Climber Development - Youth Team

Mountaineering Ireland will support climbers at the Training to Compete stage through the Youth Team programme.

The main target of the Youth Team Programme will be to progress climbers towards achieving places in finals at European Youth Cup level.

By fine tuning all aspects of performance for each climber, with the sole aim of performing at major championships, we will raise ~~the~~ performance standards. At this stage of the climber’s development, our support will become more bespoke and focussed on specific needs of the climber with opportunities for input from technical coaching, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, training camps and sports science.

Climbers will be supported with the following interventions:

Strength and movement diagnostics
Up to eight domestic training days/weekend
Up to two overseas team training camps per year towards targeted competitions.
Integrated Strength and Conditioning Programme
Regular planning/monitoring/review meetings face-to-face with the Head Coach

There are two tiers within this programme.

Youth Team 1 - Climbers who have reached a competitive level in European Youth competitions and have been identified as having medium or long-term prospects for inclusion in senior team
Youth Team 2 - Climbers who are transitioning from the Youth Squad to the Youth Team or Youth Team members showing potential of transitioning to Tier 1 within 1 – 2 years.

For selection onto this team -

Performance is measured on competition results.
Potential is measured against physical, technical and psycho-behavioural development.

Climbers will expect to improve towards bespoke goals within a given timeline.