03/02/2012 Coaching at The Climbing Academy

 Friday I spent the day coaching a class at The Climbing Academy (TCA) in Glasgow. The TCA is a warehouse that has been turned into a massive bouldering centre. The class I was coaching were the same ones I had the previous Friday. This was there first time at the TCA, and I think some of them where a bit wary at the thought of just bouldering. The TCA is very cold because of its size so before we started we had a big warm up. This consisted of tig, backwards running tig, hot lava floor, easy traversing of the wall, mobilization and some dynamic stretches. Participating int the warm up games with this group is always good fun as the majority of them give a big effort and they have a good sense of humour.

The Climbing Academy Glasgow

I had to do another coaching assessment so after the warm up I left the group with Brodie, Johny and Craig (the three other coaches in my college class) and went and marked out some bouldering routes using chalk. Once I had done this I got two students and completed my assessment. My assessment was to deliver a session on crimping and show progression throughout my session.  I used techniques including getting the pupils to climb with ping pong balls in their hands which forced them open crimp and got the students to give each other feedback to keep them focused when not climbing. The session went well and I passed the assessment (same goes for my assessment last Friday).

My assessment completed I went back to coaching as normal. We did a whole range of things including playing bouldering games, trying to complete all the routes of a certain colour, getting the pupils to use tape and mark holds to create their own routes and helping some pupils that climb hard to work some routes. We left the TCA at 15.00 and headed back to college. On the way back to college I chatted with the students and they all said they enjoyed the day but said that they missed the ropes (actually doing routes).I liked hearing this as that’s what I enjoy. Once back at college we packed away and the student’s left.  Next Friday we are taking the same group for a day of winter mountaineering skills. I can’t wait!