Cork Youth Climbing Club Coaching
Hey Guys
Today was another fun day at the big EICA. After all the excitement from yesterday I was unsure of how many of the kids would be there for a second day… turns out a lot! Nat and I were coaching a big group of Irish kids who had come through for their first taste of Ratho and the YCS Finals. None of these kids had competed before and most had only been climbing for a year but they were all mega psyched and keen to rip up the walls of Ratho.
The format for the day was to cover good warm up tactics for competition, get a bit of practice on-sighting on the long Ratho walls, have another go on some of the routes and boulders from the comp, and finally listen to me lecturing on the mental zone (a presentation I ran for the Elite Team earlier on in the year).
The kids in the group today included 5 young beasts from Cork, David, Luke, Cormac, Hannah and Yasmine. It was good seeing the level these kids have achieved with relatively little experience climbing and with such small facilities in the south of Ireland. I think this speaks volumes for the support they get from their parents and coaches who work with them regularly i.e. Damien O’Sulliven and Neal McQuaid.
David was older than the rest of the Cork crew and was climbing at a really high standard. In Youth A David placed 11th overall, pretty awesome considering he hasn’t been climbing that long. I watched that day as he continued to impress looking very close at on-sighting several 7c’s and 7b+’s as well as giving the super final (8a) that was never used a good blast at the end of the day!
Cormak, Hannah, Luke and Yasmine all had a fantastic day too. We started of with some on-sight practice on a cheeky 6b that they all got very high up on before falling with the exception of Yas who attempted a fun 5+ and did really well.
Later in the afternoon, I ran a presentation/lecture on the mental zone, a topic quite close to my heart. Sport psychology is something i have great interest in and its been fun implementing all that I have learned to the coaching of young climbers. The Irish kids grasped the concepts I was discussing well and I think it will make a big difference to the way they view competitions, climbing and performance on a day to day basis.
Altogether this has been a good weekend and meeting the Cork crew was excellent. I am hoping that we can build a good relationship between the Cork Team and our Scottish crew for future training events and competitions
ROBZ OUT