GB Climbing evolves the Talent and Performance Pathway

GB Climbing has announced its new Talent Pathway plans for 2023 and 2024 to enhance the journey for aspiring athletes across the summer Olympic disciplines; Boulder, Lead and Speed Climbing.

The current GB National Development Squad was established by the British Mountaineering Council and Mountaineering Scotland in 2017 to provide a program for talented athletes to bridge the gap between National and International competition.

Over the past six years the GB National Development Squad has successfully provided hundreds of athletes with opportunities to come together, train together, experience international standard route setting, world-leading coaching and for some, the opportunity to compete internationally. As a new Olympic sport, GB Climbing has been working closely with UK Sport and Sport England, along with its partners at Mountaineering Scotland to evolve and further enhance the GB Climbing Talent pathway experience for talented athletes.

Mountaineering Scotland, as part of GB Climbing, will expand its ClimbScotland Team through additional investment from SportScotland to recruit a full-time Talent and Pathways Officer. This new post will support and develop current and new squads/teams to become recognised GB Climbing talent squads and provide additional support for the Scottish Development Squad. In addition, national development squad athletes in Scotland and Wales will be able to access opportunities to train alongside their counterparts in the English talent pathway and squads (and vice versa). The shared ambition is to create a hyperconnected coaching community, with a learning and development offer for personal/home coaches of athletes on the GB Talent Pathway.

There are three programmes in the new GB Climbing Talent pathway;

Regional Talent Squads (Age 12-19yrs)

The GB Climbing Talent pathway in 2023 will see an evolution of the regional talent squads, which have been established over the last two years.

The Regional Talent Squads will be the first step on our new talent pathway, and the starting point for any athlete with aspirations to be a member of the GB Climbing team. The regional coaches will work holistically with athletes and their personal coaches to foster a creative learning environment to develop the foundations to express their own individuality and prepare young climbers ready to thrive as they navigate their youth competition climbing journey.

The development of a tailored ‘Individual Athlete Development Plan’ (IADP) lead by the Regional Pathway Coaches, in collaboration with their home coach, will help shape the athlete experiences for all on the regional talent squad programme. Exposure to and experience of the different disciplines, competition standards and styles will support those athletes in the Regional Talent Squads to develop their potential through coaching and climbing with peers of a similar or higher standard. Athletes will develop a broad range of technical skills through wide-ranging practice and domestic competition experiences, supported by a functional athletic base, alongside a safety competence in each discipline.

The Regional Talent Squad is the first opportunity for aspiring GB athletes to know what it will take to be a top competition climber. If selected onto a regional talent squad, the more an athlete and their personal coach engage the more they will benefit from the experiences.

Nations Development Squads – Scotland, England & Wales

Athletes who achieve selection to the Development Squads for Scotland, England & Wales will remain in their regional talent squads for localised progressive individual training and will gain additional development experiences through the Development Squad residential camps with their squad coaches.

The camps will focus on the development of the personal skills – technical, tactical, physical, mental, health and well-being - required to bridge the gap from national to international level. The Scotland, England & Wales Development Squads will act as an introduction to a high-performance culture. Athletes should have already developed a high technical skill level, coupled with high physical awareness, physical literacy and be able to apply more advanced performance skills with support in all aspect of performance that they require as an individual.

GB Junior Team

The GB Junior Team will be formed of athletes selected to take part in international competition, providing competitive experiences to prepare athletes as they look to make progress onto the GB Climbing performance pathway and the GB Climbing senior team. Once selected, athletes will evolve their IADP to develop to own their athletic journey further, including international competitive opportunities.

The focus at this stage will be to apply and further develop specific technical nuance and adaptations needed for International Competition, such as complex decision making, physical skills and movements, competition tactics and psychological and sociological development. It is important that this part of journey is supporting the whole person to be best prepared to compete well through a progressive competition programme from IFSC Youth European Cups, the IFSC Youth World Championships, IFSC Senior competition at European Continental, World Cups, European and World championships, and Olympic Games.

Lorraine Brown, Head of Performance for GB Climbing, run by the BMC, said: “The new changes to our Talent pathway are an evolution to our current pathway, providing a more localised and enhanced regional offer for athletes and personal coaches. It is an exciting and progressive development for our sport and one which continues to push forward climbing as an Olympic discipline, whilst enabling our rising stars to thrive.

“The introduction of Regional Talent Squads will enable us, alongside our partners at Mountaineering Scotland, to provide more holistic support for young talent across Wales, Scotland and England, with bespoke planning in collaboration with home coaches that will play to the strengths of each individual.

“With an increasing interest from young people getting into the sport since Toyko 2020, it’s critical that we implement a talent pathway which enables us to provide a world-class journey for our emerging talent in order to maximise elite success in future.”

Each part of the pathway will have a different route to selection. The processes involved will include applications, multiple benchmarking opportunities throughout the year and specified national championship competitions. These processes may vary for the Scottish athletes as the home nation develop their own talent pathway following the recruitment of their new Talent and Pathway Officer.