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.
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