Got lead certified recently, but I pretty much drop a grade when climbing lead - I’m not as confident and I overgrip.
I’ve done lead falls, I know how to do 'em well, and yet… as someone who’s done top rope for many years, it’s scary not feeling the tension (however small) of a rope pulling your harness up.
Exposure therapy. The more falls you take, the less anxiety you’ll feel when facing the next fall.
Unfortunately, the fear comes back over time if you don’t take falls, so you need to keep doing it. As they say, if you’re not falling, you’re not trying hard enough.
I have experienced the opposite. The longer I’ve been leading, the more afraid of falling I become.
thanks! do you think it helps to practice falling, or is it better to just… climb and fall naturally?
Both, really. Practice falls will help for sure, but it’s always easier to commit to a voluntary fall.
Being in a situation where you’re trying your hardest not to fall is where the fall anxiety really comes out, and pushing through that is a question of practice. The first fall in a session is usually the hardest, and once you’ve taken that fall, you realize that it’s not that bad, and it gets easier to commit.