Kidrock.

Introducing Young Climbers to Possibilities

Climbing provides an ideal activity for children to discover their individual movement potential, build self-confidence, problem solve, and, of course improve upon physical traits such as balance, strength and flexibility.

In the spring of 1996, I began working for Cliffhanger Indoor Climbing Centre in Vancouver, BC, as a part-time climbing instructor. At that time, Cliffhanger was a relatively new facility, having opened in 1993, and being the first climbing center in Vancouver, it was steadily building a regular clientele of climbing enthusiasts.

During the early years, Cliffhanger owner, Colin Whyte, and manager, Daniel Poggi, had strived to create a gym that made indoor climbing accessible to people of all ages and abilities. This was accomplished by providing a wide range of programs and courses such as: "Just Climbing" belay sessions, which provided curious beginners an opportunity to try climbing while being belayed by our staff (the act of protecting a climber's ascent); introductory courses which familiarized beginners with basic gym safety, equipment use and belay techniques; technique and lead climbing courses and; drop-in times for kids to develop their climbing skills under the guidance and supervision of our instructors.

As an aspiring teacher, who had recently completed my BaPhed at Brock University in Movement Education, I was eager to broaden our existing "Kidrock" drop-in program to make climbing more accessible to children and teens. After all, as far as I was concerned, climbing provided an ideal activity for children to discover their individual movement potential, build self-confidence, problem solve and, of course, improve upon physical traits such as balance, strength and flexibility. The most exciting factor to me, however, was that all children, regardless of size, age or physical ability, could come out of a climbing experience having achieved some degree of success and improvement. Although Cliffhanger did provide opportunities for children to experience climbing through our drop-in programs, "Just Climbing" and school group sessions, little was available for those who showed a keen enthusiasm for climbing. Thus, the "Kidrock Level One" program was born.

The objective of "Kidrock Level One" is to provide children, who show an interest in climbing, with the tools necessary to become self-sufficient climbers and have fun pursuing climbing as a recreational activity. The program has undergone numerous modifications and refinements over the past several years in order to optimally meet the needs of all participants. For instance, at the outset we ran the camps for a full day (6 hours), which proved to be too intensive for the average beginner, so now we offer 4 hour, half-day camps. The original program also had participants apply their new-found skills to the rock on their final day, but this proved to be a little intimidating for many children.

At present, we feel that we have optimized the camps to meet the needs of all participants and consistently meet our program objectives. However, every week of summer brings a whole new group of children between the ages of 7 to 15, creating new challenges for the camp staff. The staff are essential to the success of Kidrock, as it is ultimately their responsibility to assess each participant's progress and to offer appropriate instruction as necessary. All staff working in the Kidrock programs are chosen based on both their experience as an instructor, as well as their enthusiasm for working with kids. In addition to this, the program maintains a student to teacher ratio of 4:1. This ensures that participants receive personalized instruction everyday of the program.

The Level One half-day camps are offered from Monday to Friday, each week of the summer holidays, for 4 hours daily, between 9am and 1pm. Throughout these 20 hours of instruction, the goals for individual participants may vary slightly, depending on their age, previous experience and comfort level. For example, only children over the age of 10 are taught the important responsibility of belaying, while those under 10 spend more time exploring their movement potential through games such as add-on, follow-the-leader and blindfolded climbing. It is our policy to set an age limit for belayers, as children under 10 are often unable to appreciate the importance of the belayer's role. Obviously, this creates limitations on the levels of self-sufficiency to be reached by younger climbers, however we have attempted to overcome this by encouraging parents to learn how to belay and providing them with free use of our equipment when belaying children in the gym.

Each week the camp follows the same general schedule of instruction, allowing an adequate amount of time for children to apply and practice any new material. During the first day of camp, children are introduced to staff, take a tour around the facility and begin getting to know their fellow participants by taking part in several fun ice-breakers. Our focus on this first day is to establish a daily routine (warm-up, stretch, instruction, practice) to introduce participants to the basic "top rope" climbing system as well as getting a start on knot tying and belaying (for those over 10 years of age). The first day, as with all the others, comes to a close with a brief cool down stretch and a period of review to ensure that participants understood everything covered thus far and that any questions they have may be addressed.

By day two, the camp staff have assessed the abilities of participants and are then able to break down the large group into smaller groups of four or less, each being assigned to a specific instructor. At this stage, instruction becomes more individualized. As older participants continue to develop their belay techniques and climbing skills, the younger group(s) will proceed with some climbing exercises and/or games. Throughout this session, instructors will be introducing basic movement techniques as required for each individual and encouraging participants to explore different holds, balances and body positions.

