Coach Education

Being a coach isn't always easy: How do you deal with pressure in competitions or with expectations of your employer, of the federation, the athletes and their parents? How do you deal with always being assessed based on your athletes' results or constantly being on the road? How do you detach from work and manage to balance different domains of your life?

And how can you mentally support your athletes and help them grow in the best possible way? How do you communicate with your athletes, foster their confidence and emotionally support them when they need it?

We believe that there is nothing more powerful in climbing than a coach who truly understands their athletes.

We aim to help coaches to better support their athletes mentally – and hence become holistically better coaches.

 

Our Coach Education Classes

  • This class aims to foster your understanding for the psychological developmental stages of your athletes, their needs depending on their age and how you can best possibly support them.

    What you will learn

    • Psychological development of children and youth climbers

    • Psychological needs of children and youth climbers

    • Psychological tools and exercises how to mentally support your athletes

    • How to form a training climate

    • Insights and practical examples

  • Emotions are contagious. What if you, as a coach, could not only better handle your own emotions – but if that also had a positive effect on both your coach-athlete-relationship, your performance as a coach as well as your athletes’ performance?

    What you will learn

    • Internal and external coach stressors

    • Stress models and contagious stress

    • Coach-athlete-relationship

    • Body language

    • Positive emotional contagion

    • Coping strategies

  • Good communication is the basis of any relationship. Even if you don’t say anything, you will communicate. What if you communicated more consciously – and better with your athletes?

    What you will learn

    • What is communication?

    • Different communication models

    • Exercises for a conflict-free communication

    • Dealing with conflicts

    • Giving constructive feedback

  • Confidence is undoubtedly one of the key elements to success. If you have confidence, you will help develop confidence in those around you. So helping others develop confidence always starts with self-leadership and introspectively

    What you will learn

    • Self-concept, self-worth and self-esteem

    • Becoming comfortable with failing

    • Creating a team climate that allows failing

    • Develop a “success and failure philosophy”

    • Positive team communication to foster confidence

    • Mental training tools to foster confidence

  • Understanding your and your athletes’ emotions – when and why they occur, the message behind them, which ones are beneficial for our performance and which ones are rather a hindrance – will not only lead to a better understanding, but will also improve your to emotion regulation and pass this knowledge on to your athletes.

    What you will learn

    • What are emotions, how and why do they arise

    • Why are emotions important

    • Emotional intelligence

    • How to regulate your emotions (and help athletes regulate theirs)

  • You will never be able to make it right with everyone. So most importantly, you have to be aligned with your own goals and values. That is what this class focusses on: on the development of your own personal philosophy.

    What you will learn:

    • Why a coaching philosophy matters

    • What impacts your coaching philosophy

    • What are your core objectives, beliefs and principles?

    • What’s your why?

    • About your self-concept, your self-esteem and self-disclosure – and why they matters when developing your coaching philosophy

    • Development of your personal coaching philosophy

  • This class will be run by former World Cup climber, sport psychologist (i.e.) and specialist in this topic, Mina Markovic.

    What you will learn

    • Why this topic is important and prevention

    • Prevalence of eating disorders in climbing

    • Differences and similarities between eating Disorders and Disordered Eating

    • (Low) energy availability in sport (RED-S)

    • Implication of models in diagnostics and education

    • Summary research: (low) energy availability in climbing (from 2019)

  • This class will be run by former World Cup climber, sport psychologist (i.e.) and specialist in this topic, Mina Markovic.

    What you will learn

    • Eating disorders (clinical diagnostics criteria, signs of recognition, etc.)

    • Risk factors

    • Eating disorders in climbing (prevalence and risk factors)

    • Help and prevention

    • Coach/parents: weight communication, supportive environment

    • Questionnaires

I’m a coach

I want to expand my skillset with mental training.

I’m a gym

I want to provide my staff with mental training tools.

I’m a federation

I want to give all of my coaches access to mental training tools.

We are always looking forward to hearing from you and adapting our offers to your needs and wishes!

Please note that due to high demand, we have recently been prioritizing Coach Education Classes exclusively for gyms, educational programs, and federations. We are, however, excited to share that we will be releasing dates for our online Coach Education Classes, open to all, in early 2024. To ensure you won’t miss it, consider joining our waitlist.

 

Gyms, educational programs and teams we have worked with:

 

What you won’t get

No fluff — just the good stuff. We only share the proven frameworks and tools that have a track record of results.

No quick fixes. (The mind is a complex infrastructure and doesn't rewire overnight). There are so many different mental aspects to learn about as a coach and becoming mentally stronger is an on-going journey – for both you as a coach and your athletes. This is the start to becoming more aware of what you can do, what impact you have and how to foster both your athletes’ performance, enjoyment and well-being in climbing.

Our courses are designed to help you better understand your team. But learning and hearing about something is something completely different to applying it. The application of what you learn is up to you. We recommend you to reflect yourself on what you have learnt afterwards, so you can better implement your lessons learnt into your every day training.

 
 

Get to know your teachers

Madeleine Crane, founder of Climbing Psychology

Madeleine is a certified sport psychologist, systemic coach and climbing instructor from Austria who has specialised on climbing due to her personal passion in climbing. She has been working with climbers and climbing coaches from all around the globe, regardless of their age or professional level. She is involved in the sport psychological courses of the climbing instructor education in Austria, cooperates with the local Olympic Center in Vorarlberg in educating coaches about psychological topics and, together with GB Head Coach Tom Greenall, developed a specific development program specifically for climbing coaches, Project Mind Control. Her vision behind the Coach Education Classes is to help coaches leverage their mindset and give them mental training tools to support their athletes in the best possible way.

 

Mina Markovič, multiple lead world-cup winner and B.Sc. in biopsychology

Mina has been climbing for more than 22 years, participating in over 130 world cups. For 6 years in a row between 2010 and 2015, she finished 1st or 2nd in lead climbing (with 22 gold, 48 WC and 7 championships medals). She has also sent several 9a RP and up to 8b+ OS.

Over the past years, Mina has studied psychology, finishing her bachelor degree in biopsychology with a focus on low energy availability as a model for education, prevention and co-diagnostics in sport. She is currently finishing up her masters degree in biopsychology. While doing so, she aims to increase the awareness and foster education around eating disorders in climbing.

 

What others say about our Coach Education Classes