Fun and rehabilitation while climbing; challenging disability

I recently spoke to Sophie Charles, a specialist rock-climbing instructor at the Castle Climbing Centre, who has vast experience of working with people who live with all kind of physical and mental disabilities.

Sophie Charles is a highly experienced rock-climbing instructor who started climbing in the year 2000. But it was not until 2010 that she started instructing people who live with a range of physical and mental challenges at this dedicated climbing club located in London.

The sessions for this season started in The Castle Climbing Centre on the 23^rd October. At present, the classes are run twice a month and with a maximum of four people per session. “We will probably change the format and run family-friend sessions, as we think that they may work better for this distinct public”- explained Charles during the interview. Both the climber with the disability and their relatives will have the opportunity to have fun all together while enjoying a unique climbing session.

When talking about benefits, Sophie stresses that both her and her clients are fully aware of what they are. She goes on to tell the story of a seven-year-old boy who started climbing because he needed to develop his strength. “He has autism and his muscles didn’t develop very well. He is only seven, he can read amazingly but he can’t write as he doesn’t have the physical strength to hold a pen. Since he started the classes, apart from improving his strength, he is more concentrated and has a better balance” explains Charles happily. In order to drive home the benefits of climbing, she also highlighted the case of another boy with ACC (Agenisis of the Corpus Collosum) who joined Sophie’s sessions: “he can now walk quite comfortably and his life has changed since he started climbing”.

The improved mobility and dexterity that can be achieved from climbing is significant. Among other things the action of ascending deals with balance, problem solving, hand to eye co-ordination, muscle strength and transference of weight, with the added excitement of height. As Sophie explained, the sessions are based on the idea of muscle memories. “If someone does something hostile enough the muscles in your brain will start to remember that.” But in terms of joining the centre, the sessions are not just about climbing; participants can also join in the social aspect of the club. “A lot of people from my classes come regularly to the centre. The staff get to know them, they chat with them, they also need to recognise numbers and remember their shoe size as they have to choose the shoes…” These seemingly easy and common tasks can nonetheless prove to be both challenging and rewarding for some people who have disabilities.

As our conversation draws to a close, I get a real idea of what climbing really means to Sophie and her dedication in the following sentence: “During the climbing sessions it’s not about what they can’t do. What I am trying to convince people is that although they have physical or mental disabilities, they can achieve many things if they try hard and this attitude can also be reflected in their daily life. In the end, people with disabilities try as hard as any other person.”

Fun and rehabilitation while climbing; challenging disability

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