UKC

Hey

This is just a quick 2 minute, 10 question research survey, on controlling the fear of falling, to help your climbing performance.

Please could you fill it in as best you can!

Cheers!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7YH2LDN

In reply to Jez d: done, Good survey.

In reply to Jonathan Spooner: Cheers! getting some good feedback from the results as well!

Done. Forgot to add: "I try to overcome fear of falling by placing more gear, and sometimes it takes several pieces to do the trick."

In reply to Andrew Bangs: thanks for the feed back!

In reply to Jez d: Done

In reply to Jez d: Done.

In reply to Jez d:

Done.

would be interested in seeing the results too

In reply to Jez d:
done - I too would be intersted in the results.

In reply to Jim at Work:

will see what i can do when the survey stops. I'm also doing some other anxiety testing, on a group of people, before and after chosen routes to see how useful and well these techniques work.

In reply to Jez d:


Done, but your catergory for trad goes from v-dff to severe then vs to hvs, what happened to HS??

In reply to staceyjg:

hahaha sorry no one else has mentioned that cheers id completely forgotten!

In reply to Jez d:

I wasn't sure whether us mere punters were counted at our HS grade!

In reply to Andrew Bangs:

+1

In reply to Jez d:

You should get some interesting results. I'm not sure if you wanted me to answer under the assumption that good gear or a bolt is nearby but the presence (or abscence) of good gear makes a massive difference to how you are thinking about the moves, what you might be mumbling to yourself, and what you expect your belayer to do (i.e. sometimes you just want them to shut up and pretend they're not there).

In reply to Jez d:
Oops. I pressed enter after the second question hoping it would jump me to the next. Instead, it must have finished the survey very incomplete. When I clicked the link again, I could not start a new one. Wasted your time, sorry.

Cake

In reply to Cake: cheers any way! as many as possible needed, got quite a few now showing some interesting results!

In reply to Jimbo C:

Thanks for these points there all going to be taken into consideration in the write up, but didn't want to over complicate the questionnaire as it seems to put people off answering the questions, i know it bothers me when i don't understand the question or find them to complicated. So cheers for answering them the best you can !!

Jez

In reply to Jez d:

I've never been particularly bothered about length of the fall rather the quality.

Way more nervous on a VS with a bunch of ledges/crappy gear and stuff to get slammed into than a E-something climb on bomber gear on a slightly over hanging wall.

In reply to Jez d:

Good survey - looking forward to your analysis!

In reply to Jez d:

I don't have a fear of falling, it's the fear of hitting the ground that matters!

In reply to Jez d: done, i find the mental side of trad leading amazing. When you make a move that you were a bit sketched out by, that split second when the jangles settle back down is awesome.

Done

In reply to Jez d: I have never really been too bothered about the potential fall - except that it means I have failed. And quite seriously, this can be as debilitating and worrying as the potential fall.

In reply to Nick Wharton: Bang on.. the pressure of messing up an onsight i really care about or a redpoint that absolutly is taking my all every go is easily just as mentally crippling as fear of falling ever was. Escpecially since just getting off the route isnt an option!

In reply to Jez d: I would have said my comfortable lead was S-VS

In reply to Jez d: Pretty good survey!

In reply to Jack Whiteley:

sorry but had to put a cut off somewere , if not there then would have had the same effect on others. thank you for answering though!

Jez

In reply to Jez d: sorted

In reply to Nick Wharton:

It's partly fear, it's partly not wanting to have to re-climb part of the route, and it's partly (probably most significantly) not wanting to shock-load the best part of 18 stone onto my belayer (most people I climb with are substantially lighter, and even with a belay bag I still take them a fair way up), but indoors if I feel I'm going I tend to grab a hold on another route if there is one, or the top of the wall if I'm about to miss the top clip...

In reply to Jez d:

Done it, but it omits one of my most used techniques, that of humming 'Singing in the Rain' !

In reply to nniff: singing and humming seem to be the most popular other method used by loads of people!

In reply to nniff:
I find singing the Sade hit "smooth operator" is particularly helpful with trousers full of poo

In reply to Jez d:

The angel on my left shoulder sings Bob Marley
"Don't worry 'bout a thing... every little thing's gonna be alright"

The devil on my right shoulder sings Belle and Sebastian
"You're going up you're going down you're going nowhere... it's not as if they're paying you, it's not as if it's fun, at least not anymore..."

In reply to Joe G:

Cheers for the feedback, and doing the survey, over 400 of you did it so not bad! taking it down now to sort out and work with the results.

In reply to Jez d: I really need some new sort of technique to get over the fear! Iv'e been climbing for so long it shouldn't be an issue for me but it massively is and I think its holding me back a lot!

In reply to r fizzle: Sorry I missed the querstionaire.

There was a peice of research done in LJM University, that took a fall training protocol that was in CLIMB, I think it was an old Steve McClure peice. The found that they could reduce anxiety by quite a bit by training people to fall, so it wasn't such an alien experience.

I also like that many people talk about singing on the post. I will argue that this is probably a way that you can created a 'relaxed' mind by singing and at the same time probably altering your breathing.

The use of imagery (visualisation), can also help, as its origins in therapy was to help people with a variety of phobias. Essentially using deep relaxation before a therapist got the patient to then visualise the fearful stimuli. The then reprogrammed the mind to associate the fearful stimuli with the relaxed state rather than a anxious one.

Good luck with the study, would be great if you shared the results.

In reply to Mark Reeves:

I have a friend who I think invokes temporary Tourettes to deal with it!

In reply to Jez d: Always end up singing. best distraction ever.