Owning the pressure

(Dr Stephen Hearns)

Humans have limited cognitive capacity - what else is going on in your life right now?

Stress responses can be physically and cognitively compromising

We perform at our best, known as ‘flow state’ when under some pressure but not too much!

We can train ourselves to deal better with pressure 

Flow is focussed attention it leads to optimal performance - In Csikszentmihalyi's words, flow is “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter” (1990).

Frazzle is too much cognitive load and pressure resulting in negative response = emotional or physical poor responses 

Disengagement is when something is too easy, with low motivation stimulus and low stress = not performing at your best 

How do we train ourselves to perform better under pressure?

Here is a suggestion - pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone into the stretch zone helps us grow. For example if you are a fair weather hillwalker, going out on a less pleasant day will stretch you and inevitably help you perform better when you are out in unpleasant weather on your assessment. We should stretch in small increments not big jumps. The more that you stretch yourself, the more you will feel comfortable in situations that were challenging before. You should move between comfort and stretching yourself and back again to help increase your ability to deal with different sitiuations.

Linking this in with varied practise, changing the environment or the knot, ot the weather to get different types of stretch zone will help you much more than sticking to the same venue. This is why varied practise and visiting different climbing walls, mountains and climbs is all part of the mountain training pathway. It helps you develop as a walker or climber and as an instructor and leader.

Have a listen to the audio clip to gain more insight into helping manage the pressure of assessment.

Key points;

• Practise, emotional support and technical input prior to assessment will all increase your ability to deal with the assessment
• Understand how you perform when under pressure - what can you do to help yourself?
• Stretch yourself prior to assessment so you are practised at being outside your comfort zone and able to stay out of the stress zone!
• Book an assessment at the best time for YOU.