CWA Blog Archive-(Route)Setting Good Standards Staff Clinics Help Your Gym

(Route)Setting Good Standards Staff Clinics Help Your Gym

Pdf Summary

This article advocates for routesetting staff clinics as a way to break down barriers and demystify a niche profession. The author observes that routesetting prompts many questions from staff and climbers, and from the outside, especially to newcomers, some days can look like setters are just goofing off, having fun climbing while sets go up effortlessly, while other days are tenser, with front desk staff watching the team spend ten minutes discussing whether to turn a foothold five degrees. This curiosity is natural, especially since there's no clear path to becoming a routesetter. The author names a real cultural problem: in some gyms, setters are seen as inaccessible and even cliquey. Depending on a team's openness, a setting crew can feel like any other department or like an exclusive behind-the-scenes group with little connection to the rest of the gym. The author recalls that when they started setting, teaching clinics to anyone other than established setters, staff, members, or team kids, was fairly unpopular in the setting community, reflecting a gatekeeping culture. But especially post-COVID, they've seen a huge influx of gyms offering these clinics, which they hope will break down barriers and gatekeeping in routesetting, particularly for minority groups. The more open a setting team is to sharing its experience and knowledge, the more integrated and accessible it becomes. The throughline is that routesetting clinics for non-setters serve a purpose beyond skill-sharing: they dismantle the perception of setting as an exclusive, cliquey, gatekept profession and make it accessible to a broader, more diverse range of people. By demystifying what setters actually do, that they're making creative and technical decisions toward target grades, not goofing off, and by welcoming staff, members, and kids into the process, clinics integrate setting into the wider gym community and open a path into a profession that has lacked clear entry points. The author frames the post-COVID rise of these clinics as a positive shift toward openness, hoping it especially benefits underrepresented groups historically kept out of setting. For gyms, the article argues that offering setting clinics builds understanding, breaks down departmental silos, and helps diversify and grow the setting profession by replacing gatekeeping with generosity.

Asset Caption

This piece advocates routesetting staff clinics to demystify a niche profession often seen as cliquey and inaccessible. Since there's no clear path into setting, clinics for staff, members, and kids break down gatekeeping, especially for minority groups. The author welcomes the post-COVID rise of such clinics as a shift from exclusivity toward openness.