On Episode 61 of the Enormocast, I roll the mobile studio to the Northern Corner of the Bromuda Triangle for a sit down with author Don McGrath about his book, Vertical Mind. Along with Jeff Elison, Don wrote Vertical Mind about how to train the mind to work with the body in climbing, rather than, as it often does, turn us into whimpering, scared little weasels. Don reveals that even in a simple day at Rifle, I had exhibited embarrassingly little will over my own mind and am in need of some serious reprogramming. So come along for this ride into your inner space, and maybe find some tricks for taming those fears that you didn’t even know you had.
Don’s Training Blog: Master Rock Climber
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This is a fantastic episode and I pretty much immediately ran out and picked up Vertical Mind and have been pouring over it ever since. The material is so easy to relate to and points out many flaws in my climbing game I’m now trying to isolate and mitigate. Really great stuff and keep the episodes coming!
Great episode guys!
Chris, since you read both Vertical Mind and Rock Warrior’s Way, could you compare one to the other in a bit more detail? Specifically, I am looking for exercises and tips on how to break through my mental barriers and am unsure which would be better for me…
Also, Don’s website seems to be down…
I’d check them both out. Its been a while since I read Rock Warrior’s Way, but as I said on the podcast, it approaches things from a slightly more “spiritual” way. By this I mean kind of a yoga, meditative way. And by this I mean…well, there’s very little specific science in there. But it still has some very useful and practical advice. Vertical Mind simply has a much more clinical and scientific approach to some of the same problems. Both really look at fear and habits as the base problems- either fear of failure or falling (physical consequences) and they both look at the way our brains sort of short circuits some of our performance as a protection mechanism.
But I really don’t think you have much to lose by looking at both (besides a few bucks- just skip dinner for a few days).