Vertical Mind: Psychological Approaches for Optimal Rock Climbing

by Don McGrath, Jeff Elison

In Vertical Mind, Don McGrath and Jeff Elison teach rock climbers how to improve their mental game so they can climb better and have more fun. They teach how the latest research in brain science and psychology can help you retrain your mind and body for higher levels of rock climbing performance, while also demonstrating how to train and overcome fears and anxiety that hold you back. Finally, they teach climbing partners how to engage in co-creative coaching and help each other improve as climbers. With numerous and practical step-by-step drills and exercises, in a simple to follow training framework, your path to harder climbing has never been clearer. If you are a climber who wants to climb harder and have more fun climbing, then Vertical Mind is required reading. Well, what's stopping you? Pick it up and get training today!

Genres: Climbing, Nonfiction, Outdoors, Self Help, Psychology, Sports, Audiobook

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Mykolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read that I would recommend to pretty much everyone who is willing to improve their lives or athletic performance. Sure this is a climbing book so most examples are focused on climbing and most issues discussed are climbing related, but almost everything can be translated to any other althletic activity or life in general.

Climbing is a strange. For me it is purely a hobby, I am not even a good climber by any means, not internationally, not locally, not at my gym and not even among my friends, however it is still a big part of my life and my identity. This has led to numerous problems, for example fear of failure and even unhealthy amount of time spent climbing or training for climbing, to the point where I would feel frustrated to skip a training session to have a beer with friends.

This book will adrress many such problems and ways to overcome these crippling habits. I want to improve my climbing, I also want to have a healthier relationship with my favorite activity and I want to have more fun and less negative emotioms and thoughts when I am out climbimg, so I had a very open mind while reading this book hence it reflected greatly to me. I found many areas to fix on my approach to climbing and life in general with great tips and advices how to achieve that.

To incorporate what I've learned to my life and climbing and actually improve is now up to me.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, but I liked Espresso Lessons: From the Rock Warrior's Way better.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insight read into the psychology of climbing and fear. I think this will be a very useful tool in upping my game, and honestly helping to replace negative scripts in my head. The section on co-creative coaching was interesting with how talking can help or hinder progress, and really could be useful in any type of relationship. Now to apply it to my climbing!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredibly thought provoking and a stellar read. If you have any desire to improve your climbing ability this is an absolute must-read. We focus so much on the physical component of training, but this sheds light on the mental capacities that must be developed to further your progress. On top of aiding my climbing mind, I feel like it has also brought awareness to maladaptive scripts I use in other activities as well. It provides a great framework to focus on progress and help you to improve.

[Kelly Hatcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a noob and have been indoor bouldering for less than 5 months. Currently sending V2s and usually 1-2 3s and an occasional 4 per session. It's around 20 feet to the top and scary! This book showed me that everything in my gym is DESIGNED to be climbed in a safe environment. Lots more helpful tips that I try to be mindful of. Seems like everybody I climb with has either read this book or has it in their to-be-read pile.

[Luke Illeniram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fantastic book detailing the psychological and evidence-based approaches to rock climbing, including the fear of failure, falling, and more. I think many of these lessons can apply to any challenging activity in life, however the specificity of advice for climbing makes this book a must-read for any climber. The writing is witty and funny at times, but always informative and clear. I listened to this as an audiobook, but think it would probably be better to have as a hard copy, as I feel like I want to go back and re-read certain parts, or integrate certain training methods, but cant remember where it was in the audiobook.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Suffers from the same issues as most self help books. Lots of buzzwords and psychology slapped on haphazardly. Many self help books marketed as psychology-based will gather every theory that might possibly be related, and then apply them liberally with no care of how relevant they actually are in an attempt to lend credibility. While there is no doubt a lot of sound theory here, it was an absolute slog with an extra large helping of fluff to round out the page count. Quoting Deepak Chopra does nothing to lend to the credibility.

[Mary Parker Eastland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal book with practical solutions for better climbing both physically and mentally. This book dives deep into the psychology behind why we believe what we do, and how to rewrite those automatic scripts in our brain. These psychological principles can be applied to not only climbing discipline but to other aspects of our subconscious behavior that we wish to see changed and rewritten.

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not a cover to cover read for me, but I've picked it up a couple times to read certain chapters that are applicable to struggles I've been having. It's a really useful read! The climbing rope coil brain on the cover is really cool, too. Too bad it isn't shown here on Goodreads. :p

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

missed a good summary at the end of the book
otherwise great insights

[Jonathan Bergh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its good information, however the jokes are not needed.

[Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very applicable to the mental aspect of Rock climbing. A must read to push your grade to the next level.

[Christiane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read for climbers. There is of course not a full-proof recipe to overcome struggles such as fear of falling but this book does have a few tips and tricks worth mulling over.

[Kaitlyn Zeichick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very similar to a Rock Warrior’s Way but with more psychology and cognitive science studies to support all of the arguments.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good tips and food for thought whether you’re a novice or experienced climber. I really liked the recommendations of physical exercises alongside mental exercises.

[Jack Giesen]

Great overview on rock climbing and managing fear, as well as building competence in various techniques in a fun way. (Fun is not optional.)

[Alexander Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a book on 'mental training' for climbing before. I found this book to be so refreshing for targeting the non-physical things that have been holding me back: fear of failure / fear of falling / ego, etc. I highlighted a bunch, but probably should have highlighted more. So much of this is applicable to my sport... I just hope I stick to some of the suggestions for how to change my scripts (over gripping, letting negative thoughts creep in, comparing myself to others, etc.)

Highly recommended.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on climbing I have read! The authors are highly entertaining (I honestly laughed out loud while reading it) and they offer tons of ways to think about the way you climb as well as activities to train and reinforce new ways of thinking and perceiving. I have already started implementing many of the activities and thought processes into my climbing training, and I've seen changes and gains already. The mental aspect of climbing is at least as important as both the physical and technical. If you're looking for a way to develop your mental skills, definitely read this book.

[Jake McCrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry into the improving mental performance subset of rock climbing books. Focuses on recognizing and changing maladaptive scripts that are holding climbers back.

Oddly enough it also encourages some non-mental improvements, such as backstepping, which seemed out of place with the books main topic.

[Tomek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Part psychology textbook part platitude. Not nearly as good as Espresso Lessons or Maximum Climbing.

[Terry Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about the psychology of rock climbing.