Most climbers spend lots of energy trying to find ways to climb better. A survey I did of climbers a couple years ago suggests that the joy of accomplishment fuels 60% of climbers to train and keep climbing. Coaching is a proven strategy to improve at just about anything. Whether it be in a sport or a career, coaching accelerates improvement by helping the coachee identify areas for improvement and find ways to address them.

While once in a while I see climbing partners helping each other in a coaching type engagement, it is not very common. Whether it is because they don’t recognize the opportunity, or they don't know how to do it, most climbers don't leverage a powerful resource that they have…their partner as a coach. And they do it for FREE! Your partner watches you climb and has valuable insights that can help you improve your climbing, if you can figure out how to leverage it. The purpose of this article is to provide some tips for engaging your partner in co-creative coaching, where both of you can benefit.

The vast majority of "coaching" in climbing is not done by formal coaches. Partners help each other. Couples help each other. Parents help their kids. Kids help their parents! Therefore, I embrace the term co-creative coaching, which conveys the idea that the coach isn’t necessarily “superior” to the coached. In this article I will describe the co-creative coaching process and provide you and your partner with tips, tools, and insights that will help you to co-creatively coach each other.

What is Co-creative Coaching?

To co-create is to create together, alongside each other. Each party contributing what they have to offer. When you engage in co-creative coaching, you and your partner help each other improve (or have more fun). It is not a traditional coach-student relationship, but one where ideas are exchanged, experimented with, and possibly utilized to climb better.

By definition, when you engage in co-creative coaching, you and your partner voluntary cooperate. You can’t be co-creative with a partner who does not want to coach you or be coached by you. It is of utmost importance that you and your partner agree to be co-creative in order for the process to work optimally. I suggest that you share this article with your partner and ask them if they would be interested in co-creative coaching.

Another prerequisite to effective co-creative coaching is that all participants need to have the right attitude. So, what’s the right attitude? The right attitude for engaging in co-creative coaching is characterized by:


About Don McGrath

Don McGrath created masterrockclimber.com to help climbers train much better for rock climbing. This site was designed to share what Don McGrath have discovered while climbing. With his experience in climbing he gives you a wealth of training guidance, tips, and tools that will help you rapidly and vastly enhance your rock climbing ability.

Please visit http://www.masterrockclimber.com/ to find out more about Don McGrath's vertical mind books, which he published to help climbers and other athletes reach high degrees of performance. These programs are guaranteed to help you improve your climbing.