The exposure of indoor climbing as a hobby is rapidly growing, increasing the public’s awareness of a fun and challenging sport that can keep them fit and healthy whilst also providing a friendly place to socialise. For some, this hobby then evolves into a career. The avenues in which individuals can start their instructing career can be varied and diverse but every pathway incorporates some form of two vital aspects fundamental to an individual’s desire to become an instructor. These can be derived as the passion of the sport and the desire to pass on that passion to others. Hopefully, if you are interested in becoming an instructor, this blog post will give you a bit of knowledge to help you out!
Live it
It could go without saying but in order to become a climbing instructor you first need to immerse yourself into the lifestyle and culture that climbing embodies. At MCC, we have a community of staff who are all active climbers that love developing their climbing ability alongside developing others. This passion is key for progressing their knowledge and experience, it develops personal climbing ability that can directly influence their coaching ability and develops interpersonal characteristics that directly impact their ability to communicate with people. Breaking into this community is easy! There are various ways in get involved from introduction sessions to progressive learning session at every climbing Centre! These can then progress into social climbing clubs we offer on Tuesdays and Thursdays for individuals to meet other like-minded people getting involved. Our Centre’s goal is to promote climbing and provide an inclusive community that everyone can enjoy.
Experience it
The next step on the road to becoming an instructor is to actually try it out! At MCC, we provide a platform for individuals to shadow and assist our experienced instructors. This gives the opportunity for you gain a mass amount of experience working towards qualifications and working with people within a range of ages and abilities all wanting to explore the world of climbing. A good tip is to observe a plethora of instructors from a wide variety of different Centre’s. This will establish a well-founded diverse experience that encompasses a broad amount of coaching methods and techniques. Be aware, not all climbing Centre’s perform in the same way; hence, by visiting more than one place you can critically analyse efficient ways of instructing.
Entering the Instructor World
Entering the world of instructing can also differ depending on which climbing Centre you would like to work at; some require National Governing Body awards (NGB) and coaching qualifications as a minimum whilst others, like us, only request for individuals to display a strong aspiration and passion for climbing along with a physical demonstration of your capability. Mountain Training is a hub for awarding bodies relating to mountaineering and climbing, they have a lot more information available for guidance into collecting the climbing qualifications such as the Climbing Wall Instructor (CWI) qualification, the link is included below:
https://www.mountain-training.org/qualifications/climbing
When approaching your local climbing centre be sure to check the criteria they are looking for to see if these qualifications are essential or not for the job role; our attention is focused on individual’s ability and drive to be involved in the climbing world. Once you’ve stepped into the initial stages of the instructing world the pathways and progressions can be massive! All it takes is that first step to become part of a fulfilling and rewarding career in developing others, and yourself, in a sport we all enjoy.
Blog by Ben College MCC Operations Manager & Coach