Bouldering is a great activity to do as a family. Regular bouldering promotes physical literacy and teaches children to be resilient and self-reliant.
Bouldering can start as young a 2-3 years old, but specialization to the sport should wait until late teens. Training should be age-specific. Adult training routines are not appropriate and can cause harm. Overuse injuries in children can lead to growth plate fractures.
For young children, the focus should be on play. Older children benefit from participating in a wide range of sports, and should continue with diverse activities until at least their late teens.
At What Age Can Children Start Bouldering?
According to professional boulderer and trainer Robyn Raboutou, children as young as three can benefit from bouldering (1).
Even two-year olds already have enough coordination to boulder, but supervision must be constant, they shouldn’t climb high, and sessions will be short.
Is Bouldering Good for Children?
Children who boulder will make gains in strength, flexibility and self-confidence. Bouldering is a full-body workout that develops a great sense of balance and body awareness.
Bouldering fosters perseverance and the ability to bravely face fears. It is also a great alternative for children who are not inclined to group sports, and it encourages physical activity as a life-long habit.
Why Are Kids So Good at Climbing?
Children have several enviable advantages over adults. Since they have a light frame in relation to their muscle mass, they have a more favourable strength to weight ratio. Children also have more energy and flexibility than most adults.
Children naturally love to climb, and they are at that stage of life where developing new skills is swift and natural. Their learned skills become second nature. They don’t over-analyze, and rely instead on instinct, which can be liberating.
Going to a Bouldering Gym with Your Child
You may need to do some searching to find a gym suitable for your child’s age. Some have a minimum age requirement, and cater to youth and adults. Others have a separate section for small children, and may even rent the space out for birthday parties.
With younger children, it’s a good idea to start off in a gym that has a separate section. The wall-to-wall padding, colorful holds, and ease of supervision will make the outing a success for both parent and child.
Gyms require that parents supervise their children, so plan on being on the ground when your child is on the wall. You will need to instill gym etiquette and basic safety rules, while also allowing your child the freedom to explore and climb.
Bouldering Outdoors with Children
Outdoor bouldering involves more risk because of natural hazards.
Avoid places that are close to dangers such as fast flowing water, loose boulders, or steep ravines.
Make the outing easier on everyone by finding an area with a short, level approach.
Outdoor bouldering requires more planning, and also more stuff. You will need landing pads, helmets, clothing layers for weather changes, snacks and drinks, a first aid kit, and if the children are young, toys. Small children tire fast, and they will need entertainment when done with bouldering.
For younger children, boulders should be lower than 6 feet, sloped, with a flat landing area.
Make sure to pad the landing area, and to provide constant and careful spotting. Click here for advice in regards to selecting climbing pads.
Helmets should be worn, not only for falls, but because a loose rock tumbling down can do a lot of damage to the soft skull of a child. A climbing-specific helmet is recommended. It should provide back and side protection as well as protecting the top of the head.
When bouldering with several children, two adults are needed, one to spot the climbers, the other to supervise the children on the ground. Bouldering with another family is a nice option, providing more adults to share the supervising, and more kids to entertain each other. It may even allow for some adult bouldering time.
Outdoor bouldering adds route complexity and added challenge. With an experienced adult to supervise and ensure safety, venturing outdoors is a great opportunity for expanding a youth’s bouldering experience.
Safety When Bouldering with Children
Make sure the child does not boulder any higher than can safely be spotted. It’s also a good idea to foster the habit of climbing back down, rather than jumping off the wall every time. Click here for information on safely jumping down from a bouldering wall, and alternatives to jumping.
A gym’s padded landing is less helpful with children. Because of their light weight, they will experience the padded surface as much firmer than an adult would. Therefore, injury can result from proportionately lower heights than with adults. Falls from more than 3 times the height of the child can cause serious injury.
Children tend to fall loosely, landing on their palms, which can lead to wrist trauma. To prevent this and other injuries, make proper falling technique second nature by having your child practice them at the start of every session.
Introductory classes are also a good way to introduce safety basics and proper falling techniques.
Teens are at extra risk due to their impulsive tendency to push limits, coupled with underestimating consequences. At this age it is important to provide guidelines and limits on risk-taking.
A focus on building strength should only be considered after puberty. Extreme caution must be used with strength training during growth spurts, and especially until the growth plates at the ends of bones have fused and hardened. Before a bone’s growth plates have hardened, acute injury and overuse can cause stunted growth in the affected bone (4).
Bouldering Shoes for Children
After landing pads, the main expense in bouldering is climbing shoes. Under 9 to 10 years old, special shoes are not essential, but by mid-teens, it’s time to invest.
Shoes can be rented from bouldering gyms for about $5 per session. If your child doesn’t go very often, this may be the most affordable option.
Climbing gear stores often have a consignment or gear swap section, either instore or online, where second-hand shoes might be available.
Climbing shoes are often offered in children’s sizes, from size 1 up to youth sizes. Buying in person is highly recommended, especially for the first pair.
If buying, the fit should be good but not tight. The fit should be checked monthly, especially during growth spurts. Click here for an article on what to look for in beginner’s climbing shoes.
Buying shoes that are too big will make climbing more awkward and therefore less fun. An alternative is to purchase shoes that fit well with socks on, and as the feet grow, the shoes can be worn without socks.
At What Age Should Children Specialize to Bouldering as a Sport?
Bouldering is considered an early engagement, late specialization sport (2). In other words, future adult performance will benefit from an early start, but before specializing it is important to develop well-rounded physical literacy.
