The SPA is a National Governing Body(NGB) Award, that trains and assess people ability to safely supervise a rock climbing session at a single pitch venue. As such the way the award operates is that you first go climbing and develop the necessary pre-requisites to register on the scheme. You then attend a Single Pitch Award (SPA) training course with a recognized course provider.
Having attended the training course you then go away and consolidate the skills you learned on the training course, climb more routes and research areas of the syllabus that weren’t covered in complete detail on the training course. The next step when you have reached minimum recommended logbook requirements is to attend the 2 day assessment.
It is the consolidation period that this post is going to concentrate on by giving you a few top tips and handy hints to make the most of your consolidation period, and get you on the right page for your SPA assessment. I am going to start with the bare minimum requirements from the pages of the SPA syllabus
The Requirements
• To be involved in the scheme 12 months experience as a ‘rock climber’ is required
• You need 40 outdoor climbs, the majority of which need to be traditional climbs (Consider this number the ‘bare minimum’)
• Assisted with the supervision of 20 climbing session (a session = half day/evening)
• Consolidated through practiced the new skills introduced on the training sufficiently to be able to perform them under the pressure of an assessment
Assessment Pressure
As I mentioned in the list of requirements, the ability to perform when under the pressure of an assessment is important. As for most people the SPA is one of the first NGB awards courses they will attend. Whilst the assessor won’t be deliberately pilling on the pressure, if like most people gaining the award is important to you, then you probably want to do you very best, this in itself can great an enormous enough pressure to effect your performance.
Making the award important to you, combined to the feeling that someone is observing you is often enough to make candidates anxious, and start to second guess the assessor, and what they want to see. Essentially all they want to see is what you would ‘Normally do’. As the tasks set on assessment are often fairly open, in that you might be ask to set up a top rope, but the exact placement of where and what you belay to and how you rig that belay is up to you.
If you have practiced setting up the key components of the SPA – top-rope, bottom rope, and group abseil. Then it should feel less stressful, as you have a clear picture in your mind, the less you practice the fuzzier that picture can become when you are assessed, as fear and anxiety start to take over your mind
So practice, practice and practice is the best way to avoid assessment pressure, as it will increase your confidence. How much practice is down to each individual based on there experience and there ability to learn.
A further way to practice for assessment pressure is to pay for a SPA refresher/ assessment prep day. Where you get an experience instructor put you through your paces in a mock assessment with some additional top tips and teaching point, again even your assessment can have some learning and further training as part of it.
Personal Climbing
All you have to do on an assessment is climb Severe, maybe less if its wet or raining. Again what the assessor is looking for is what you’d normally do. So a nice example of you leading a route in style and comfort will immediate make the assessor think, well they are a climber, and therefore have relevant experience.
Don’t be tempted to try a route at your limit, your SPA probably isn’t the place to be shaking you way up a VS! Again those 40 routes on trad gear should be seen as a bare minimum, if you are a climber then this shouldn’t feel like you are ticking boxes, it should feel you are going out climbing.
Technical Equipment
To be a SPA holder you will need to have a reasonable understanding of the safety equipment. In terms of the CE and UIAA stamps, breaking strains and what they mean to a SPA holder, as well as have an idea of several different types of harness, and the differences between major rope types.
This is because you as an SPA holder are one of the most likely instructors to teach beginners. As such I see the SPA and CWA as a vital award for starting people off on the right foot. So if one of your clients wants to start indoor climbing, then you might be their best bet for some advice on buying a harness, rock boots and belay device. As such you need to have a certain breadth and depth of knowledge on equipment.
Set Pieces
There are a few fairly fundemental set pieces that you need to show you are confident in teaching, these are putting a harness on, tying in and belaying. Be able to teach these, most people have a preferred method.
Similarly top-ropes, bottom ropes and group abseils are almost set pieces, that often change ever so slightly based on venue and the equipment to hand.
Coaching basic movement and techniques
There is a growing emphasis on coaching in climbing, the MLT are currently creating bolt on to the SPA, CWA and MIA that cover coaching. However even in the SPA we would expect a candidate to have some basic knowledge. I recommend buy my book how to climb harder, as it is based on a lot of what I do when teaching climbers to climb, and it has a lot of exercises that you can develop.
Access and Conservation
This can be assessed in a home paper and at a crag. It is important that you are aware of access and conservation issues across the UK. This can be from reading the BMC access leaflet, or gained from keeping an eye on the BMC website or BMC Forum on UKC. To register on the scheme you will need to be a member of the BMC and their quarterly Summit magazine, as well as much of the intro leaflets they send with the membership is full of information that you can read.
