The Climbing Wall Association's blog is a place for indoor climbing professionals to find useful and relevant information from industry and business experts. Stay on top of best practices, thought leadership, and trends by subscribing to our newsletter!
In our last article in this series, we outlined the benefits of focusing resources and energy on engaging your members, community, and employees in community-building programs. The research we cited is clear: by engaging your community of support, you increase your market presence, engage new... Continue Reading
The Headwall Group brings us the first article in a five-part series on using programming to build community through climbing and non-climbing events in indoor climbing gyms. Continue Reading
As my team from The Crag Climbing Gym and I weaved our way through the vast conference center's labyrinth toward the heart of the 2023 CWA Summit, we were awed by sweeping views of the city, rivers, and bridges of Pittsburgh. We peered down from the mezzanine into the Exhibit Hall and pointed... Continue Reading
Hiring practices across the indoor climbing industry has become a point of discussion, as the industry reckons with a challenging hiring market and a desire to remove barriers to access employment in the climbing industry. In our last blog post, we discussed using behavioral competencies to... Continue Reading
Indoor climbing gyms have a unique set of risk management concerns. Every facility and program must constantly be proactively managing these risk management hurdles. In this article, we’re going to introduce the concept of a “culture of safety” in the space of workplace risk... Continue Reading
In the second part of our Indoor Climbing Program Assessments, we will dive a little deeper into staff assessments. Get an example rubric for evaluation, the phases of implementing an assessment, and more. Continue Reading
In our last blog post, we wrote about some lessons we have learned in our work supporting indoor climbing gyms and program teams in designing staff training. One of the key takeaways from our work is the power of assessment in identifying needs, means of change, and progress. With limited... Continue Reading
Training youth climbing program staff can be a challenge. Staff with varying levels of experience, high turnover, and lack of time are common obstacles to creating and implementing high-quality staff training. Quality staff training is an important element in creating high-quality youth programs... Continue Reading
Creating new games and activities for a climbing program re-energizes participants, coaches, and brings a creative experience to climbing skills. It gives coaches new activities that they can use throughout the season with their teams, sparking creative thinking and group bonding. The... Continue Reading
When planning a climbing season, climbing camp session, or any type of climbing program, the first thing to consider is desired outcomes. In other words, what are the goals you as the coach would like to see your participants reach? By identifying outcomes at the beginning stages of planning, a... Continue Reading
In part one of this series, we examined behavioral management and different types of disruptive behavior. We’re continuing to expand on this while providing tactics for effectively handling these issues and proactively using empathy as a coach. While addressing challenging behaviors, it is... Continue Reading
Behavior management is a challenging skill to develop for coaches working with youth. It takes consistent practice and requires the coach to evolve along with their groups. Effective group management for youth teams includes a variety of tools that, when implemented appropriately, keeps the group... Continue Reading
