There is very little difference between coaching and mentoring; they share many similar qualities. Whatever the distinction may be, the key of both coaching and mentoring is to help you develop in the area you wish.
At Prowess, the distinction is made by what you do with the information. Coaching is primarily there to support you with your own personal skills, put into practice with your own climbing. Mentoring, though, is provided to help you as Coach Education with the skills developed going towards you teaching others.
Coach mentoring is available for any coach, at any level, looking to work with a qualified and experienced professional to enhance their own skills.
Prices
To Sign Up
To sign up to the Prowess Coach Mentoring Scheme, please download the form to the right, read and digest before signing the declarations at the bottom, signing and sending it to [email protected]
What’s Included
What Prowess Will Provide As Standard
The following lays out what Prowess will provide as part of your mentoring agreement:
- One hour consultation per month, either in person (see below) or remotely
- Regular correspondence, within reason, via WhatsApp or email
- Access to a password-protected page on the Prowess website with resources to help with your coaching (coming soon, not currently available)
- Introduction to the Association of Climbing Coaches (ACC)
What Prowess Will Provide Extra
The following lays out what Prowess will provide extra to the standard agreement. Please note, this is not included as standard and further fees may be incurred:
- Session observations, in North Wales, charged at the standard indoor coaching rate. These can take several forms:
- You run the session under observation from Prowess
- Prowess runs the session, you provide the client
- You observe a typical Prowess session
For sessions away from North Wales, it may be possible to arrange an observation by a trusted colleague and experienced coach. While this is by no means guaranteed, it is certainly possible, depending on location. Charges will be decided in advance with the coach in question.
Session observations may be possible if tied in with other work, such as private coaching, Prowess workshops or coach education courses. Please contact for more details.
Your Commitment
As part of this process, there are some commitments you are required to agree to. They are:
- Run your own coaching sessions
- Find your own clients to work with
- Provide occasional session plans for your sessions
- Keep records of your coaching sessions. Please note, this need not be every session but some will be expected to be logged.
[Note: For those on the Mountain Training pathway of qualification, it will be expected you will log sessions using Mountain Training’s DLOG system]
There is a level of commitment required on your part with this scheme. Quite a lot in fact. However, the more you put in, the more you will get out of it.
It is up to you to arrange your sessions and get as much coaching in as you like.
Credentials
It would be perfectly reasonable, sensible even, to ask: what makes you capable of providing this kind of service?
Prowess has mentored several coaches through their journey to date, with much success. Many mentees have progressed through their assessments (although this is certainly not guaranteed) and feedback suggests the Prowess Coach Mentoring scheme is very popular.
The short version of credentials for this scheme are as follows:
- Mountain Training Performance Coach trained with assessment penned for September 2025
- Master’s degree in Elite Performance, including a thesis examining elite level climbing coaches
- Provider of nationally recognised Coach Education courses (BMC FUNdamentals and MT Bouldering Wall Instructor)
- Industry expert in teaching bouldering, including as a contributing author on the Bouldering: Guidance on Session Delivery and Supervision document
- 10+ years of formal coaching experience
- 25+ years of personal climbing experience
There’s a longer version too. If you’d like to see that, please check out my About page.
Availability and Location
All mentoring contracts are subject to availability. That said, this scheme is not particularly time-heavy and therefore, it is usually feasible to take on new clients regularly. If a contract is agreed, Prowess agrees to honour monthly sessions until the end of the Mentoring Scheme.
All in-person meetings are priced to be conducted in North-West Wales, typically indoors. While it is possible to travel for the coached sessions, travel expenses are not included in the price and are considered extra to stated prices.
There is no extra charge for remote contact, either via Zoom (or equivalent) or by phone.
Cancellation Policy
Life can get in the way sometimes. Things can happen, injuries can occur, there are plenty of reasons why it may not be feasible to continue.
While sessions for your monthly allowance are not able to be carried over to the following month, if you do run into problems, please do let me know. No promises but we will see what we can do and I will be as flexible as possible.
If sessions are cancelled by Prowess, a full refund for any outstanding sessions will be issued. Prowess reserves the right to terminate the Mentoring contract at any point, with one month’s notice.
To Sign Up
To sign up to the Prowess Coach Mentoring Scheme, please download the form to the right, read and digest before signing the declarations at the bottom, signing and sending it to [email protected]
Please remember, all Metoring agreements are subject to availability