Working with a development squad, mostly working on or having completed NICAS Level 3. Today the focus was on route reading. I explained the idea of reading a route from the ground, working out sequences of moves and body position - relating to other activities that do the same, such as when I'd been a competitive skier. A few chimed in that they'd seen climbers doing it at competitions. Then I demonstrated acting a route on the ground, getting them at the end to say which they thought it was (they all got it right).
They then all had to read then act their route for their belayer to guess before they set off. Best acting earned Lord Sloth-hart (the club mascot) for the week.
Once a few had done it, the nerves of the others eased. Some still didn't want to do it, so I said it was fine just to visualise it if they didn't want to act it in public.
It seemed to be a successful session. In particular, it helped me as the coach watch their movement at ground level - control, coordination, awareness of CoG.
It sets up a later session where they'll have to build in rests to clip as if leading.
