If you want a reminder of how to lead outdoors, this one is for you! One day of falling practice, clipping tactics, route reading and footwork, to finally go out of the gym and enjoy nature.
Book NowAlmost nobody plateaus because they aren't strong enough. They plateau because they're afraid of falling, they clip from bad positions, they don't read the route before leaving the ground, and their feet are doing about half the work they could be doing.
Those four things are all completely fixable, and none of them are trained by simply climbing more. That's the frustrating part: you can climb twice a week for two years, get fitter, and stay on exactly the same grade — because volume doesn't fix technique or fear. It just makes you better at what you already do.
This is one day dedicated to the parts of sport climbing nobody teaches you. It's coaching rather than guiding: you'll be watched, filmed if useful, given specific feedback, and asked to practise things that feel uncomfortable. Most people leave climbing a grade harder — or, more accurately, leave able to climb the grade they were already physically capable of.
Most climbers have never taken a deliberate, controlled fall — so every time they get above a bolt, some part of them is climbing to avoid falling rather than climbing to succeed. That tension costs grip strength, ruins footwork and makes you clip from desperate positions. We work through it progressively, from tiny falls to real ones, and it changes how the rest of the day feels.
Progressive fall practice in a safe, controlled setting, from clipped-above to real lead falls. Alongside it: breathing, committing to a move instead of hovering, recognising when fear is information and when it's just noise, and the difference between onsighting and projecting mentally.
Where to clip from and — just as importantly — where not to. Clipping from good holds rather than the desperate ones, avoiding back-clips and Z-clips, deciding when to skip a bolt and when absolutely not to, and how to clip fast enough that it stops costing you the route.
Reading a line from the ground: identifying the crux, spotting the rests, planning where you'll clip, and choosing a sequence before you're pumped and improvising. Then checking it against what actually happened, which is where the learning is.
Precision over power: quiet feet, trusting smears, edging properly, using your hips, and getting weight off your arms. Most climbers lose more energy through sloppy feet than through any weakness in their fingers.
Finding and using rests, shaking out efficiently, pacing a route rather than sprinting it, warming up so the first route isn't wasted, and the tactics of working a project versus going for an onsight.
If you're coming with a partner, we'll work on their side too: giving a soft, dynamic catch, positioning, paying out fast without slack disasters. A good belayer makes a climber braver, and most fear of falling is partly fear of a bad catch.
One day, structured so that the technical work happens while you're fresh and the applying happens once it's in your body.
We meet at the crag, warm up properly — most people don't — and climb a route or two while your coach watches how you actually move. This is the assessment, and it decides what the rest of the day focuses on.
Targeted drills on the things that showed up: footwork, body position, clipping sequences. Short, repeated, specific. Not much climbing distance covered, and that's the point.
Progressive fall practice, at your pace. Nobody is pushed off anything. We start smaller than you expect and build only as far as you're willing to go — for many people this is the section that changes their climbing.
Back on real routes, at or slightly above your usual grade, putting the morning together. Route reading from the ground, then climbing it, then talking about the gap between the two.
An honest debrief: what's actually holding you back, what to practise, and how to structure your own sessions so the progress continues after today.
This isn't a day of ticking routes. You'll do fewer climbs than on a normal session and repeat things that feel awkward, and there will be moments when it's frustrating. That's what coaching feels like from the inside. The payoff comes on the routes you climb next week, not on the ones you climb today.
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Whether you're ready, what the falling practice actually involves, and what to expect from a day of coaching rather than climbing.
If you don't lead yet, or you've only climbed indoors, start with the Sport Climbing Introduction. If your leading is already solid and you want to climb long routes, the Multi-Pitch Course is the next step.
