UKC

I climb with my daughter two or three times a week.

She really enjoys it, and climbs well. I'd really like her to continue to develop her climbing for her own sake. She's quite competitive and talks about doing one of the BMC competitions next year.

Recently I've felt it might be good for her to climb with other kids her own age, as well as with me, tho it's a great thing for us to do as a family.

There is a drop-in club for children at our local wall, but it tends towards total novices, or kids trying climbing for the first time.

Has anybody been thru similar situation? Or have other advice?

Cheers

In reply to alexharri: My daughters just gone 11 and has been climbing just over 3 years. Started off with me outdoors for the first 18 months then hit the indoor walls.she showed a natural talent so I got her some private coaching and joined the local academy. Now she's leading 7a and has bouldered v6 and done a couple of bmc comps as well as local ones. I'd say if you can find somewhere to give her the guidance go for it either by an academy or coaching, mine still loves it which is the main thing. Hth

In reply to alexharri:

My daughter is ten and we've got her doing the NICAS course at our local wall. Its meant that she's met a bunch of other kids of a similar age group and they're all happy to climb with each other. The added bonus is that they learn to belay and lead indoors under the tuition of a qualified instructor. They're all progressing at a similar rate and it seems to be helping them to push their grades a bit. She's already climbing harder than me (granted, thats not hard to do!) and seems to get a bit more out of it than if she's only climbing with her parents as we're not cool/boring/rubbish climbers/embarassing etc etc

In reply to fil-p: Cheers: it does help. I've thought about getting her some coaching from time to time. The extra input would help her improve, move up grades, so keep it rewarding. What do you mean by academy, btw?

In reply to Toby S: Hah. Good shout. She's done a couple of NICAS levels, and wants to do more, but they haven't quite got the approvals to do the next levels of Nicas at our local wall.

and seems to get a bit more out of it than if she's only climbing with her parents as we're not cool/boring/rubbish climbers/embarassing etc etc

You capture this spot on. If you're only climbing with your old man you can imagine it cld pall on you after a bit. Much better to be standing around with your mates, saying "What, dad, can you not even manage that any more?"

When I was about 14/15 I used to climb at NCC, they used to have a Saturday club for advanced young climbers, maybe there's something along those lines near you. They even had a climbing team.

In reply to alexharri: If she's keen to do the BMC comps then she should go for the YCS which starts up soon and it will let her meet her peers that are climbing. They get to know all the other kids, find other folk their own age to climb with and generally have a blast. I imagine that would be the best way for her to meet kids that climb at the same level as her.

In reply to alexharri: ? where r u based

In reply to harry 600: Harry! Have they taught you nothing at school... Don't post up your phone number on random internet sites... I know we are all lovely but then again... are we?! Dude be careful!

In reply to Pauline: Don't worey I know what i'm doing and how to stop people like that.