reply to warpig:

I'm scared silly of falling too, but what Woker says makes a lot of sense. I did a mountain bike course recently and was told that the brain is bad at processing negatives but good with positives; so if you say to yourself "don't fall", you are increasing the chances of falling, whereas if you say "must power though this bit" you're increasing your chances of success.

In reply to warpig:

I'm scared silly of falling too. I used to crap myself just being high up, but that has been remedied just by keeping at it.

I climb with my Uni club (LancasterUMC), and everyone always tells me the same as Woker. Which is sound solid advice. Unfortunately, even though I know and believe this, any time I fall, even a couple of inches, my stomach does somersaults, I get a real bad adrenalin rush and I have to screw my eyes up to avoid going really dizzy. This normally results in me landing in a heap on the bouldering mat with limbs pointing in various directions. Or, if I fall on lead, the adrenalin rush will have left me too shaky to carry on. Which is fine indoors. Outdoors I just swear alot and abuse my belayer (sorry if you've ever belayed me, leading or second!).

So, thats why I don't like falling!

In reply to warpig:

I'm *very* scared of falling at the moment (I've just started to challenge myself leading indoors, and haven't taken any lobs yet), but I had a though the other day. It may seem obvious, but I'll say it anyway:

When you're leading, i think part of the fear of falling, is how high up you are. If you think about climbing in a bouldering room, you jump from at least head height comfortably. So when you're leading, you're not even going to fall that far, and you're going to bounce as well, so it won't shock your ankles. So really it's less scary than jumping off a boulding problem, just pretend that's what you're doing. Hope that made sense!

I haven't lead since this though, so I'm looking forward to seeing if it can get me in the right mindset to be prepared to take a fall.

In reply to Sarah_Clough:

I don't entirely agree. I worry about hitting the ground if I fall, so I'm more concerned lower down, though it's not so bad at the wall because of the mats. Higher up, I stop worrying, because the fall-factor is so much lower, and I know it's a lot easier for my belayer to hold me.

In reply to Woker:


Once again, you need to watch your language!

It certainly can hurt and I have the dodgy ankle to testify to that. Try taking a fairly big lob (say as you about to clip) on a mildly overhanging wall (say 10-15 degrees) and you can take quite a fall and whip back into it with some real force, particularly if your belayer takes in some slack (shortening the arc of swing or whatever the expression is). Of course, your belayer shouldnt take in slack (for this very reason) but it's kind of an instinctive reaction.

On the other hand, I agree, you won't kill yourself provided you tie in correctly and don't miss clips etc. So it's a relatively safe way to practice leading and falling. I really love leading at the wall nowadays - it's obviously a different activity to "real" climbing but it is a lot of fun.

In reply to JonC:
Every so often the Bristol wall does what it calls a Dynamic Belaying Course. It both teaches you to fall more confidently and to let out rope if appropriate when holding a fall. I've done it twice and thought was great.After two hours I was falling more two thirds of the height of the wall without even my usual girly squeal.

In reply to warpig:
Hello. I'm sort of scared of falling, I dont know. A couple of years ago I fell at an indoor wall and broke my wrist. I was being lowered off at the time and had'nt tied in proper so the harness gave way and I had the floor like a sack of.......from 30ft! I think I'm more scared of being lowered now, not the height or the fall, maybe the anticipation of waiting to see if the quipment will save me. I suppose I just need more confidence in my equipment and myself. It took me about 2yrs to get fully up to speed but the more I climb the more i forget about the accident.

In reply to warpig:

Do you climb with other people who fall off?

I find that when I climb with people that regularly fall off I lose my fear of falling. But when I climb with people who never fall off (like at the moment) I fall off less too and am more apprehensive about it.

This is on steep indoor routes, outside is different.

In reply to Sarah_Clough:


Er... I agree with the first point above, but not the second. An average leader fall on trad is, I imagine, considerably more than 1 or 2 metres.

In reply to John Alcock:


A la Johnny Dawes in Stone Monkey being given a load of slack and almost decking TR'ing what became Parthian Shot. What was the quote? "Now, there's belaying and there's f*cking belaying!" Or did I make that up in my head?!

In reply to warpig:
Falling is always going to be scary unless you are on a bolted overhang. Just use your fear as an insentive to do the climb.

In reply to warpig:
I find it's all to do with your belayer. If there's a slight doubt in your mind about their ability to hold a fall your going to be concerned. I always push the boat out more when I have faith in my belayer and know that they know what it's like to be on the sharp end of the rope.

In reply to Sarah_Clough:

It is partly that - and I have overcome "The Fear" on a few high occasions by pretending I'm lower down, or on top rope. I can be quite gullable when I'm lying to myself! Just depends how strong my head is at the time. Sometimes I don't believe my lies of "it's ok, you're on top rope and 2 ft up! You can do this!" And then when I do fall, even if jumping from the bouldering wall, I have to close my eye's to stop the dizzyness, and can't prepare for impact! Hence the tangled heaps I land in. Luckily I've never been injured, and I have been getting better at sneaking a peek while falling so I've landed better! Think I could do with focusing on one particular point for the fall duration, that would probably work. May take practice though!

Cheers,

Ragdoll XxX