Ben Watson - 151048

Coaching session with NICAS L3 - 6 participants aged 11-14. A strong group I have worked with many times. 1.5hrs
Session aim was part 3.5 in logbooks - describe and demonstrate principles of good climbing movement.
Warm-up - animal races, for fun and to get them thinking about how they are moving.
Easy climbing - on top-ropes logging roped climbs.
Main session - pick skills out of a hat - related to good movement principles, including: - accurate footwork, fluid/controlled movement, relaxed grip and posture, spot rests and good resting technique, reading moves ahead, hips close to the wall on steep ground.
Personal reflection - What happened? - all a bit manic on the warm-up as this group can be, not exactly focused on the movement but more of trying to cheat each other to win the races. Easy climbing - In pairs on top-ropes they began to settle and got some climbing done in the half an hour I had set them, all managed 2 or 3 climbs and belays. Main session - some of the group really focused and kept coming back for more movement skills to find then show and tell, some just wanted to climb boulders and try hard, some difficult to engage in activity and more interested in joking about/chatting.
So what? - perhaps a warm-up which encourages some chaos and gets a bit of the energy blasted out would be useful, unrelated to climbing but just to get them moving a lot! Good focus on the top-rope session with most either wanting to log climbs or work towards goals they have set themselves for improving. Main session - a good way to convey the skills they need to describe and demonstrate but as with previous sessions Im still trying to cover a bit too much. This group are capable climbers who already do all of these things whilst climbing so it is more about them learning how to show and describe what they are doing and why. With tasking them individually so got more feedback than others and all learned different things depending on the skill drawn from the hat.
What next? - Find a way to get the group focused and stick with it whilst its working for them. Try to set the group a task and save discussions for when they are back together so that everyone can get the same feedback/ learning points.