Skill Evaluation

**Have you been climbing for a while now and unsure where to direct your attention to get better?**
**Overwhelmed with all the content flying around social media?**
**You can sign up for a customized roadmap sharing where you are and where you might want to focus.**
Here is what you can expect at a Climbing Sensei In-Person Skills Evaluation.

It’s ideal to show up with enough time to do your warm-up routine. This allows time to get comfortable in the gym and prepare for the evaluation. While this may be intimidating for most, please remember that my goal is to see you climb well and provide guidance.
When we meet in person, we will review your questionnaire and gain more clarity on what you are looking to achieve. This ensures that we are on the same page regarding what is important to you at the moment.
It is best to assess your climbing in the environment that is connected to your goal.
For example, you might have sport climbing goals, but most of your time in the gym is spent bouldering. This might not be an issue for you, but it does not give me any insight into how you perform on a rope.
Question: Are we going to be bouldering or sport climbing?
You will be asked to climb a few easy climbs. This allows me to see how you prefer to move on the wall. During this time, I might ask you to repeat a climb or pose a question out of curiosity. The goal is to better understand how you break down climbing.
The easy climbs help me see what you value as a climber.
This level of climbing tends to reveal how your climbing changes when faced with challenges. This is a great opportunity to ask questions to assess your awareness of what occurred on the wall. Providing an open-ended prompt on how you might approach the climb again can reveal how you take direction.
This stage of the process reveals how you might adapt, compromise, or stay true to your values when faced with stress.
When climbing near or at our limit, we tend to be strategic in our approach with performance attempts. What is your ground game strategy? How do you move and problem solve under strain on the wall?
This level of climbing either confirms my evaluation or prompts me to ask more questions.
Now we are nearing the end of the session. What is the verdict?
During my observation period, I have been identifying five strengths that you lean on to be a confident climber, as well as two weaknesses that are limiting your growth in reaching your goals. I will discuss the relationship of these seven skills, highlighting what is great about them and suggesting how you might progress in the future and why.
The first session tends to be very inquisitive on the coach's end and informative for the climber. The simple question, "What did you hear?" is intended to summarize the concepts that resonated with you and gives the coach an opportunity to highlight anything key that was missed.

Soon after the session you will receive a document called "In-Person Evaluation" outlining the 7 skills we identified together as your strengths and weaknesses for your current goal. This document provides a concise description of each skill, along with recommended steps for improvement. Hence why it’s referred to your “Road Map” and below is a sample of what you can expect.