Coaching Climbing Technical Group

Coaching Climbing Technical Group
Originally uploaded by SteveMLT

The 2-day "lock-in" planning event at Plas y Brenin !9-20th January 2011 was a great success! Over an intensive 2 days we thrashed out the remaining questions about the delivery mechanism for training and assessment of level 1 and 2 coaching, with the medium term aim of piloting the constituent modules over the next few months.

From LtoR: Jon Garside, Martin Chester, Dave Binney, Ian Dunn, Tom Greenall, Neal McQuaid, Steve Long

Route reading on a coaching course

Route reading with Neil and Libby
Originally uploaded by SteveMLT

I was invited by Neil Gresham to watch his coach training course at the Westway climbing wall, and the chance arose to take a day out from the office and travel down to London to see the second half of the "Technique" module. Neil runs a coach training scheme which focuses on a particular type of coaching, which might loosely be described as intense development sessions and courses for intermediate through to advanced sport climbers. The training scheme therefore contains many elements that will eventually be included within the National Coaching Qualifications when they are introduced. Levels 1 and 2 should be ready for launching in early 2013, with Level 3 to follow, hopefully within a further 18 months. Neil's coaching courses provide training in elements that will be included within Levels 2 and 3, providing interesting CPD for anybody seeking to develop their coaching repertoire for this kind of coaching work.

Coaching Developments Update

The two advisory groups supporting Mountain Leader Training in developing a coaching system met earlier this week. The climbing coaching system is being developed by Mountain Leader Training (MLT) under the direction of their Technical Officer Steve Long. The two advisory groups supporting Steve in his work are a Coaching Management Group and a Coaching Technical Group.
The Management Group is made up of MLT Board members, and comprises John Cousins (MLT Executive Officer), Steve Long (MLT Technical Officer), Nick Colton (BMC Deputy CEO), Mike Pinder (BMC MLT Board Member) and Rosie Goolden (MCofS MLT Board Member). This group is concerned with the strategic and practical delivery of a sustainable and self-funding infrastructure for coaching qualifications.

The Technical Group comprises Steve Long, Jon Garside (BMC/MLTE Training Officer), Ian Dunn, (British Team Manager), Neil Gresham (Climbing Coach), Graeme Morrison (Chair, Mountain Leader Training Scotland), Angela Carlin (Mountaineering Ireland Coaching Development and Talent ID Officer), Dave Binney (Sport Scientist) and Martin Chester (Plas y Brenin Director of Training). Being comprised of coaches and coach trainers, this group's job is to design scheme syllabi & course materials and the methodology for training, assessment, accrediting prior learning and continued coach development.

A lot of research and development has taken place over the last 5 years. A National Source Group was established in late 2006 to investigate the possibilities of a coaching scheme, with their report published in autumn 2008.  Subsequently, the BMC sourced funding from Sport England for 2009 - 2013 to develop a coaching system.
Other sports and outside agencies such as Sports Coach UK have been consulted, and Steve Long attended the recent round of National Indoor Climbing Achievement Scheme workshops to gauge the needs of climbing walls.
The BMC Coaching Symposium demonstrated the very strong grass roots support for a coaching system; the  FUNdamentals of Climbing Workshops have played a part in identifying the demand for a particualar aspect of coach education (see also Scotland and Ireland) and  Plas y Brenin has been delivereing a Coaching Processes for Climbers workshop for a number of years. A central theme of that training is that coaches don't coach climbing, they coach people. Developing coaching behaviours will be an important theme of MLT's coaching system.
However, a wholly new set of national coaching awards cannot be developed without consulting widely and taking into account the views of the many different stakeholders, all of which takes time. The sometimes differing views of the three Mountaineering Councils can lead to a pause in progress whilst issues are explored.
At their recent meetings, the Management and Technical groups discussed progress to date, and reviewed MLT's strategic plan. The short term goal is finalising syllabi for assistant coach and coach qualifications by mid-September. Steve Long presented the first drafts of these syllabi to the Technical Group who thought them a very good first draft.
MLT are working to a tight deadline. Alongside finalising syllabi, their immediate task is reviewing the coaching system operational plan covering the period from now to March 2013.

