Falling off practice - how to do it well

This comes up quite a lot when I cam coaching people, and I confess to feeling quite irritated with the often well-meaning advice that people give to those of us (myself included) who dont enjoy falling off.

People often say "just jump off, take a big whipper and you will get over it".  This may work for some people (probably they werent that scared anyway) but the research evidence backs a technique called  graded exposure.  Notice the word graded.  Flooding (which means taking a big whipper) is a very risky strategy for several reasons.  Firstly, people rarely do it for long enough for the anxiety to drop.  This can take up to about 2 hours (would you want to practice falling off for 2 hours non stop!).  If you dont do it for long enough, the anxiety is merely strengthened not dissipated.  Secondly, for many people, taking a big whipper is very scary and may not be able to do it; if they can they are tense and anxious before they start, likely to have an uncomfortable fall, and so again the anxiety is strengthened.  We also know from the research evidence that flooding doesnt have such a good maintenance rate as graded exposure - ie the effects dont last so long.

To do graded exposure well, you need to work up to taking a whipper.  This may take a very long time (months even) and its baby steps and allow for some setbacks.  You need to learn to pair relaxation with falling off to recondition yourself.  Firstly, you need to learn how to relax on the ground, then when you are climbing, and then when you are falling.  You need to do it in small steps, eg a slump on a top rope, a larger fall on a top rope, a fall from under the bolt when leading, next to the bolt and then above the bolt.  You dont move on to the next step until you are completely comfortable with the previous one and you go back a step if needed.

Finally, for some people (and this is important), exposure and flooding dont work at all.  For these people, its best to just work on techniques which help manage fear when you are climbing rather than trying to become comfortable with falling off (ie invest time in what you would like to spend most time doing!).