Physical literacy is achieved through practicing a broad range of activities, and this should be continued until at least 16 – 18 years of age. Encourage participation in a variety of sports, such as swimming, cycling, and gymnastics. Bouldering should not be the only activity.
Holding off on specializing to bouldering will also help prevent repetitive strain injuries to developing joints, bones and muscles.
Is a Bouldering Team Program Appropriate for Your Child?
Some gyms have youth bouldering teams, of various age and skill levels, that train towards junior bouldering competitions (3). This type of membership demands a significant investment of time, with usually three sessions per week, plus travel time for competitions. Your child should demonstrate an ongoing and committed interest in the sport before signing up for this level of involvement.
The upside is that team programs will provide instruction and appropriate challenges for skill development.
The downside is that the sport inevitably becomes associated with competition. Feeling uncompetitive, especially in comparison with one’s peers, can turn a youth away from bouldering altogether. Bouldering is more likely to remain a lifelong activity if it is kept as a purely recreational practice.
As a more relaxed alternative to the team stream, many bouldering gyms offer lessons for children and youths. Before registering your child, observe a session to see how the coach interacts with the group.
Both a youth team and youth classes should coach proper falling techniques, gym etiquette, and exercises to maintain proper posture.
If the child is under 5-6 years old, lesson focus should be on play, and on getting the feel for vertical motion rather than on climbing for its own sake (2). At this age, children need freedom to discover the fun in the sport. Too much structure and instruction can be counter-productive.
For children over the age of 9, look for more structure. Lessons should have a warmup period, a review of skills, new skills taught, and feedback on performance. Poor habits should be addressed with corrective training. There should be encouragement to stretch limits.
The stage of accelerated skill acquisition starts very young and begins to ease off in mid to late teens. Bad habits become ingrained fast during this stage, therefore, consistent feedback is essential to prevent them from taking root.
Training for Bouldering at Different Children and Youth Stages
Eric Horst, in his book Learning to Climb Indoors, is very emphatic that adult training routines should not be used for children and youth (1). Young climbers have very different strengths, weaknesses and physical proportions than adults, and they also have different vulnerabilities to injury. Therefore, training must be age appropriate.
First, a few important notes about the growth spurt:
- The growth spurt can start as early as 7 for girls and 10 for boys
- During the growth spurt, bones grow faster than muscles and tendons, resulting in some loss of flexibility
- To prevent this, introduce stretching and flexibility exercises when growth becomes rapid
- When the body is growing, repetitive strain and overuse have a high risk of growth plate fracture
- Growth plate fracture can result in permanent stunted growth of affected limbs and fingers
- Due to the high risk of growth plate fracture and its potentially devastating effects, hang board use is highly discouraged for young people who are still growing
Strength training with weights is discouraged for young climbers, and Eric Horst stresses that a focus on strength training is not needed for most young climbers. Instead, frequent practice and good coaching will allow skills and strength to develop naturally.
Climbing Escalade Canada has an excellent booklet (2) on developmental stages and how they apply to climbing. The booklet considers bouldering as one of the three basic types of climbing. Below is a table summarizing some of CEC’s major points:
Climbing Targets by Age for Children and Youth
| Age Range | Targets |
|---|---|
| Up to 6 | *At least 60 minutes per day of unstructured, fun, physical playtime *Develop physical competence with a wide variety of activities such as running, jumping, catching and throwing |
| Boys 6 – 9 Girls 6 - 8 | *Continue a range of activities and sports to promote a balanced, broad range of skills *No strength training: exercise with own-body weight only *Introduce basic safety rules and proper form *Focus on skill repetition and gently increasing challenge |
| Boys 9 – 12 Girls 8 - 11 | *Still too early for sports specialization *This is the prime time for quickly acquiring skills *Pay attention to proper placement of hands and feet, and fluid movement *Slowly increase challenge with smaller grip holds and more difficult wall angles *Strength training using own-body only; no extra weights *Learn proper landing techniques *Introduce the practice of mental rehearsal: start with figuring out the next 1-3 moves *Growth plates at the end of growing bones, and especially in the fingers, are very susceptible to stress fractures *Keep a sharp eye out for over-training and repetitive strain, such as pain that does not resolve |
| Boys 12 – 15 Girls 11 - 14 | *Physical changes happen fast in this age range *Quick growth can adversely affect performance *Until muscle growth catches up to bone growth, stretching routines help offset the resulting loss of flexibility *Avoid compensating: focus on maintaining proper technique throughout the growth spurt *If hang boards are introduced, use should be extremely limited due to age-related risk of finger plate fracture *Work on developing speed, strength, and core stability *Introduce the concepts of optimal timing and adequate rest between sessions |
| Boys 15 – 18+ Girls 14 – 18+ | *Sport specialization is appropriate towards the end of this age range *Maintain core stability, and continue flexibility workouts with a focus on hips and shoulders *Practice strategic visualization, mentally rehearsing moves and routes *Introduce more challenging environments, including outdoors bouldering *This age range is a great time to build up strength and power; power is strength performed in a short amount of time *Assume responsibility for self-care such as warmups, nutrition and injury prevention *When hang board use is appropriate - only after the growth spurt is finished - no extra weight should be used *Finger pain that lasts more than a week should be investigated |
References
- Eric J Horst, Learning to Climb Indoors. Guilford, Connecticut: FalconGuides.
- https://climbingcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/LTAD-RockClimbing-EN-Final-VER2-1.pdf
- Peter Beal, Bouldering: Movement, Tactics, and Problem Solving. Seattle, WA: The Mountaineers Books.
- https://www.medicinenet.com/growth_plate_fractures_and_injuries/article.htm#what_causes_growth_plate_injuries