Problem Solving and Avoidance
This is another area that some people have problems with, they either fail to see what the problem is or go overboard with the rescue. The very essence of the syllabus is that you avoid the know pitfalls of single pitch climbing with a group. Typically these could be seen as:
• An Appropriate Venue or Route
• No Ledges half way up for the clients to get ledge bound on
• Belays position so the rope can’t get caught or snagged
There are more, but these are typical things that on assessment if you choose to set up on a route that has one or more of these potential mishaps on it, then the assessor is likely to make you run through a scenario.
Some candiates come to the assessment almost too prepared, in that they are aware of various hoists and more advance rescue precedures, and forget that all SPA rescue and problems solving can be solves from the top down, using gravity rather than fighting it. At the very most you may have to ascend a rope, to reach your client and abseil down.
Here are some scenarios, in each I have stipulated a set-up and activity, and then a problem. First of all decide how you would set up the system, then work through how you could deal with the problem, include how you think you might have avoided the problem in the first place, and if different set-ups would have made the problem easier or harder to solve. If you have difficulties with any of them, then please get hold of me via email or phone, or alternatively have a discussion with other instructors. I will be happy to talk you through the possible solutions.
1. Set up a bottom roping system at on route and crag you know. During the session one of your clients refuses to come down from the top. What are your first actions? What if they totally refuse to come down?
2. Set up a Bottom rope system on a route and crag you know. During the session the rope becomes jammed, and there is a client half way up. What are your immediate actions? What happens if the rope remains stuck?
3. Set up a group abseil. What are you looking for in an appropriate site? During the session a child’s hair becomes entrapped in the descender? What do you do?
4. Set up a group abseil. A client is reluctant to go down the abseil, after a lot of convincing they abseil down to a ledge halfway up the cliff and unweight the abseil rope and refuse to move. What are you going to do? Would it be different on a 25m cliff compared to say a 30m+ cliff?
5. Set up a top roping system, and belay a climber up a route to the top, as they climb their foot becomes entrapped in a crack. What do you do?
6. Set up a top rope and belay a climber up a route, during the climb the rope becomes trapped in a crack. What do you do?
7. You have set up three top ropes at a crag, and a climber on the middle route becomes dangerous off route, and its looking like they may take a nasty pendulum. What do you do? How could you have prevented it?
If you can successfully think through each of these, then you might want to try them on a small cliff or bluff. I suggest small because there is still a potential for you to undo the wrong thing at the wrong time, being lower to the ground (within 6ft) and having the ropes weighted will make it realistic and contextual, and help you learn these almost set pieces of the SPA world.
Assisting and Supervision experience
To really prepare for the scheme you will need to assist on some session. I advise that you do this as soon as possible. Your first port of call may well be another SPA you know, a climbing wall or a youth group who have an instructor already. My advice is to go direct, many centre or groups are often sent hundreds of CV’s every month, by making the time to come in and see the relevant person in person, says a lot for your commitment.
Ask whether you can observe, and see there operating guidelines or procedures, ask about what you read in the procedures, in terms of why they might state as a tying in method, belay method or even limit to number of ropes being used.
If all else fails, try asking some of your friends climbing, explain what you are doing, and start with one or two, before you rush head long into a team of eight. Also try and mix it up between indoor, outdoors, trad and sport climbing.
Skill’s Checklist
Finally there is a list of all the skills that are covered in the syllabus, that is found at the back of you SPA logbook pages. My final top tip is to read through the syllabus and mark you current skill level in pencil so that when you have worked on an element of the syllabus you can remark your level of competence. Only when you look good to go on the skills in the check sheet, should you book an assessment.
As believe it or not, an assessor can easily see what your weakness is, as you will go about the assessment going to any length to avoid using that skill. The assessor will quickly think why didn’t he do this or that, and may well set another task, if they think the same skills have been avoided they may well ask you to perform that specific skill, as we are trying to assess the ‘whole’ syllabus, not just the parts you are good at!
At the end of the day, we are looking for a safe performance, many assessors imagine in there mind whether or not they would be happy for you to supervise a group of kids out on a crag for the day. At the end of teh day the assessor wants to pass you, you just need to avoid giving them a reason not to!
Good luck, and if you are looking for an SPA assessment then you can have a look here at course dates being run by Andy Newton. If you’d like a SPA refresher or Assessment prep day or evening based in north wales, then have a look here.