Arno Ilgner – Overcome Your Fear of Falling

Arno Ilgner – Overcome Your Fear of Falling

Check it out: Arno Ilgner – Overcome Your Fear of Falling

Climbers seem to naturally fall into two camps: Those who unquestioningly go for it—sometimes without much regard for personal safety—and those who are scared to fall. If you fit into the latter category, then this Overcome Your Fear of Falling online course is for you. With the help of pro climber Molly Mitchell, mental-training expert Arno Ilgner, author of the wildly popular book The Rock Warrior’s Way, will teach you the tips, tricks, practices, drills, and skills that will make you a better, calmer, more relaxed climber, one who’s more able to focus on the challenges presented by the rock instead of succumbing to distracting internal chatter. Like all climbing techniques, falling is a skill that you can both practice and learn to master.

Fear of falling is something that even pro climbers encounter—it’s a hardwired, evolutionary response to heights—but we can all learn to push past that fear and focus on the next move. In this course, mental-training expert Arno Ilgner, with the help of pro climber Molly Mitchell, will take you through the field-tested and -proven steps he’s developed to ensure that fear doesn’t hold you back. He’s worked with some of the best pro climbers, including Heather Weidner, Nina Williams, and Katie Jo Myers, to help them send some of the hardest climbs in the world. From understanding the root of your fear to incremental skill-building, this e-learning course will help you overcome your fear of falling, too.

How This Course Works

We know you have a busy schedule, so we’ve designed this course to be taken at your own pace. You’ll learn through a variety of interactive formats, including video instruction, photo descriptions, and more. Each lesson builds on the last, and, while we’ve designed the course to be 5 weeks long, you can take it as quickly or slowly as you want. Plus, once you purchase the course, the lessons are yours forever.

Syllabus:

Course Intro

• History of Falling
• Gear You’ll Need

1) Falling Is a Skill

• Develop the skill
• Practice vs Application
• Trusting yourself and your belayer
• How to be a good belayer

2) Understand Your Fear

Psychology of Falling

• Why are people afraid of it, why does it come and go, and why do some of us feel it more or less than other people?
• Fear holds us back from climbing at our potential

Falling Risk

• Everyone falls, but not everyone is OK with it
• Taking lead falls has more risk
• It’s OK to not want to fall

3) Know Your Motivation

Fear-Based Motivation

• Fight or flight
• Why we fight through until we’re comfortable
• Why we flee from it and don’t engage
• How it impacts us

Learning-Based Motivation

• The shift to being vulnerable within appropriate risk
• The willingness to engage with stress
• Making small steps

4) Incremental Skill Building

Falling Don’ts

• Eliminating bad habits
• Don’t just “get ‘er done”
• Falling recklessly

Falling Do’s

• Introducing a little stress at a time
• Being mindful and knowing what you’re paying attention to
• Understanding what you can and can’t control

Selecting Terrain

• Practice on realistic terrain
  • Beginning: vertical wall with no obstacles
  • Middle: vertical wall with some obstacles
  • End: understanding that an obstacle isn’t always an obstacle

5) Skills and Drills

Step 1

• Impact Skill
• Short toprope falls
• Assignment
• Quiz

Step 2

• Cushioned belaying: heavy vs. light belayers
• Longer toprope falls
• Assignment
• Quiz

Step 3

• Lead falls in small increments
• Advanced falls: pendulums, while clipping, while committing; roofs, dihedrals, slab falls, etc.
• Making risk-based decisions
• Assignment
• Quiz

Step 4

• Unannounced falls: belayer directed; climber directed
• Trad falls
• Assignment
• Quiz