I love watching people grow in skill and confidence, and that’s what lead climber development coaching is all about. Becca came to us feeling like her climbing had stagnated and she’d reached a ceiling in her lead climbing. Whether you’re a new leader or an old hand anyone can feel they have reached reach that point.

Our session started with some observation of Becca climbing a grade she was comfortable seconding at but was beyond her current ability to lead. I wanted to gather information about her climbing movement. Asking myself questions like:

• What is she doing with her feet?
• Can she read where the route goes?
• Is she breathing?
• Can I see any obvious inefficient movement patterns? As an example not using intermediate footholds.

After the first climb we had a few things that Becca could work on that I felt could help her develop efficient movement and help her confidence when leading. Footwork is the foundation for confident climbing, as friend and colleague Andy Swann likes to say, ‘Climbing is a rear wheel drive sport’.

After Becca spent some time working on making use of the intermediate footholds and keeping her heels low we moved onto looking more closely at her lead climbing.

• What was her gear like?
• Was she finding the best positions to place gear from?
• What body positions was she adopting to place her gear?
• Is her centre of gravity over her feet?

After looking at her gear and developing strategies for placing gear in a comfortable and efficient manner Becca lead a route with a loose top rope and built a good belay at the top. It was now time to get Becca to lead a route without the addition of the top rope. We moved to a different part of the crag and lowered the grade.

Becca put it all together leading a Hard Severe at High Neb. Notice the low heels and the comfortable resting position as she contemplates the next few moves.