Fear holds more people back than finger strength!

But do you train your mind for climbing?

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Build a strong mind for climbing

The Strong Mind Program

Join our 10-week Strong Mind Program starting in May

The Strong Mind course is our flagship course in fear management. It includes everything you need to know about how to manage fear in lead, top-rope, bouldering and trad climbing. It covers fear of falling, heights and exposure, social fears, fear of failure and performance anxiety. The course also covers the fundamentals of mental training, including mindset, self-awareness, as well as tools to use in the moment to manage fear and distraction. We have recently improved the course and will be taking a new cohort of students through it over 10 weeks starting in May. Join the waitlist to learn more.

Over 80 lessons in text, video, audio and app-based learning

Watch video lessons or listen on the go with audio-only versions and the Kajabi app. Refresh and solidify your learning with key information in text.

No prior knowledge needed

The course is appropriate for someone with no prior knowledge of mental training, fear or psychology.

Evidence-based theory and practice

The course delivers enough theory so you understand why the practices work but also has a strong emphasis on application through the many homework tasks.

3 years access

You can do the course at your own pace and you get access to the course material for at least 3 years.

Community and coach support

Get free access to a private student area of our community where you can chat with fellow students, join our Q&As and ask our coaches questions.

Transferable lifelong skills

The tools, strategies and practices taught in the course aid psychological resilience that can be applied to other areas of life such as your career.
Why should you do the Strong Mind Course?

Learn everything you need to know about how to manage fear in climbing

Would you like to climb with more confidence?
Confidence is easy to build when you have the tools, knowledge and strategies to do so. Many climbers think that they can train their bodies but that they can't train their minds. This is 100% not true, the brain is malleable and everyone is capable of being a more confident climber.
How much harder could you climb if fear didn’t hold you back?
Do you climb a lot harder on top rope or on low balls compared to on lead or on high balls? What could you do and how would it feel if you were less tense, hesitated less and trusted your body to go for it?
Would you enjoy climbing more if you were less anxious?
Many climbers are so afraid they are not enjoying their hobby half as much as they'd like to.
What inspiring climbs would you try if you were less afraid?
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to walk up to any climb or boulder problem that looked cool and give it a go?
How will your climbing change if you carry on as you are?
Is your climbing plateauing or even getting worse? Many climbers are seeing their performance and enjoyment drop over time because they are unable to get the challenge level right.
JOIN THE WAITLIST
Course Content

6 chapters including everything you need to know about how to manage fear in climbing

Over 17 hours of video content broken down into bite-sized pieces
400+
Students and over 3,000 subscribers
4
Mentors on the Strong Mind team
Chapter 1
Mindset
  • What is 'mindset'? What does your mindset currently look like?
  • 3 mindset shifts, necessary to start a journey in mental training
  • How to take responsibility for creating your own climbing experience
  • How to prioritise learning over small wins
  • Adopt a growth mindset towards managing your fears
an image of how the course looks on desktop, laptop, mobile and tablet
Chapter 2
Knowledge and Understanding
  • Tools and strategies for building self-awareness.
  • The science of stress and fear and how we learn and unlearn fears. What's going on in my brain?!
  • Zones of comfort, stretch, and panic and the difference between eustress and distress for understanding and navigating challenge and stress
  • How to use the indicators of stress: breath, eyes, sensation, and tension for understanding the unique ways you create stress
  • Understand how to use indicators of stress to navigate a challenge
  • Why finding the right psychological challenge level is so important and how to find it
  • Meditations to explore your inner world of thoughts, emotions, and senses
  • Homework tasks to build self-awareness and find your stretch zone
Chapter 3
Fear of falling, heights and exposure
  • What is fear of falling and why do we have it?
  • Your past, present and future relationship with falling
  • An exploration of risk in climbing
  • Understand the theory behind exposure therapy for fall practice and where people commonly go wrong
  • Detailed instructions for top rope, lead and bouldering falling practice
  • How to be the best belayer and give soft catches from Angus Kille
  • Learn how to add challenge to increase stress and decrease stress through relaxation tools to find the perfect challenge level
  • How to apply exposure therapy for fear of exposure and heights including relaxation tools
  • How to integrate falling into your climbing life and stay motivated for the practice.
  • Sample sessions to help structure your practice
  • Tips on how to recover from accidents or trauma in climbing.
  • Supporting others: learn how to support climbing partners with fear of falling.
  • Tips and tools for coaches and guides who work with people who are scared of falling, heights or exposure.
Chapter 4
Fear of failure, anxiety and social fears
  • What is fear of failure and how does it limit our climbing?
  • Mindset shifts to alleviate fear of failure
  • Rewriting your own metric of failure and success
  • The science of social fears and why they are so powerful
  • Exposure therapy for social fears
  • Tools and mindset shifts for performance anxiety and pressure scenarios such as competitions
  • How to manage unhelpful comparisons and negative competitiveness
  • How to approach self-doubt and self-worth
  • How to approach identity issues in climbing
  • Homework tasks and reflective questions to guide reflection and learning
Chapter 5
Multipurpose mind tools
  • How to train your attentional control
  • Notice - Distance - Shift, a tool for turning down the volume on negative self-talk and emotions and turning up focus for the task at hand
  • Breathing exercises for managing stress and finding 'optimal arousal'
  • Notice and manage unhelpful thoughts with tools from CBT Connecting to the senses: how to be present when your mind wants to take you off into the past or future
  • Visualisation tools
  • Tools to reset when things start to unravel
  • Mantras for focus and letting go
  • Gratitude exercises to increase positivity and alleviate anxiety
  • Create your own climbing ritual
Chapter 6
Maintenance and Trouble Shooting
  • Troubleshooting common problems and slow progress
  • How to create and maintain good habits
  • Fear-training and the menstrual cycle
  • Transferring your knowledge in this course to other areas of your life such as public speaking, social or work-related fears
  • Personal wellbeing and why it matters for fear management
  • What's next? How to create a blueprint for your continued learning once you've finished the course
On top of the course materials you'll also receive these added bonuses

