Mental Health in Youth Competitive Climbing

I want to address an often-ignored aspect in kids participating in competitive sports: young athletes’ emotional and mental health. As with many sports, a major factor in climbing performance is the athlete’s mentality.

Too much pressure, and the climber may crack. Too little, and the climber may lose focus and motivation.

As a parent of a young climber, I struggle between encouraging my (then) 10-year old son to his potential versus pushing him too hard. Given that my husband and I also climb, we easily fall into the trap of fixating on grades. The sentence, “You have to start climbing V5 problems to be competitive” has actually come out of my mouth, when I could have identified specific skills in a difficult problem and encouraged him to practice those skills.

I want my child to “have fun and relax” at a competition, but alternatively, I want him to “take this seriously” so he will perform his best.