Mental Skills Training in Youth Competition Climbing: Filling the Gap in Research and Practice
By Matt Leslie; Part II of II
As highlighted in Part I of this series, I interviewed eight youth climbing coaches about their understanding, perceptions, and use of mental skills training for my master's research at Pacific Lutheran University. The findings from these interviews led to the creation of a mental skills training workshop for youth climbing coaches. The workshop, outlined below, was created under the mentorship of Dr. Colleen Hacker, a leading scholar in applied sport and performance psychology and a certified mental performance consultant working with some of the top athletes, coaches, and business leaders in the world.
Workshop Framework: Stress Exposure Training (SET)
The workshop design was informed by the three-phase stress exposure training framework (SET; Driskell, Sclafani, & Driskell, 2014). This framework is a model for learning, developing, and applying mental skills to help athletes perform under the heightened demands of "game-day" competition. These three phases include:
Information provision: In this phase, one gains a baseline knowledge of the causes of stress, and how one may typically react (cognitively, physiologically, and emotionally) to a given stressor.
Skill acquisition: After learning the impact of such stress reactions on performance, the skill acquisition phase introduces skills (physical, tactical, or mental) that will help one adapt to the stressors.
Skill application/simulation training: After practicing the above skills in a controlled environment, the final star of SET calls for simulation training, where the skills are employed in an environment that simulates the competition environment as closely as possible.
The pilot workshop was delivered to five USAC certified youth climbing coaches from two different climbing teams in the greater Pacific Northwest region. The stress exposure training framework served as both the model for the pilot workshop delivery, and the framework for these coaches to teach mental skills to their athletes.
Information Provision: What does competitive stressors and anxiety look like?
The pilot workshop was delivered the week after USAC youth sport climbing nationals, so these coaches had very recent experiences to draw from when discussing competitive stressors and anxiety.
Competitive Stressors
Early in the workshop, competitive stressors were defined as events, situations, or conditions that cause stress in competition. In a small group discussion format, the participating coaches identified a number of competitive stressors in the insight competition climbing format, including time constraints, climbing in front of an audience, removal from usual support systems (teammates, coaches, family, and friends), and the uncertainty of time spent in isolation.
Competitive Anxiety
Next, competitive anxiety was identified as a "specific negative emotional response to competitive stressors" (Mellalieu et al., 2006, p.3). These responses can manifest both cognitively and somatically.
Cognitive anxiety manifests as negative expectations and concerns of oneself, the current situation, and the potential consequences.
Somatic anxiety is the physiological and affective response to anxiety, which can manifest as unpleasant levels of arousal or feeling states such as nervousness or tension.
Again, drawing from the recent experience at youth sport climbing nationals, the coaches identified several cognitive and somatic symptoms of anxiety presented by their athletes.
Cognitive symptoms included: negative self-talk, a fear of failure, and negatively comparing oneself to others.
Somatic symptoms of anxiety included: crying, shaking, and an increase in one's heart rate.
The Anxiety-Performance Relationship
Cognitive and somatic symptoms of anxiety can be measured by their frequency, intensity, and direction. Direction refers to the notion that one's symptoms of anxiety can be interpreted as both facilitative and debilitating to one's performance. A study by Sanchez and colleagues (2010) found that higher levels of somatic anxiety were found to increase performance in elite competition climbers. This supports the individual zone of optimal functioning theory (Hanin, 1995), which states that everyone has a range, or zone, of physiological and psychological activation, or arousal, that is optimal for performance. This range can fluctuate from total relaxation to intense excitement.
As part of the workshop, the coaches were asked a series of self-reflection questions to help them identify what it looked and felt like to be in their optimal performance zone. Specifically, they were asked to identify what emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations they experience during their best and worst performances.
Skill Acquisition: Breathing Techniques, Self-Talk, and Imagery
Next, participants were introduced to a collection of mental skills aimed to address manifestations of competitive anxiety which can help their athletes place themselves in their optimal performance zone.
Relaxation and Activation Breathing Techniques
In addressing somatic manifestations of anxiety, athletes should ask themselves: do they need to relax or get psyched up? In either case, breathing techniques can be used to regulate one's level of arousal; participants were introduced to breathing techniques to both help them relax (box breathing) and become energized (rapid breathing; Taber & Longshore, 2019).
