I have just returned from an epic trip to Kalymnos! It was a bit of a mixed bag of climbing coaching and a bit of personal climbing at the end, but hey, its all good :) I was in one of the most beautiful climbing destinations on the planet with good friends and always in the sun - living the good life!   Coaching Week   The coaching week was aimed at kids who are already experienced climbers, keen to develop their climbing skills further and also to transfer their indoor training to outdoors. All of those attending compete at regional,... Continue reading

"As a Coach, my inspiration often comes from those I work with. Coaching kids in particular is incredibly fulfilling, especially with those that live and breathe climbing."   One boy I coach who has in my opinion, an affinity with climbing, is Connor Moore. He has just turned 11 years old and I have never met anybody who loves climbing as much as him. To say, being "obsessed" with climbing describes Connor, is a bit of an understatement... I'd say he defines the term "obsessed"! Anyone who remarks to his piano teacher that the difficult part of his piano recital is... Continue reading

Hey Guys Tonight I was coaching young David Miedzybrodzki at EICA: Ratho. David did a brilliant job competing in probably the hardest category in last weekends YCS, the Youth C Boys. He placed 4th in the event but is pretty psyched to see if he can improve on that in further rounds in an effort to get a place on the Scottish Team and make the finals. The coaching session today was based largely around returning to the competition routes and boulders that he struggled with on the day. Out of the three competition boulders, there were two that David didn't... Continue reading

I know I said yesterday was tough, well today was tougher. Following on from yesterday's South Scotland YCS Round 1, today I was working with a huge group of Scotland Norths top climbing clubs, the Granite City Rock Stars. Usually I coach these guys in their home wall, Transition Extreme, today though was a special occasion. Because of yesterdays YCS, we benefited from the new comp style routes and boulder problems and so we made a mock competition for the kids. Unlike a YCS, we did 5 routes instead of 3 as well as 3 boulder problems. The psyche eminating from... Continue reading

This is blog post isn't really a training one, but perhaps would be more useful to parents and coaches bringing up kids climbing. Currently I am out in France (Ceuse) climbing. In the campsite we have built up a kind of group/gang of climbers of all ages, abilities, nationalities, etc... This is a very common thing on climbing trips, in fact, I can't think of a climbing trip that I haven't attached myself onto a larger group of climbers. It's a very educational experience as well as just a sociable one. You meet new people, you learn new things and you... Continue reading