Workshops for AMI Trainees on Teaching Climbing

There's nothing to stop anyone teaching climbing. There is no legal requirement to hold a qualification to do it and there are plenty of unqualified people who are competent to do it. But the MIA Trainees I had today are great examples of guys who are working hard at being good at it and going through a process where someone will assess them and give them solid feedback on how they do it. As a friend of mine tweeted the other day 'I haven't worked through qualifications because i need them. I've done it because my clients deserve them'.
The Association of mountaineering Instructors takes CPD seriously and for some years now they've been providing workshops for Trainees working towards Assessment. Today I was out with Dave, Dave and Andy looking at ways of structuring sessions to teach climbing. We started with some paper exercises creating a list of all the things someone needs to master to become a competent lead climber and then I gave them some sample pairs of students and asked them to plan a day's climbing to help these fictional climbers progress. Then it was out to Glen Nevis where each of the 3 took a turn going through the physical motions of organising the rope work and stances and choosing what to teach, when and how, right down to working on some of their verbal 'scripts' for common things they'll have to coach.
It stayed dry and the midges although present weren't too bad (an occasional breeze and a bit of Smidge helped enormously!). Can't complain about that!

 Dave on Pinnacle Ridge

 Andy, Dave (the other one) and Dave

 Dave on 3 Pines

 Repton's Right Hand and a challenging stance