Smart Climbing

How accurately are you assessing your mental skills for climbing?
One of the ways we can get ourselves into a sticky situation is by not being accurate enough with our assessment of our climbing skills. Whilst you probably have a fair idea of how strong you are, or your technique preferences, how clear are you on your tactical or psychological skills?
In interviewing many top climbers and alpinists for the Risk Sessions it's clear that they are very considered and measured in their approach to risk - and this is underpinned by an accurate assessment of their skills. You can download a mental skills assessment from my website shop or Etsy shop, and there is a video here which explains what it covers and how to use it.

Mental Skills for Climbing Assessment Tool Explained A quick guide to my mental skills for climbing assessment tool, including the latest updates from the research. You can find a copy on my website shop here h...

So, despite a horse-related finger injury in the last week of the aggregate, I managed to come joint 3rd in my category with my bouldering buddy, Suzie. We had such a blast climbing together, spending days and nights figuring out beta to work around our respective weaknesses and egging each other on. Suzie is inspiring to climb with - she has determination and grit in spades and is mega strong. Having supportive friends to bring out the best in you is so important - having fun and social support are good predictors of motivation, and we had plenty this winter! Huge thanks to the Indy team for always being welcoming, setting some great problems and lending us brushes and beta when we needed it 😍

Are you undermining your own confidence?
When you come down off a climb, and your partner says "well done", do you instantly reply with all the things you could have done better?
Are you constantly focused on what you can't do, rather than celebrating what you can do?
Does every send come with a 'yes but....' ?
Are you constantly comparing yourself to other climbers?
A few years ago now, I recorded a webinar for ’s Climbing Symposium on managing your inner critic. It walks you through how to identify underlying beliefs which might be undermining your confidence, and how to begin to gently challenge them. If you'd like a copy of the thought record mentioned in the video, then drop me a message with your email address and I'll send it out.

WCS Webinars: Managing Negative Self Talk More on Rebecca: www.smartclimbing.co.uk

Instructors and Coaches with mental health difficulties and/or neurodiversity - I need your help!
I'm delivering a talk at the MT conference next week on reasonable adjustments to training courses and assessments. I know a lot of you will either not have been aware that you could ask for reasonable adjustments, or felt like you couldn't ask, or perhaps you have asked and been told 'no'. I'd love to hear about your experiences of what was difficult for you on training or assessment linked to mental health or neurodiversity, what might have helped, and whether you did or did not have reasonable adjustments.
You can get in touch in confidence by DM'ing me, or emailing me directly. I won't share anything without your explicit consent, but it will help to make sure I am targeting my talk at the issues people face. Many thanks

Pretty chuffed to be joint 3rd with Suzie - she is a proper powerhouse and the only way I keep up with her is by being a few inches taller 😆 But more important than the result for me is the improvement I have felt this winter, and I actually feel like I'm bouldering better than I ever have done - experience helps with technique, friends help with confidence to try things you think are too hard, and the extra gym sessions I think have paid off. Proof that age is just a number if you are psyched, and working out the most pleasing sequence is always the thing I love the most (just wish my brain didn't do this when I was trying to get to sleep!)
Massive thanks to all the team - the problems were fab and a really great range of styles, the staff are always super friendly and welcoming and they even put up a sign to discourage beta spraying 😍 plus the coffee is A1.

New blog post is out! It's been a while.....

Blog - Smart Climbing Confident Climbing Workbook is out! March 14, 2026 I have wanted to produce an accessible workbook on confidence for some time now. I had plenty of ideas, workshop content and knew what I wanted to say, but with all the other balls I was juggling, there just wasn’t time. So I made a conscious deci...

Confidence is also a product of your social support

"Houston, we have a problem!"
The first people I texted when my naughty pony slammed a heavy wooden gate into my finger were my two climbing buddies. I am a bit gutted to be off climbing for a while, but I have been thinking about how important it is to climb with people who are there for you through thick and thin, wobbles and all. Rauni and Suzie are just the perfect climbing partners - we all climb around the same level but with different strengths, I can be vulnerable in front of them and they give me such confidence to experiment, make mistakes and laugh at myself. Performance wise, it's been great to see that at 51 I can still improve and have broken my boulder grade plateau this year, mostly I think due to their support, commitment and consistency. Despite our limited time, we make dates to climb and stick to it (injury and illness aside!) and we can show up in whatever state of mind or fatigue, knowing that we can find some fun stuff to work on together, turning lemons into lemonade with surprising regularity.
If you can't be yourself, tears, wobbles and all, with your climbing partner, then think about the cost to your confidence of not feeling accepted, just as you are. We can only step out of our comfort zone when we feel safe to do so, so if your belaytionships are not giving you psychological safety, maybe its time to find some new climbing pals.

Are you making the most of any positive climbing experiences you have? Not just the sends or the onsights, but the small glimmers of progress, the stylish move, the perfect gear placement, the feeling of flow? Often we spend too much time criticising ourselves and not enough time noticing the small things we do well. Making this noticing a focus can really help build your confidence over time.

Confidence is not a personality trait, but something you build over time. The biggest mistake I see people making is to try imagine they can force confidence by pushing out of their comfort zone before they are actually ready or feel psychologically safe to do so. In reality, most of our confidence comes from our past experiences, so think for a minute, have your climbing experiences been mostly confidence building or mostly fear reinforcing? With anxious experiences 'weighing' more than confidence-inspiring ones, we need to be careful that we balance plenty of skill building and in-comfort zone experiences with fewer stretch zone experiences.
I'll be covering this and more WCS26, and bringing along a few tester versions of my new confident climbing workbook. See you there!

How to sum up 2025 so far?
2 x 50th's attended (mine & my bestie)
Horses/ riding - lots!
2025 two focus talks delivered and a fab event as always
3rd in the old gals winter bouldering aggregate - yay!
Massive amounts of painting/ clearing/ building work at home
Gardening underway
Lovely feedback from my Confident Climbing Workshop
A fun, sunny day teaching on the all things expedition and climbing psychology
A lot of hours of 1:1 coaching delivered with some great clients
Looking forward to a cycling trip to the Hebrides with the kids and Font in July next