Advanced courses teach "leading." Like the name suggests, leading involves being the first person up the wall. As it is more complicated than belaying, courses generally last 10 hours before the test is taken. The advanced course is also directed towards those who want to make the leap to outdoor climbing.
Both facilities offer tailor-made exercise programs including corporate courses that can either take the form of recreational climbing — where the coaches will do the belaying — or learning, where students learn the basic facets of climbing where they themselves can become belayers.
Pan and her climbing colleagues have taken indoor climbing to the next level.
In addition to teaching basic and advanced indoor climbing skills, both individually and in groups, IDEA also offers a variety of programs aimed at corporations.
"We have some programs with educational ideas. For example, we have business training for some companies, like team and leadership building."
In addition to corporate clients, Pan and her colleagues have also been a big hit with schools.
Pan is particularly proud of a course offered to college students known as "experiential activity." Similar to socials in the West, the idea is to bring the students from boys-only and girls-only colleges together for a day of conversation and activities, of which indoor climbing is the highlight.
"The school wants them to have a chance to meet each other and also understand more about communicating with the opposite sexes. So we do co-educational programming."
In order to facilitate dialogue between the students, Pan takes them through a series of scenarios meant to elicit deeper insights into themselves and the opposite sex with teamwork being the ultimate goal. According to Pan, this reduces the fear students often have communicating with the opposite sex and increases the effectiveness of teamwork when they later hit the climbing wall.
"This kind of confidence-building and team-building moves outside the walls of the gym [so that] students use their experiences inside [the gym] to overcome fears they might have in their lives," she said.
It is also a great way to spend an afternoon.
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