BMC FUNdamentals of Climbing Workshops

Prowess Coaching is a provider of coach education workshops affiliated with the BMC. These include the FUNdamentals 1, 2 and 3 and Coaching Children.

The BMC FUNdamentals workshops covers the WHAT TO TEACH in climbing movement skills, plus some additional relevant information. Where existing instructional courses (CWI, RCI, MCI etc) focus on keeping people safe in various environments, the FUNdamentals are more focused on how people move on the wall. Please note that FUNdamentals 1, 2 and 3 are sequential and must be completed in order (although with any provider).

• FUNdamentals 1 looks at basic climbing movement, covering warm ups, weight transfer, footwork, handholds and some basics of injury prevention
• FUNdamentals 2 builds to climbing technique, including stable positions, resting positions, flagging and breaking down climbing techniques
• FUNdamentals 3 breaks into advanced climbing, investigating climbing in steep overhanging terrain; advanced climbing techniques including heel and toe hooks; making simple techniques more complex; and dynamic climbin
• Physical Training 1 provides an introduction to the physical side of improving both our climbing and our client’s climbing including a look at energy systems, types of training and periodisation

The following courses are slightly different, operating as a CPD workshops across the entire board of climbing qualifications. These are what I refer to as Coaching in Context courses, applying the above FUNdamentals to a specific social group.

• BMC Coaching Children drills deeper into: what is coaching compared to instruction; what are the specifics of how children learn compared to adults; how to deliver technical, tactical and appropriate psychological coaching to children; what is appropriate physical training for under-18s
• Climbing For All (Disability Awareness) incorporates some hard skills such as side support and hoists along with looking at how we incorporate FUNdamentals and Physical Training with climbers who have a disability. [NOTE: not yet running, coming late 2024/early 2025]

Each workshop is a one-day event and is a mix of classroom based and practical learning (as practical as possible) so bring your rock shoes and get ready to get on the wall! However don’t expect us to be trying super hard. The focus is on coaching and there is no minimum grade requirement. In the event of injury – or even if you choose not to climb – there is no requirement to climb at all, although we generally find most people are psyched to get on the wall. 

These workshops are stacked with useful information to help you with your clients (or even your own climbing) but are all delivered in a super relaxed, super chilled out environment and are generally very well received. 

More information is available on the BMC website

Prices

Public Courses

• BMC member: £90
• Non-BMC member: £110

Private Courses

Private Courses are also available for centres, businesses, groups and more. They are charged at
£300 per day + £10 per person + expenses

For more information, please click here.

Payment is required in advance to secure places on both public and private courses.

Upcoming Dates

Please note, while every effort is made to keep this updated, dates may change. Please click here 100% accurate dates. Click the link on the date to go straight to a booking page

After the Course: the Resource Pack

It’s a big old day with heaps of information. Being as there’s a lot of stuff to remember, each participant on the course will receive an email designed to give you something to refer back to: your Fundamentals resource pack. 

Included in the pack is:

• The Course Slides
• Course Notes covering the content of the day
• Downloadable files covering many of the sections of the day
• A Prowess Reflection Sheet, which can also be used on any other course (with any provider) in the future
• Links to external articles and resources
• Links to relelvant articles on the Prowess website
• Often more too, depending on the course

Each participant will receive an email to a password-protected page (with the password) to browse at your leisure.

Cancellation Policy

Circumstances change, things come up and occasionally people can’t make it. It’s understandable. If this happens to you, the sooner you can let me know, the better as I can hopefully fill the space with someone else. If you let me know two weeks before the session/course/workshop then I will issue a full refund. If you let me know between two weeks and one week before the session/course/workshop I will issue a 50% refund. If you let me know less than one week before the session/course/workshop then no refund will be issued. Remember you need to pay to secure your place on the course or your place may be allocated to someone else. If the course is cancelled by Prowess, a full refund will be issued.

Other considerations

If you’d like more information, there is an information sheet that you can download below, the link to the BMC website is here, or feel free to get in touch by clicking here or filling in the form below.