CWA Blog Archive-Coaches Working With Routesetters Part 2

Coaches Working With Routesetters Part 2

Pdf Summary

Andrew Carter Smith continues his cross-departmental series, shifting the lens from Part 1's focus on how routesetting affects athletes to how coaches, whose bottom line is long-term athlete development, can help and supplement routesetting teams to improve the overall experience for athletes and members. The central concept is cross-pollination between the two roles. Smith emphasizes acknowledging the real overlap that already exists: many setting teams include staff who double as coaches, and some coaches take on part-time routesetting. This multifaceted staffing is an asset to the community, because people who do both develop a more nuanced understanding of athletes' needs and the complexities of route creation at the same time. That dual perspective is exactly what makes collaboration natural when it's cultivated. The article draws on anonymous survey responses gathered in Part 1, using setters' and coaches' own answers to illuminate where the two functions intersect and where friction arises. By grounding the discussion in real responses rather than assumptions, Smith gives the collaboration conversation an evidence base specific to the people doing the work. Written for routesetters, routesetting managers, coaches, and program staff, the piece is the second in a series building toward effective cross-departmental partnership. Its throughline is that coaches aren't just consumers of what setters produce, they can actively contribute to better setting by sharing what athletes need to develop, and that the staff who already straddle both roles model the mutual understanding the whole gym benefits from. Smith points readers toward the CWA's Routesetter's Roundtable webinar as a related resource. The larger arc is that recognizing and leveraging the overlap between coaching and setting, rather than treating them as separate silos, produces a better climbing experience for everyone on the wall.

Asset Caption

Andrew Carter Smith's second installment flips the lens: how coaches, focused on long-term athlete development, can supplement routesetting teams. The key is cross-pollination, recognizing the overlap where staff double as coaches and setters. That dual perspective, backed by survey responses, models the mutual understanding better collaboration requires.