NEXT GENERATION CLIMBERS

This Post is intended to be the first in a series about me teaching teenagers how to climb and belay each other.

Tue 3:30 pm:
My assistant-coach and I prepared the section of the gym we wanted to use. Nothing fancy, just double-checking every belay device and rope. She prepared a little icebreaker / game for the kids so everybody could introduce him- or herself to the others.

4:00 pm:
Everybody arrived in time and we started with said game. The Kids (Age 11-14) had lots of fun and we told them what we wanted (them) to achieve during the course (12 x 120 minutes). We asked for their expectations but I guess they were a bit overwhelmed and did not quite know what to answer other than "climbing".
On the other hand... Thats exactly what we wanted.

Enable them to climb and belay safely

So we introduced them to the belay device, we wanted them to use (for now).
We used the Eddy by Edelrid because it is nearly fool-proof, and told them to join in roped parties of three.

Boy, oh boy did they surprise me! They learned the belaying movements fast and made hardly any mistakes during the two hours we had. I have seen experienced climbers belay far worse than them.
Three of the girls climbed a VII(UIAA). Ok.. They had a rest or two and it was toprope and not lead climbing, but none the less that's quite good!
I was so excited that I decided I will write my first post about this.

Climb safe.
See you soon.