I spend a lot of my time reading research on coaching, teaching, learning and various other related topics. Motivation, psychological aspects of coaching, I spent a lot of my Master’s degree sponging up as much as I could find and I’ve carried on as best I can since then. So when someone says something about …
Eyes on the Prize: Attentional Focus in Climbing Read More »
Most of us are into our climbing to try and push ourselves and improve; certainly those of us who read articles on climbing coaching websites! We’re in it to win it, whatever winning means. And that means that sometimes, we lose. Sometimes, it’s one of those days where the stars don’t align, and it feels …
Playing Your Own Game: Adapting Sessions to Match You On Any Given Day Read More »
Route reading. Heard of it? Probably. So what is it? It’s one of things that we all know about but I dare say struggle to actually define successfully. Responses to ‘what is route reading?’ often range from “visualisation” and “sequencing” through to “well, it’s just looking at the route” right down to “erm, dunno”. Even …
One Chapter At A Time: Introducing Reactionary Route Reading Read More »
31st December, let’s have a think: drinking, fireworks, celebrations. Kissing at midnight, time off from work, resolutions. There are plenty of traditions but it’s the last one i’m particularly going to focus on here: resolutions or, as we often know them better, goals. For the majority of people, this is a perfectly sensible and logical …
New New Years: Using Changing Clocks for Seasonal Goal Setting Read More »
I was having a really bad day at home once, grumbling and complaining and claiming the whole world was against me. Then Rosie, my eldest daughter, turned to me and said “There is not one day in your life”. It completely stunned me; instantly rendering me speechless and defenseless. Because she’s right: today might be …
Pick and Choose: Using Training Modalities to Structure Your Sessions Read More »
A quick google search suggests that this as a phrase doesn’t exist so I’m nabbing it before anyone else does. It is possibly the single most extensively used technique in my coaching repertoire. In some ways, it is not new and is even now developing more and more alongside technology (more on this later). However …
Copy and Paste: A Definition of Replication Training Read More »
When my two children were in primary school, I had one rule: No Fun Allowed! And yet, whenever I barked this at them, one hard word at a time, they would giggle like crazy. It was one of our most treasured games for a long time. It was, to all intents and purposes, us having …
No Fun Allowed! In What World Would We Want to Enjoy Ourselves Read More »
Many years back, I developed something for myself to enhance my climbing; something that worked ridiculously well. And all it cost me was the price of a whiteboard. It became known as The List. Now that I’m a pro coach, I can completely see where I was coming from and why it is so useful, …
The List: A Solid Method of Always Having a Project to Hand Read More »
We’ve all arrived at the wall or the crag, chomping at the bit and desperate to get on that climb we saw last time. Perhaps you’ve been guilty – as i have – of jumping on that project straight away. But is this a productive way to set out your session? Chances are, getting on …
Special credit must go to Aled Oddy for his assistance in developing this model. PrinFrAp? What is that?! No, it’s not a new hipster Dutch brewery, PrinFrAp is possibly the best model with a terrible name you’ve ever heard of. It is an abbreviation (I think) of three points of a model that describes the …
PrinFrAp: Probably the Best Teaching Model in the World Read More »