Motivational and Instructional Self-Talk
Self-talk is one's internal dialogue, directed at oneself, that is either said in the mind or out loud (Van Raalte, Vincent, & Brewer, 2016). To address cognitive manifestations of anxiety, participants were instructed to write self-talk mantras. Participants were encourages to have their mantras incorporate both motivational and instructional functions of self-talk. Motivational self-talk ("You got this!") enhances performance through increasing confidence, effort, and creating a positive mood. Instructional self-talk talk ("heels down") enhances performance by providing cues that instigate proper attentional focus on one's technique and precise execution of strategy.
Imagery
A final psychological skill presented to the coaches was the skill of imagery, which is the act of using one's senses to create or recreate an experience in one's mind (Jeannerod, 1994). Imagery enables the practice of tactical strategies and physical, technical, and mental skills without physically partaking in the sport itself.
Participants were introduced to the practice of imagery through a route mapping activity. Route mapping calls for athletes to draw a picture of their route, and use the map as a guided script to aid in their visualization of the route. Here is a great video of Adam Ondra using a route map as part of a visualization/imagery practice during isolation. In addition to draw out the holds of the route, participants were encouraged to note specific hand and foot placements, movements, and rest opportunities. Additionally, participants were instructed to note opportunities to sue the previously taught self-talk and breathing techniques they had practiced earlier in the workshop.
Skill Application: Simulation Training
The final stage of stress exposure training is skill application. All the psychological skills (breathing techniques, self-talk, and imagery) should be taught in a controlled environment, and then performed under increasing levels of demands. This aligns with the principles of simulation training, which is when an athlete's training is designed to reflect the competitive environment as closely as possible (Hanton, Wadey, and Mallalieu, 2008). In the previously conducted interviews with youth climbing coaches, 100$ of the interviewed coaches used mock competitions, a form of simulation training, to prepare for USAC qualifying and championship events.
The workshop ended with a discussion where the coaches were asked what types of constraints they could put on their athletes' training to make the mock competitions more realistic. Some ideas included: time constraints that reflect the timing of the competition; staging an isolation period as similar to the isolation experience as possible; setting comp style boulders; and using a scoring system that reflects the scoring used in competition.
What's Next? Systematic Training
Mental skills training is the "systematic and consistent practice of mental or psychological skills for the purpose of enhancing performance, increasing enjoyment, or achieving greater sport or physical activity self-satisfaction" (Weinberg and Gould, 2019, p.262). The educational nature of this workshop introduced the coaches to the value and application of psychological skills, but for these skills to lead to enhanced performance, they must be systematically integrated into one's training. While that is outside of the scope of this initial pilot workshop, I'm excited to join the Hidden Crux team and develop resources for coaches and athletes in support of their mental skill development.
Driskell, T., Sclafani, S., & Driskell, J. E. (2014). Reducing the effects of game day pressures through stress exposure training. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 5(1), 28–43.
Hanin, Y. L. (1995). Individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model: An idiographic approach to performance anxiety. In K. Henschen & W. Straub (Eds.), Sport psychology: An analysis of athlete behavior (pp. 103–119). Movement Publications.
Hanton, S., Wadey, R., & Mellalieu, S. D. (2008). Advanced psychological strategies and anxiety responses in sport. The Sport Psychologist, 22(4), 472–490.
Jeannerod, M. (1994). The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17(2), 187–202.
Mellalieu, S.D., Hanton, S., & Fletcher, D. (2006). A competitive anxiety review: Recent directions in sport psychology research. In S. Hanton & S.D. Mellalieu (Eds.), Literature reviews in sport psychology (pp.1-45). Nova Science.
Sanchez, X., Boschker, M. S. J., & Llewellyn, D. J. (2010). Pre-performance psychological states and performance in an elite climbing competition. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20(2), 356–363.
Taber, J., & Longshore, K. (2019). Stepping on the mat: A novice practitioner’s experiences conducting a mental-training workshop for mixed martial arts athletes. Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3(1), 77–85.
Van Raalte, J. L., Vincent, A., & Brewer, B. W. (2016). Self-talk: Review and sport-specific model. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 22, 139–148.
