Climbing Wall Leading Award
The CWLA has been designed to train and assess those who wish to teach lead climbing skills on indoor or outdoor artificial climbing walls and structures with fixed protection. This includes a wide range of structures (including, for example towers and mobile climbing walls) which will be referred to throughout as ‘walls’. These structures are deemed to have safety equipment, such as top anchors, in place and are maintained through a management regime. The award is concerned with ensuring good practice when developing leading skills. It covers the introduction, coaching and on-going development of the technical and movement skills required to lead routes.
Download the CWLA registration form here
Download the Climbing Wall Leading Award Handbook here
1 Remit
The CWLA has been designed to train and assess those who wish to teach lead climbing skills on indoor or outdoor artificial climbing walls and structures with fixed protection. This includes a wide range of structures (including, for example towers and mobile climbing walls) which will be referred to throughout as ‘walls’. These structures are deemed to have safety equipment, such as top anchors, in place and are maintained through a management regime. The award is concerned with ensuring good practice when developing leading skills.
It covers the introduction, coaching and on-going development of the technical and movement skills required to lead routes.
Completion of a training course, without passing the assessment, should not be considered as a qualification in itself, although it may be of benefit to the trainee.
The award includes a measure of personal competence. However, it is not a personalproficiency programme and should not be used as either an entry requirement, or a measure of suitability for climbing on artificial walls.
Syllabus:
TECHNICAL COMPETENCE
Candidates must demonstrate competence in the following areas and must be able to:
Equipment
- identify and use suitable equipment appropriately for leading routes
Belaying
- Use a variety of belay devices competently and choose the most appropriate one for a given situation
- demonstrate a variety of belay techniques appropriate for lead climbing
- hold leader falls in a controlled manner and carry out lowers
- Personal climbing skills
- choose and lead routes at French 6a with confidence
- demonstrate good practice when taking leader falls
- demonstrate an understanding of the safety chain with relevance to lead climbing
THE CLIMBING WALL ENVIRONMENT
Candidates must demonstrate competence in the following areas and must be able to:
Using climbing walls
- identify appropriate and inappropriate areas of a wall to teach lead climbing and other associated skills
Etiquette
- be aware of the hazards presented to other site users by lead climbers and act in a way to keep these minimised
- demonstrate an awareness of the site-specific requirements and agreements
relating to teaching leading on different climbing walls and artificial structures
SUPERVISION
Candidates must demonstrate competence in the following areas and must be able to:Planning
- assess the abilities of individuals to lead routes and belay lead climbers
- plan individual sessions and programmes of activities with appropriate objectives
- understand and introduce progressive coaching activities to ensure development of appropriate knowledge, skills and experience
- have built in flexibility when planning activities in order to respond to changing circumstances
- demonstrate an awareness of responsibility to the wall management, authorising
- organisations, parents, guardians, group members and other wall users
Managing
- carry out dynamic risk assessments throughout each lead climbing session
- demonstrate safe and responsible management of students irrespective of whether or not they are directly involved in the climbing activity
- make appropriate judgements regarding the suitability of various techniques for instructing and coaching the skills required for individuals to belay lead climbers and lead climb effectively
- demonstrate an understanding of how to avoid and deal with common lead climbing problems
- manage students effectively by
- good communication skills
- setting and reviewing targets.
- Identifying and reacting to the needs of students in relation to the development of lead climbing skills
- supervise climbers belaying and leading
- deliver technical instruction to students including
- demonstration of effective use of chosen belay device
- principles of appropriate route choice
- use of running belays on routes with and without extenders in place
- communication between leader and belayer
- falling and holding a fall
- lowering to the ground
- manage time appropriately in relation to the plan, activity and conditions
Movement skills
- advise, demonstrate and coach students in climbing movement skills relevant to lead climbingdemonstrate the use of appropriate climbing and non-climbing activities to develop lead climbing techniques