bonus
1
A monthly Q&A with our Strong Mind coaches
Join a live monthly Q&A with Hazel and our other coaches to answer your questions about the course and discuss mental training.
bonus
2
Coach support
You won’t be left to get on with it on your own. In the Strong Mind community you can ask our coaches questions and get support and encouragement along the way.
bonus
3
Community support
The course comes with free access to a private area exclusively for our Strong Mind students where you can share wins, make connections and discuss chapter content with other students. We’ve found that being plugged into a community of like-minded climbers is a great way to stay accountable and motivated for your mental training journey.
JOIN THE WAITLIST
Common Questions

This is the first online course in fear management for climbers! We're proud of this, but we also know that it's an unusual way for us to learn so here are answers to some frequently asked questions.
How do I know that mental training will work for me?
Some people have worries that mental training won’t work for them or requires too much work. Everyone can change their mindset or train their mind. The problem is that people don’t know what practices and tools to use to direct that process. But we’ll be honest with you, this process does take work. There is no point in getting this course if you are not motivated and willing to put in the practice that is necessary for change. Just like physical training you can’t take a course in it or read a book on it and hope to get stronger, you actually need to do the work. But if you are willing to do the work, mental training is the best way to see results in your climbing, and we don’t just mean climbing higher grades but also enjoying it more.
What areas of climbing will you cover?
We cover bouldering, lead and top rope for both indoor and outdoor climbers. We cover tools to help with trad and alpine climbing but we don’t have a lesson on trad falling yet. You can ask our coaches about how to apply the fall practice to trad climbs.
Is this for beginners or only advanced people?
Apart from the chapter on fall practice, experience in climbing isn't a factor and we’ve had very new climbers and elite athletes go through the course and find it similarly beneficial. For the chapter on falling, the experience level needed depends on what type of fall practice you’d like to do. For example, if you have very little experience in leading we’d recommend you only do top rope and bouldering falls. If you have not climbed outdoors before, we recommend you only practice in an indoor setting until you’ve learnt the appropriate skills. You need to be the judge of what you’re capable of doing since we’re not there to check on you.
Do you guarantee that I will see results?
The changes that this course aims to initiate in you are all born from experience. You will not see results if you do not take what you’ve learnt in this course and practice it in the real world and continue with those practices. Results are very much dependent on this. However, we've created the course in a way that makes the tasks fun and approachable so if you're motivated there is no reason not to do them. All our past students who have applied themselves to the course have seen positive change. The students who really applied themselves have seen radical changes in their climbing and in many cases the rest of their lives. If you are not happy with the course in the first 7 days after purchase we'll give you a full refund!
How will the course be taught?
Mostly through pre-recorded videos of Hazel speaking with some inspiring climbing imagery and visual aids. However, there is also the option to access audio files of the lesson so you can listen on the go. This is also a great idea if you want to refresh the information. You can also download the Kajabi app to do the whole course through your phone. We also have reflective questions, homework tasks and pdf downloads which are great for further depth and consolidation.
Are the practices in the course dangerous or scary?
You are responsible for your own safety when carrying out any of the described practices in the course. If you do not understand how to make the practices safe, please do not do them or seek expert instruction. That said, the practices in the course are described and implemented in a way that maximises safety. People make dangerous mistakes in climbing because they do not have the procedures in place to slowly and incrementally add challenge in a way that avoids overload. When climbers push too far and do not have the skills to manage the stress they are more likely to make mistakes. Many of our students are surprised to discover that they are actually over-challenging themselves rather than under-challenging themselves psychologically and actually they need to reduce the challenge and build back up. In many cases, students find the practices in the course to be less scary than what they were doing before the course.
How much support will I get?
You can ask our coaches questions at any time through our new Student Area inside our Strong Mind Community. Usually, coaches will respond within 48 hours. You can ask Hazel a question directly and she will respond if you're keen to receive her advice. You can also join our monthly live Q&As to ask questions. If you can't make it you can ask your questions ahead of time and watch the recording.
meet the team

Meet the Strong Mind team members you'll be working with

We're a small team, working across the UK and Europe. All Strong Mind coaches have diplomas in coaching.

Hazel Findlay

Founder and Head Coach

Angus Kille

Course Instructor and Coach
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$367.00

3 years of access to 6 chapters of content, community and coach support and live Q&As.
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