Some thoughts regarding coaching!

Just read on 8a. nu that an 8 year old kid from New York has done V10 (and did a V11 last year). Now I´m an active part of introducing kids to climbing myself, being a coach for teen teams. As long as kids tend to be of average talent, there are no problems. Just let them play on some easy boulder problems, have them experience the thrill of going for their first lead climb on some steep 5c/5.9, routes that are set in gyms everywhere for that exact purpose and everything is fine.
There is an abundance of positive effects climbing has on a kid´s body. There is core tension excercise as well as cognitive training, there is psychological challenge and mental training in the process of tackling seemingly impossible obstacles.
As soon as the kids are stronger, however, things get trickier however. From my point of view, as a coach you´re responsible for what happens in your training...and it´s aftermath. Climbing gyms have made it possible to reach a level of skill that was and couldn´t be reached (at least that fast) some ten years ago. With training facilities rapidly improving and changing, questions have come up that were not to be addressed ten years ago to the same extend. Kids´ bodies are much more suited for climbing that adults´. Their motoric skills are generally better and they will learn faster.
The point making it difficult however is their still developing skeletal apparatus. The most important point are kids´ joints. Their fingers and the whole skeletal apparatus are still growing, that is moving and morphing. Something still moving and thus still flexible inevitably lacks the stability of the finished "product" and is therefore more vulnerable.
As a coach, I not only have to consider how to prevent immediate injuries like sprains or concussions/distorsions, but I also have to weigh talented kids´ ambitions to get better and their physical limitations. It does not make sense to keep them from everything. There is no physical excercise without strain. The key is to keep the strain manageable. There are some basic rules you must adhere in my opinion. No crimping, no campusing (at least no campus board), increase difficulty by angle rather than hold size...the most important thing however is to teach kids to listen to their bodies. I firmly believe that injuries don´t come out of nothing. There will be signs like slight pains. Kids need to be told to communicate that to their coach. Training can only be managed and monitored by feedback.
Coming back to this little Ashima kid from New York...does sending V10 at that age have be harmful. Not necessarily. It depends on her style of climbing, on her physical disposition, on her genetic disposition.
What I am skeptical to is publishing news like this. This will make ambitioned kids train harder and with less regard to their bodies feedback. It will also make ambitioned parents (beware of those!) disregard their kids well being. I often see parents training their kids in complete ignorance, something that often involves psychological pressure talk. I believe that as soon as kids are forced to climb something is wrong. Sponsors and media attention take away a kid´s freedom of choice.
This shouldn´t be.

Back home...

I spent the weekend at "home" in Rhineland Palatine, visiting my family and being there for my dad´s birthday. It was fun! My bros girlfriend Maria from Denmark moved into our house a couple of days ago do get her master´s degree in nuclear medicine in Germany (and to be with my bro) and I gotta say I´m really happy for my brother. Maria is a sweet person and I have seldom seen my brother happier than in the past two years...good for him! I was really psyched to see my dog after his big surgery and was relieved to see him happy and in shape again. Lot´s of walking! In order to remind everybody that it still is winter, the snow came back (1 foot of snow) over night from Friday to Saturday...that meant snow shoveling. I love snow shoveling. I always used to do it when I still lived at the place and it was fun and a bit of reminiscing as well to do it again. Hobos was of course super stoked on the weather, being a mini sized polar bear, he really likes snow!
My dad`s birthday started with me getting rolls the ecologically correct way (that is walking to the village, gosh, I love walking in crisp, clean air) and proceeded with a most amazing dinner cheffed up by my brother. Didn´t like the entree too much but the main dish and the dessert were extraordinary!
I didn´t climb much. Snow and a very low psyche on gym climbing made me take Hobos for a lot of walks which I would have done anyway but prevented any other extraordinary achievements. So I gained quite some weight...
On a side note, I also came to a decision regarding my plans for this year...Ticino over Easter, Gorges du Tarn in the beginning of September and then US...the exact Gorges du Tarn date is a little dependent on the road closure date of Tioga Pass (don´t wanna drive Sonora again) but that´s the plan. Sounds like a jolly good time (and well deserved) after finishing my thesis and psychology exams!
Here are some shots!

Hobos is healthy! Yay!