We are here to help you find your way through your climbing maze.
We are climbing coaches based in South Wales. We offer coaching and instruction across South Wales, the Gower and around Bristol. We specialise in mindset, technique and movement coaching. Mindset is of equal importance to technique and strength training but is often ignored, or considered once and then forgotten. People, and coaches, often treat the symptoms and do not consider the causes. It can seem easier to get stronger fingers than to address why someone will not commit to a move because of a psychological block. At Labyrinth Climbing we work with you to understand what you are struggling with first and foremost. We use our knowledge and experience across the spectrum of mindset, technique, and movement patterns, to see what works for you.
All our climbing coaches are qualified and experienced. Our priorities are safety, fun and progression.
Kat
· As a coach and climber, I am fascinated by the mental challenges of climbing. I am on stage 2 of my pathway to becoming an HCPC registered Sport Psychologist and have an academic and research background in both Sport and Social Psychology, including psychological testing. I enjoy applying this knowledge to coaching and helping people who struggle with confidence, fear and performance anxiety. I also focus on climbers’ technique and movement style, understanding where climbers can improve and develop their strengths to push them further in their climbing.
· I aim to create a supportive environment for my clients. In particular I want to empower women and girls to enjoy climbing, and push their limits.
· I started coaching when working for the UK government in Afghanistan. I helped construct a small bouldering wall and would teach Embassy staff and local Afghan women how to boulder. From here my passion for coaching grew and I moved to Bristol to become a full time coach for Redpoint. This is when I started applying my background as a Psychologist to helping people (and myself) manage my fear when lead climbing in particular. I have also coached the Redpoint competition squad on mental preparation and provided Sport Psychology support to the UK National surfing junior and adaptive competition teams.
· I am a passionate climber, and get the most reward from sport climbing outside. But for many years I felt held back by my head game and found the resources available to manage this either limited, or just confusing.
Mike
· My focus is pushing limits. In every sport I have practised, from mountain biking to Parkour, this has meant improving techniques and tactics. As my climbing career has progressed, I have come to appreciate the importance of a healthy mindset as well.
· In coaching I like to take the approach of ‘stacking the odds in your favour’. To me this means doing anything and everything you can to give you the best chance of achieving your goal. For example, choosing your climbing days well, optimising beta, having a pre-climb ritual, having a wide foundation of techniques to use and so on.
· I am a big believer in using indoor bouldering as a key tool to learn and experiment with different movements. Routesetters generally have more freedom to set creative problems, which generally provides exposure to a larger set of potential movements than indoor sport routes.
· There is a lot of information about physical training out there but limited advice on actual climbing technique. There is a huge amount of subtlety to climbing movement that takes time to discover without a coach to guide you.
· As a climber I began bouldering indoors, moved to Bristol to become a climbing coach, and then progressed to sport climbing outside. Since then I have developed significantly as a climber and coach and will continue to do so. I previously ran the advanced Academy and Squad programs alongside the head coach at Redpoint Bristol.
