The Climbing Wall Association's blog is a place for indoor climbing professionals to find useful and relevant information from industry and business experts. Stay on top of best practices, thought leadership, and trends by subscribing to our newsletter!
Now that climbing is an Olympic event, many new and returning climbers are eager to get involved in instruction and youth programs! Since Rock Gym Pro is the primary operating software for many climbing gyms across the country, let's dive into the following functions to help build and organize... Continue Reading
Creating new games and activities for a climbing program re-energizes participants, coaches, and brings a creative experience to climbing skills. It gives coaches new activities that they can use throughout the season with their teams, sparking creative thinking and group bonding. The... Continue Reading
Nelli Crofts' designed hoodie for sale inside Momentum Indoor Climbing in Sandy, Utah. If you walk into the Momentum Indoor Climbing Sandy gym near Salt Lake City, you’ll notice a rack of apparel items for sale near the front desk. It caught my eye immediately – the material looked... Continue Reading
Running a successful retail shop in typical times takes some planning, foresight, and organization. A year and a half into a pandemic, that job has gotten a bit trickier. Here's why... When gyms shut down (and restrictions were placed on brick-and-mortar stores) for several weeks, or in some... Continue Reading
Clock in, strip walls, reset walls, open walls for the public. In a robot world, the expectations for a routesetter would be that easy. However, we do not live in a robot world. There is an incredible amount of planning, maintenance, and human feeling to consider when understanding what... Continue Reading
UPDATE Please join us on August 17th for a webinar covering the gyms act and our upcoming campaign in partnership with Access Fund to help raise support for this important legislation. Register for the webinar today The CWA has been working to help secure direct stimulus for climbing gyms... Continue Reading
Photo taken at The Front Climbing Club Many of us underestimate the impact we have on each other. As coaches and instructors, it's important to consider our role as leaders in our climbing communities. We get to influence the next generation’s perspective in climbing and in life – but... Continue Reading
With the indoor climbing industry beginning to roar back after the pandemic, the CWA has been seeing an increasing number of gyms looking to add new certified climbing wall workers or renew their existing staff. While there are still some pandemic-related travel challenges impeding a return to... Continue Reading
Lillian Chao-Quinlan, the president of Sportrock, got a call from someone who identified themselves as “D.J. from the White House” late one night in May. She thought it was spam and continued her evening. Shortly thereafter, the Mayor of Alexandria, Va., texted her. “Have you... Continue Reading
As routesetting becomes recognized as a more long-term professional career path in the climbing industry, it is important for gyms to evaluate what professional opportunities they are offering to their setting teams in order to keep them growing. One option is scheduling a professional... Continue Reading
When USA Climbing athlete Natalia Grossman launched up the final boulder problem of the IFSC World Cup’s second weekend in Salt Lake City, it was hard to stay seated. Everyone at the 3,000-person event was fists to the sky in all-out exuberance. Grossman took Gold, with Olympic athlete... Continue Reading
Websites are so often the first impression a climbing gym makes on the general public, so they carry a lot of weight. While it can feel disorienting to be writing about climbing during a global pandemic, a part of me still appreciates how small nudges to be better for each other can ripple out... Continue Reading
