climbing

Don’t Think About the Elephant in the Room

One of my local climbing centres is called the Beacon and there, you’ll find one of their senior staff called Gareth Pritchard. I have a lot of respect for Gareth, he’s a great bloke and very experienced. Yet occasionally, we do find ourselves locked in ardent debate; much like happened recently. Gareth is great for …

Don’t Think About the Elephant in the Room Read More »

No Fun Allowed! In What World Would We Want to Enjoy Ourselves

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 »

A CUP Full of Success: Manipulating ‘Unit Bias’ to Our Advantage

This concept and article were written in collaboration with Manchester-based climbing coach Adam from Underhang Climbing. My thanks go out to Adam for his help It’s Christmas this week – or, if you’re reading any other time of the year, it’s only ever “just around the corner” – and a time for traditions. Everyone has …

A CUP Full of Success: Manipulating ‘Unit Bias’ to Our Advantage Read More »

The List: A Solid Method of Always Having a Project to Hand

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 »

PrinFrAp: Probably the Best Teaching Model in the World

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 »