In reply to UKC News:
In reply to Brendan:
Having a world class wall to train on is great and certainly gives an added advantage to training and certainly to motivation, however, in my opinion its mostly down to top class coaches who looked out for the kids when they were younger, nurtured the obviously motivated ones and set them in the right path, providing them with as many opportunities to excel and experience all of what climbing has to offer!
For myself, I certainly would not be the climber I am today without the coaches and mentors over the years who inspired and motivated me. I do believe that without the world class training venue, as long as there is motivated kids and inspiring individuals who set the path for them, then we shall see young climbers excel to dizzying heights! Natalie Berry was already a World Class Youth Climber before Ratho came along, she trained at Glasgow Climbing Centre 4 days a week for many years before moving to Edinburgh last year.
Myself and Ross Kirkland are the only ones out of that group who have benefited from Ratho solely, but if we still had the same motivated coaches and individuals inspiring us as we have had at ratho for years and years, and instead of ratho, all we had was a little bouldering wall, is it so hard to believe that we may be climbing at the same level or similar? It certainly hasn't harmed many of the worlds top climbers e.g. Patxi Usobiaga - check out progression to see the wall he trains at, Maja Vidmar also trains on a little 45 degree training board in a wall not much bigger than my living room, and of course our national hero, Malcolm Smith : P
I don't think its always down to the facility (though It does help), its what you do with what you've got and your motivation to keep pushing yourself!
maybe? : P