On the third day, once children have completed their warm-up and the group has stretched together (including today's stretch-of-the-day), we bring the entire group together again for an "Introduction to Bouldering". Bouldering is, quite simply, climbing at a safe height, (at Cliffhanger, hands no higher than 8 or 12 feet, depending on height of individual), focusing on lateral movement, rather than vertical ascent that requires the use of ropes, harnesses and a belayer. Not only does bouldering provide an ideal challenge to improve upon a climber's movement, but it also creates an optimal opportunity for instructors to provide specific feedback relating to the participant's efforts, straight away and on the spot.

Instructors focus on things such as: body mechanics (maintaining balance on 3 points of contact); use of the feet and legs to propel movement while minimizing pulling with arms and; identifying how specific holds may be optimally utilized to achieve their movement goals. Towards the end of day three, children are again allowed to get back on the ropes, with those participants over 10 permitted to practice their belay skills under the supervision of instructors.

By the fourth day at the camp, children generally show a greater awareness of what they are capable of and therefore are ready to begin setting goals for themselves. At the completion of the warm-up and stretch a brief description of ascent styles is given, explaining to participants that by climbing a new route completely, without falling on the rope, on their first try, they have achieved an "on-sight" ascent. Also, that any successful ground to anchor ascent thereafter, without falling, is called a "red point", and that these two types of ascents are what climbers aspire to achieve. For the remainder of session four, participants are encouraged to choose 2-3 routes, which they feel are attainable, and set goals to either "on-sight" or "red point" their personal projects. As children pursue these goals, with encouragement and assistance from instructors, each child's efforts are video recorded. Towards the completion of the day, I will personally review the videotaped efforts with each individual, identifying areas to focus on for improvement, as well as reinforcing those techniques that are being utilized effectively. This feedback session has proven to be one of the highlights of past kidcamps as the kids are always excited to see themselves doing the unthinkable, and most are able to benefit from the feedback.

The final day of the summer half-day camps are certainly the most rewarding as all participants take part in a short and fun multiple choice test, which reviews much of the weeks' content. Participants over 10 are also expected to complete a belay test so that they may receive their very own official Cliffhanger user card, which permits them to belay at Cliffhanger on their own in the future. The remainder of the final day is spent in a healthy competition, where participants are broken down into three equal teams, each trying to accumulate the most points as a team by climbing as many routes as they can in the given time (harder routes having higher point values). At the end of the day, all kids are winners and everyone receives a certificate to acknowledge their efforts in completing "Kidrock Level One."

Of course this is a general outline of the average week and may vary somewhat for individual participants. For instance, one child may be very insecure with the responsibility of belaying, and therefore require more attention in that area. Whereas, a second child may have a fear of heights and thus require more staff attention in overcoming this fear by setting small goals and inching their way beyond their fears, such flexibility is the strength of the program. By maintaining a low student to instructor ratio, providing adequate time and unlimited challenge we are able to provide relative, pertinent instruction and feedback to each individual as required. This enables us to reach our program goals of making participants more self-sufficient climbers while maintaining the interest levels of all participants. Despite the varying degrees of what children can take from the program, since it's onset, every participant has exhibited an improvement in their movement awareness and ability, as well as a sense of achievement based on their improvements throughout the week. We have also received an enormous amount of positive feedback from parents of participants, many of whom have since begun climbing themselves and regularly climb with their sons and daughters.

Over the past five years, the number of children and youth climbing at Cliffhanger has increased dramatically and registration in the camps has been increasing annually as well. Furthermore, as many of our "Kidrock Level One" graduates have gone on to expand their individual movement repertoires and improve as climbers, we too have had to expand our programs. Cliffhanger now also offers a "Kidrock Level Two" program, which provides a full week of instruction for more advanced youth climbers with a focus on "lead" climbing/belaying techniques and more advanced technique training. By expanding our program to entice kids and teens to continue their exploration of rock climbing, we continue to strive to show our students their own possibilities and potential.

Dave MacDonald has been rock climbing for almost nine years and has worked as a gym instructor, primarily for children, for just over five years. In 1993, he completed his BaPhed at Brock University in Movement Education, a more explorative, open-ended approach to movements tasks developed from the movement principles of Rudolf Laban. In addition to his experiences working with children in climbing, Dave also spent four years working as a recreational programmer for the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs, designing and implementing recreation programs for children between the ages of 5-16. Presently, summer half-day camps are in full swing and despite the fact that he is returning to school in the fall, he plans to continue teaching Kidrock courses on Saturdays. Check out his article on page 72.