Coaching weekend at Plas y Brenin

This weekend Snowdonia will be the place to be! Plas y Brenin will be hosting a coaching seminar with guest appearances from some highly respected key speakers plus myself! Meanwhile over in Llanberis the annual mountain film festival, Llamff, will be in full swing. The weekend is so full that you will need to programme your timetable quite carefully to get the best out of the events - that is if you've already booked a place on the coaching seminar - standing room only!

Sportscoach UK coaching workshops

Sportscoach UK are advertising what they describe as a "thought-provoking and exciting workshop" entitled 'Coaching the Whole Child: Positive Development Through Sport',  that will allow coaches to reconsider the emphasis of their coaching and make a positive impact on the children they're coaching as a result.

Outcomes: By attending this workshop coaches will be able to:

• improve the development of all their children
• make a positive impact on their children and enhance their experience
• help their children realise their full potential
• develop their coaching to incorporate positive youth development into their sessions.

Check it out at: www.sportscoachuk.org/workshops.php

NICAS seminar at Manchester Climbing Centre

We had an excellent turnout for the latest NICAS seminar - 41 active providers. Photos from the day at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46624718@N03/sets/72157625493023174/

NICAS seminar at Ratho

The move

Another visit to Ratho - what a fantastic place! It's certainly the most inspiring artificial climbing wall that I've ever visited. in fact its better than some real crags...  This trip was to update NICAS providers with developments in the coaching qualifications. I travelled up to Scotland with Dave Rudkin, who volunteered to do all the driving - as do most people when they've seen me at the wheel. Dave ran a session about coaching processes and ways to "front load" long-term teaching objectives right from the start. Other interesting sessions included a discussion about young climbers peer belaying , training a squad, acting as a technical adviser and integration with the education examinations requirements. An integrated pathway for young people seems to be emerging. My overall observation of the current state of play is that we have moved from a situation where climbers feared a takeover by "educationalists" to a new order where the education world has been won over by the climbers. You can quote me on that.

Ian Dunne and disciples

UK and Ireland-wide agreement over FUNdamentals workshops programme

This week the National Councils (British Mountaineering Council, Mountaineering Council of Scotland and Mountaineering Ireland) and MLT took a quantum leap forward in the develiopment of a coaching qualifications pathway: a formal agreement to work to a shared syllabus for LTPD in UK and Ireland. (LTPD = Long Term Participant Development in case you're wondering, also known as LTAD, the A standing for Athlete - there was much fun at the meeting trying to work out which members of the group were athletes and which were participants. The best known component of the LTPD/LTAD concept is FUNdamentals, coming to a wall near you soon!)

After the meeting Kevin Howett, the Development Officer for MCofS issued the following statement: "We are developing a coaching pathway in Scotland with the support and advice of sportscotland. The first step in this is a FUNdamentals of Climbing course, a syllabus for which we have been developing with their help. At the meeting of the National Source Group led by MLT on the 29th September we were pleased to gain agreement across Britain and Ireland to amalgamate our respective syllabuses, refining the successful workshops already delivered by BMC in England to produce a UK standard course. We hope to start delivering the new course in Scotland in the New Year, and use it to start the training and endorsement of an expanded number of Scottish climbing coaches, who will then help in developing and delivering the follow-on level courses of learning to Train and Elite Training."


In addition to agreeing to merge the draft syllabi, we also agreed on a principle of "team training" throughout the UK, as part of an ongoing move towards harmonisation and external valuation throughout the UK. This helps pave the way for these workshops to eventually be integrated into the coaching qualifications pathway that MLT is developing and implementing over the next two years. This means that canny coaches will be able to keep "a step ahead of the game" by following the LTPD workshops as they are introduced: LTPD is already being piloted under  the working title of "Learning to Train" (though "FUNdamentals II", or "conSOLIDation" may be a more suitable title for this interpretation of this phase for climbers)

MLT making progress with coaching qualification pathway

Mountain Leader Training was formally tasked by the Mountaineering Councils with developing a coaching system over the next two years to complement the existing leader and instructor schemes. To date a lot of information gathering has taken place and this article summarises the work done so far and also what is
involved in the UK Coaching Certificate.

