The Fontainebleau Technique Week Coaching Holiday

Hosted by Adrian Berry and Gareth Parry

Fully Booked

March 31st to April 7th 2012

Over Easter 2012 we will be running a coaching holiday in Fontainebleau, France. The focus of the trip is climbing technique. Through the medium of bouldering we will spend five days getting back to the very essence of climbing: moving efficiently over rock.

Who's it for?

This trip is suitable for anyone who climbs and wants to improve. There is no minimum ability, nor a maximum, whatever level you're at we can challenge you!

It doesn't matter whether you boulder exclusively, or have never bouldered before - you'll soon feel at home, and if you've never been to Fontainebleau you're in for a real treat. All we ask is that you love climbing and want to improve.

How it works

During the week we will examine general movement skills such as foot-placement and body positioning, static and dynamic approaches, optimising hand and foot positions, as well as more specific techniques aimed at climbing features such as slabs, overhangs, aretes, cracks, slopers and rounded top-outs.

There will also be plenty of opportunity to explore the wealth of problems available in the forest, and if you find something you could use some help with - we'll be right there with you.

Coaching will be delivered through a combination of presentation to the group and 1:1 coaching where needed. The approach will be very hands-on with demonstrations and video recording and playback on an Ipad. Footage can be played back on a TV in the evenings, and we're more than happy to email the videos to you to keep.

Accommodation

We will be staying at 'The House'.

"The House is a self-catering accommodation in a spacious 19th century farmhouse just 5 minutes from the Trois Pignons area in the beautiful forest of Fontainebleau. The house sleeps 8 people in 4 bedrooms. The house has secure off road parking in the courtyard and a small garden with BBQ for those long summer evenings. We have a selection of crashpads that you can borrow during your stay so you can fill your car with people rather than with pads."

More info here.

Breakfast and food for lunch will be provided, in the evening we will eat out, or if someone has the energy to cook, we can eat in.

Getting there and getting around

As most people coming on this trip will be arriving by car, we have found the best way to keep costs down is to arrange for clients to share car spaces and costs. In the past pickups from local train stations has been easily arranged. The coaches may well be able to offer lifts - but will have limited spaces, so it's first-come-first-served.

The coaches

The coaching ratio for this trip is 1:4. The coaching team will consist of Adrian Berry and Gareth Parry (numbers permitting). Should a coach be unable to attend the trip due to injury or ill-health, a substitute with equal experience and ability will be found.

Adrian Berry has been climbing since 1988 and coaching climbing since 2002 when he began the planetFear coaching program. Adrian has coached numerous individuals and climbing clubs, including several clubs and operational units within the armed forces. He has delivered lectures and masterclasses at the request of the sport's governing bodies in Denmark and The Netherlands, provides instructor training at a major UK climbing wall, and has written two books (Sport Climbing+ and Trad Climbing+) which helped herald the new approach to the teaching of climbing. Adrian has climbed competitively internationally, sport climbed up to 8b+, trad climbed up to E9, and bouldered up to V10.

Gareth Parry works extensively as a climbing coach to a wide range of clients from individuals wanting to learn basic techniques through to the British Compeitition Climbing Team as they prepare for the possibility of climbing becoming an olympic sport. Over the years, Gareth has run numerous climbing coaching holidays as a member of the planetFear coaching team, including several coaching trips to Fontainebleau. Gareth's climbing achievements are broad and deep, from big wall free-climbing, through sport climbing up to 8c, Gareth has long been on the UK's most capable competition climbers. Gareth currently lives in Spain with his partner and rapidly growing zoo of pets.