CWA Blog Archive-Coaches Here’s A Climbing Game That Invents Itself

Coaches Here’s A Climbing Game That Invents Itself

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This article presents Invent-a-Game, a versatile climbing activity where participants create the game themselves, re-energizing participants and coaches while bringing a creative experience to climbing skills. It gives coaches new activities to use throughout the season, sparking creative thinking and group bonding. The activity is remarkably flexible: it can be used in staff training to get coaches thinking creatively and collaborating, or during practice as a teambuilding exercise for climbers to train their weaknesses. Because new parameters can be set each time, it can be run repeatedly for the same group without becoming boring or stale. The article emphasizes that because there are many potential learning outcomes, choosing one ahead of time is paramount, giving the facilitator direction. The facilitator has wide latitude to adjust parameters and contrive scenarios that challenge the group differently. Examples include ruling that only one member of the group may speak, requiring each group to incorporate exactly three pieces of equipment in their game, or mandating that every participant have a direct role. The beauty of the activity is that it provides agency for participants, letting them create the activity themselves. The throughline is that Invent-a-Game leverages participant creativity and agency to deliver flexible, repeatable, outcome-driven learning, making it a powerful tool for both coach training and athlete development. For coaches, the article offers a self-renewing framework that builds creativity, collaboration, and group bonding, trains specific weaknesses, and gives climbers genuine agency, all while remaining adaptable to whatever learning outcome the coach wants to target on a given day.

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This piece presents Invent-a-Game, a climbing activity where participants create the game themselves. Flexible for staff training or practice, it builds creativity, collaboration, and bonding while training weaknesses. Facilitators steer it toward a chosen learning outcome through parameters, one speaker, required equipment, and changing them keeps it fresh all season while giving participants real agency.