This spring and summer we held several meetings with staff from sports coach UK including our coach development advisor, Dr. Gillian Mara (The UK Coaching Framework is explained here http://www.sportscoachuk.org/index.php?PageID=2&sc=5&uid=)
This research was contextualised by the annual coaching summit in Cardiff (June 29-30th) and provided sufficient background information to allow a tentative mapping exercise of the Climbing Wall Award syllabus and assessment methodology against the National Standard recommended for Level 1 (assistant coach) and level 2 (coach) in the UKCC framework.

The UKCC is not a qualification but rather a standard. If we develop coaching qualifications that match or exceed the UKCC standard it makes sense to consider seeking endorsement of them as UKCC qualifications. This is because the UKCC is a recognised national standard that can be used by coaches to clearly demonstrate their coaching competencies. Also, those working within the outdoor industry often coach other sports, such as orienteering, mountain biking, paddlesport and sailing. Therefore, if the various awarding bodies follow common standards it can be easier for prior learning to be recognized.
This can allow a coach in one sport to move more easily into another sport, as they will hopefully not have to repeat generic coach training that they already possess. UKCC awards can attract funding, which is an obvious benefit for coaches wishing to become qualified.

A UKCC ‘qualification’ is an endorsement process, whereby a qualification meets set criteria, and is then endorsed. The preliminary mapping process demonstrated how our existing schemes meet many of the risk management criteria, but are lacking in common coaching skills. Regardless of whether or not our coaching qualifications pathway fulfils the UKCC framework, an audit of the existing coaching workforce and employers’ needs is desirable; this is something that Mountain Leader Training has always done before introducing any new awards. The difference here is that participant needs should also be assessed. This will enable us to gauge the level of demand for coaches at various levels, including assistant coach. It will provide a snapshot of where we are now, so provide a benchmark for monitoring the success of future coaching qualifications supporting both participant and coach pathways.

Coaching summit and reality

Another hectic week, starting with a couple of days in Cardiff at the sportscoach UK annual summit in Cardiff. With representation from many sports as well as representatives from all the home nation sports councils, this was a great opportunity to catch up with the mindset of the policy makers in the new political era. Thanks to Lottery funding, sports coaching is pretty safe financially, but there are potential areas of controversy that we need to be aware of. At MLT our primary aim for a coaching qualification pathway is to create a system that works for our sport/pastime. So if the UKCC model doesn't work for us, so be it. However all my research so far suggests that for at least levels 1 and 2 there is no reason why we shouldn't work within the UKCC model as long as our assessment methodology is acceptable to UKCC. If it looks like it will create mounds of pointless paperwork we'll step sideways but certainly at the moment there is no reason not to stick with it. On Thursday I presented a mapping of the Climbing Wall Award against UKCC Level 1 and level 2 criteria to our designated sportscoach UK rep, Dr. Gillian Mara. Jon Garside and myself were gratified to find that the CWA needs little other than some background understanding on team working and reflective practice/formal evaluation methods to fulfil the criteria for level 1 at least, so I will begin consulting over a proposed syllabus for this over the next few weeks.

I spent a long weekend in the Peak District with my son Sion Idwal and Chris Parkin's family for a coaching induction into gritstone climbing. This was an interesting challenge as we wanted them to sample some mid-grade classics as well as gain some leading experience in preparation for university life in Yorkshire if they get their "A" level grades. I think we pulled it off reasonably well, with various team switches enabling everybody to climb something at an appropriate grade throughout the trip. Routes climbed included Flying Buttress, Flying Buttress Direct, Hollybush Crack, Queersville, Leaning Buttress Direct, Tippler, Dangler, Goliath's Groove, Wall End Flake Crack, Right and Left Unconquerables at Stanage, Embankment Routes 1 and 4, Portland Street, Great North Road, Lyon's Corner House, Knightsbridge and the Mall at Millstone, and Tody's Wall plus Valkyrie at Froggat.