All parents want to make sure their kids are enjoying a balanced diet of indoor and outdoor activities. In an age where many of today’s youth seem to be wandering through life with their heads down and their eyes glued to an electronic device, it’s always great to find an activity that encourages kids to explore, use belay devices, and engage with the world around them. We all want our kids to grow up active, healthy, physically fit, and mentally agile. What you may not know is that there’s a wonderful activity that can develop all of the above at the same time… While also being fun!
Indoor climbing for children – the advantages
Indoor climbing may not be the most obvious activity for young children, however, it is a safe and extremely beneficial activity that can aid young people’s development in every aspect of their lives. Let’s take a look at some of the many ways children can benefit when they participate in this fun and unusual sport… After all, sports are an essential part of school life!
Problem-solving skills they can carry into every aspect of their lives.
It's one thing to be able to memorize and regurgitate information, it's quite another to apply higher order thinking to a problem. The problem with schools and education is that they can place too much emphasis on the former, but neglect the latter.
From a young age, it is essential for children to learn problem-solving techniques as this can be the key to independent thinking. Indoor climbing was previously used as an outdoor training facility and has now evolved to become a fun indoor activity in its own right, with the added benefit of helping children develop their minds as well as their bodies.
“While traversing the wall, children must define the problem of attempting to scale the wall, applying their cognitive faculties to solve complex problems. Heading up, they must analyze the available hands and feet, using them to find a path to the top.”
With the help of an instructor, children learn the art of creative problem solving, drawing on a growing source of knowledge and experience to think and analyze that will help them reach the top and also help them mitigate the situation when they have chosen a path that does not help them climb as they had hoped.
Once this way of thinking becomes ingrained in their minds, they can continue it in their studies and in all aspects of their lives, helping to consolidate the knowledge acquired in school and apply the same problem-solving processes in academic, sports, and social situations.
Strength, endurance and flexibility
It is vital for children to develop good physical strength as they grow. This can boost their confidence, and as their muscles develop, their metabolisms will become even more efficient, which in turn will help them achieve a healthy weight that they will maintain throughout their lives.
“Indoor climbing is a great workout for kids and adults, as increased endurance is just one of the benefits of climbing.”
It is vital for children to maintain and improve both their body composition and endurance as they grow. Because climbing is a full-body workout, it becomes a valuable tool for training and fitness, leading to improved metabolism, excellent daily health, and a clearer state of mind that leads to greater overall confidence.
Increasing strength and endurance also has several developmental benefits for growing bodies. When children pursue natural movements like rock climbing, it not only helps them develop and maintain strong muscles, climbing also strengthens supporting ligaments and tendons that will help protect their bodies from strains, sprains, and other everyday or sports-related injuries.
What's more, it even helps them maintain healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels, paving the way for good physical health now and for the rest of their lives.
"Climbing, even at a young age, can help your child not only develop into an expert problem solver, but also teach them the importance of focus and concentration, and applying 100% to the task at hand in an age where multitasking seems to be the new norm."
Concentration, focus and patience
In an age when children and adults alike have so many demands for attention, children really benefit from activities that encourage focus and concentration.
We live in a society that tends not to encourage or reward patience. Mountaineering is an activity that greatly demonstrates the value of patience, perseverance, and determination to children by encouraging them to be focused and determined, yet fluid and adaptable in achieving their goal of reaching the top.
Coordination
Climbing involves agility in its movement, so it is also great for developing hand-eye coordination along with fine motor skills. Children, especially teenagers, are constantly dealing with a body that is always growing and changing. It can be difficult to coordinate the mind and body when both are changing so rapidly. Climbing gives children the coordination to grow up a little easier.
Discipline and confidence
Ultimately, as children hone the physical and mental skills they need to overcome increasingly complex tasks in their climbing, they will grow in confidence in their abilities. They will then be able to apply this same confidence to every aspect of their lives. They will also learn discipline as they continually strive to improve and overcome new challenges.