Fear of Failure in Climbing: Performance Anxiety, Self-Compassion Writing, Imagery, Cue Words and a Three-Step Pre-Attempt Routine

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You've practised falling, and letting go above a quickdraw doesn't scare you much any more. But on a redpoint attempt on your project, your legs go weak and your hands clamp before the crux, and you call take in front of a move you've done ten times. Or you climb fine on a normal day, then the gym fills up, people watch from below, and you start falling apart.

This is post 2 of the Climbing Mental Game and Tactics series. Post 1 dealt with fear of falling. This one deals with fear of failing and of being watched. Competition, a special case, is saved for post 3.

What fear of failure looks like (coach consensus plus a small qualitative study)

The most common thing people who fear failure do is let the fear decide for them and avoid any situation where they might fail. That feels safe in the short term, but it makes the fear and the habits around it stronger (climbing coach Hazel Findlay's mental training FAQ).

Ego plays a part too. You don't want to fall off an easy route, so you only climb routes well below your level, because you don't want to hear "how did you fall off that?" (Lattice Training with climbing psychologist Allegra Maguire).

In a small qualitative study from the UK (Lumby et al. 2026; 5 climbers took rational emotive behaviour therapy workshops and 3 were interviewed), the "fear" the climbers described was mostly about pressure to perform well, not about getting hurt.

Three questions to check yourself:

• Do you only try hard routes when the gym is empty?
• After two failed tries, do you find a reason not to try again?
• When you fall, is your first thought what went wrong with the move, or what other people think of you?

Something to do tonight: write down one route you've been avoiding and the real reason you avoid it. If the reason includes "other people", "embarrassing" or "I should be able to", this post is for you.

First pick a direction: lower the anxiety or use it

The series overview covered two lines of research: one recommends lowering anxiety, the other found that anxiety can sometimes make climbers try harder. Go back to the overview for the details and limits of each.

To set priorities, a sport psychology meta-analysis helps. Across 48 studies, self-confidence was more closely linked to performance than cognitive anxiety was, and the gap was statistically significant (Woodman & Hardy 2003). These were studies of competitive sport, not climbing, and for women and at lower levels of competition both links to performance were weak. The takeaway still holds: rather than spending effort pushing your nerves down to zero, build confidence first.

Findlay's advice on fear of failure points the same way: redefine what failure means to you. She says many people find that changing how they see failure makes a big difference to how much they enjoy climbing and how fast they improve. If deeper self-worth issues sit underneath, though, more work is needed.

Something to do tonight: write your own definition of failure in your phone, for example: "If I didn't send but made a real attempt at the crux, that isn't failure." Read it before your next attempt.

Three tested methods

All three methods have research behind them, but the studies differ a lot in design and size, so each one carries its own evidence label.

1. Self-compassion writing (research: a randomized controlled trial with climbers)

Climbers who did two weeks of self-compassion writing had less somatic anxiety afterwards. The trial was run at the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen (Röthlin & Leiggener 2021): 60 climbers were randomly assigned to an intervention group or a waiting list. The intervention group first got a leaflet explaining self-compassion, then a writing task every two days for two weeks, 5 in total. After two weeks, their somatic anxiety (racing heart, shaking) had dropped. Worry in the head did not change.

The authors list the limits themselves: there was no active control group, so a placebo effect can't be ruled out, and there was no follow-up, so nobody knows how long the effect lasts.

The writing tasks are concrete enough to follow on your own:

1. Write about your biggest climbing setback of the past year: what happened beforehand, who was there, what you thought and what you did.
2. Look at it through "common humanity": do other climbers go through the same thing?
3. Look at it through "self-kindness": what would you say to a good friend this happened to?
4. Look at it through "mindfulness": don't blow it up and don't push it away, just describe how you felt.
5. Apply all three angles to a climb from last week that was a real struggle.

Something to do tonight: write task 1 tonight. Ten minutes is enough. Then do the next one every other day.

2. Motivational imagery (research: novices, small sample)

Thirty-three female novices took four technique sessions. The group that also did scripted imagery climbed as well as a control group that did light exercise, but felt less stress and more confident about using correct technique (Jones et al. 2002). The script had them picture themselves climbing skilfully, and picture the slightly excited, ready feeling too.

The study measured stress and confidence, not send rates. For someone who fears failure, those are exactly what needs work.

Something to do tonight: pick the hardest section of your project. Close your eyes and picture yourself climbing from the start to that point: how the holds feel in your hands, where your feet go, your breathing. The point of the imagery is "I can do this, I'm ready", not picturing yourself falling. One to two minutes each time.

3. Instructional cue words (research: a sport meta-analysis, not climbing-specific)

Across 32 self-talk studies, talking to yourself gave a moderate boost to sport performance (Hatzigeorgiadis et al. 2011). Three details suit new lead climbers especially well:

• It worked better for fine motor tasks and for new tasks.
• For fine motor tasks, instructional self-talk (telling yourself how to do it) beat motivational self-talk ("come on, you've got this").
• Self-talk that had been practised beforehand worked better.

