Mental training through onsights

Most focus on physical training trying to get stronger and to get better endurance. Technical training is done on the run doing different boulder problems. At the same time, it is the mental training where you probably could have the biggest and easiest gains. Can you perform the best with your muscles and your technical repertoire when you need it the most in a competition or at the rock? How do you deal with anxiety and failure? Doing onsights are very stressful. One mistake and you missed that lifetime opportunity. Hanging under a crux not knowing which sequence to chose creates anxiety and possibly you will not give 100 %. Adam Ondra is the best onsight climber in the world at the same time he has done terribly bad often as he is climbing fast with no safety margin. Last month he showed a clip when he did fall on a 7a onsight as his foot slipped. Once you start accepting that failure is part of the game in climbing and that there is always one more onsight to try, your anxiety will drop and you will start instead enjoying being out on uncertain terrain. This means you will perform much better in the long run. It is about a mental thinking stage where you love doing challenges more than you love that grade or result in a competition. Onsight challenges can be created indoors also by combining different colors or adding some extra holds on routes that otherwise are without reach. Alternatively, you can climb old easier routes with one foot or skip some holds making up for being challenged by new sequences. Once you start loving solving new problems on the go, you have become mentally stronger and you will have more fun and climb harder :)