Carrying this over to climbing is an inference: clipping, standing on small footholds and switching hands at the crux are all fine motor tasks, so short technical cues fit, such as "precise feet", "breathe out" or "hips in".

Something to do tonight: choose two cues of two to four words. Start saying them silently before each move during your warm-up this week, so they become automatic on hard routes.

A three-step routine before each attempt

Put the three methods together and you get a routine you can run before every attempt. The combination is this post's own synthesis, not a protocol any study tested directly:

1. Name your state (30 seconds). Standing at the base, say one sentence to yourself or your belayer: "I'm at a 6 out of 10 for nerves, and the crux scares me." Acknowledge it; don't argue with it.
2. Run the crux in your head (1 minute). As in method 2, look up at the route and climb the crux in your mind once, ending on "done".
3. Take your cues onto the wall. Once you're tied in and you've done partner checks, say your two cues silently and start using them from the first move.

Do it after a failure too. The point of the routine is to start every attempt from the same state, whether the last one went well or not.

Something to do tonight: write the three steps on a small card or your phone's lock screen. Do them before every attempt next session, warm-ups included, until it's a habit.

Cleaning up after you fail (qualitative study, 6 climbers)

The few minutes after a failure are when it's easiest to make things worse. The top sport climbers interviewed all said they had been more self-centred when younger. Hogging a route or sulking after a failure were common, and they affected the mood of the whole day and how well partners climbed (the German Balancing the Bar study, 2022). The ideal is a balance between supporting others and looking after yourself. The study interviewed only 6 German climbers, all of the same sex and climbing 8b to 8c+, but many readers will probably recognize themselves.

To clean up, use the three angles of self-compassion: admit it hurts, remember everyone fails, and describe what happened instead of judging yourself.

Something to do tonight: every time you fail, say two things once you're down: one thing that went well, and one thing to change next time. Then turn your attention back to belaying your partner.

Who you climb with, and how to ask for encouragement (anecdotes and an informal poll)

Encouragement doesn't always help. A Climbing magazine piece on verbal encouragement interviewed several climbers and ran a poll on Instagram. Roughly:

• Short support that shows your belayer is paying attention helps. Pro climber Heather Weidner says words like "Nice!" and "I'm with you!" tell her the belayer is paying attention.
• Vague promises add pressure. "You've got this, you're going to send!" made her feel she had to succeed.
• It depends on the moment. Most people like encouragement when they're at their limit, but not while they're working out beta. It works best coming from the belayer; opinions on encouragement from onlookers were split.

On a hard boulder problem, having someone watch helps: they can help you find better beta, adjust your body position, or encourage you to keep trying when you're frustrated. But a gym session also turns into a three-hour social event very easily (training writer Eric Hörst, Training Partners: Performance Booster or Hidden Distraction?).

Something to do tonight: before you leave the ground, tell your belayer what you want. For example: "Say 'I'm with you' once before the crux and stay quiet otherwise", or "If I fall, don't console me, just watch my feet."

When not to go it alone

If fear of failure is affecting your life outside climbing, or you notice your sense of worth is tied entirely to sending, the "deeper self-worth issues" Findlay mentions may apply to you. At that point, talking to a psychologist will do more than another round of writing tasks. Look for a counsellor or psychologist with a sport psychology background.

Practice: four scenarios

1. You only try your project on quiet weekdays. At the weekend, when it's busy, you only climb easy routes.

2. Every time you're halfway up, your belayer shouts "You've got this! You're definitely sending!" and you get more nervous.

3. You want to pump yourself up with self-talk, so before every move you shout "Come on! Go!" in your head.

4. After a failed redpoint attempt you stay angry at yourself, and you're still sulking when it's your partner's turn.

Next

Competition pushes fear of failure to its limit: isolation, an observation period where you can look but not touch, a single onsight attempt, and a row of spectators. Post 3: competition mindset covers how to take this post's routine into competition.

References

• Hazel Findlay: FAQs about mental training for climbing (2022)
• Fear of Falling – with climbing psychologist, Allegra Maguire (Lattice Training)
• Lumby K, Woodford L, Turner MJ. "Leaving the Door Open": Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy With Sport Climbers Who Experience Fear (The Sport Psychologist, 2026)
• Woodman T, Hardy L. The relative impact of cognitive anxiety and self-confidence upon sport performance: a meta-analysis (J Sports Sci, 2003)
• Röthlin P, Leiggener R. Self-compassion to decrease performance anxiety in climbers: A randomized control trial (Current Issues in Sport Science, 2021)
• Jones MV, et al. The impact of motivational imagery on the emotional state and self-efficacy levels of novice climbers (J Sport Behav, 2002; Coaching Science Abstracts summary)
• Hatzigeorgiadis A, et al. Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis (Perspect Psychol Sci, 2011)
• Balancing the Bar—Influence of Social Behaviour on Sport Climbing Performance (IJERPH, 2022)
• Matt Samet: Do Climbers Actually Like Being Cheered On? (Climbing, 2023)
• Eric Hörst: Training Partners: Performance Booster or Hidden Distraction? (Training for Climbing, 2026-05-12)
• Why lead feels scarier than top-rope: series overview