A community of climbers worldwide
Strong Mind exists to provide climbers with the tools, practices and strategies they need to manage their fears and perform at their best.
Welcome to Strong Mind
Our founder Hazel Findlay has been climbing for 28 years and has been a professional climber for more than a decade. Whilst performing at the top of the sport and pushing her limits in trad, sport and big wall climbing, Hazel has considered her mind her biggest strength.
When Hazel was young she noticed that the mind was the biggest variable in how climbers performed, how quickly they progressed through the sport and how much they enjoyed it. Yet we have very few resources in the climbing community to help us build a strong mind for the things we love most.
Over the last 7 years, Hazel has expanded her coaching business and Strong Mind is at the core of her vision to increase access to mental training resources and coaches in the community.
The values that hold us true and to account
Well-being
We believe that climbing and sport in general, should strengthen your resilience and well-being, just as it strengthens your body. Many climbers are missing the psychological benefits of climbing because they are too anxious, fearful and negative. Strong Mind's mission is to empower you with the tools and practices to get the most out of your sport. Whatever your level, you deserve to have the best climbing experiences.
Performance
We believe that with the right psychological approach performance and well-being go hand-in-hand. Too often in climbing people forsake their well-being to climb the next hardest thing. It's 100% possible to be the best climber you can be and the happiest climber you can be and Strong Mind is all about empowering you to achieve performance and well-being simultaneously.
Centred on human experience
Teaching in climbing, and sport in general, is centred almost exclusively on the tangible things we can see and touch: "Is your harness done up?" "What can you bench?" "What grade can you onsight?" It's much harder to talk about thoughts, feelings, fears or simply your state of mind in any given moment. Instead of avoiding those areas because they're difficult, at Strong Mind we get stuck right into the big questions and the most complex areas of psychology. Why? Because your human experience matters. In fact, you could argue that it's the only thing that matters. See, look at us being all deep.
Evidence-based
Although psychology is a very difficult science, we always aim to be as evidence-based where possible and appropriate. Everything we teach is rooted in research-led areas of psychology including conversational therapies, CBT, mindfulness, ACT and exposure therapy.
Disruptive
Although we dislike cheesy tech terms like 'disruptive', we do aim to disrupt the industry. Performance Hacks and The Strong Mind courses are first of their kind and we're sure we'll be the first to do many more things to come. We believe we can make a positive difference to individuals and also help spread good ideas and information within the broader community.
Hi, we’re your mentors and coaches at Strong Mind
We’re a small, distributed team, working across the UK and Europe.
Hazel Findlay
Founder and head coach
Angus Kille
Course instructor and coach
Seb Costa
Course instructor and coach
Behind the scenes
Jess · Lead administrator
Jess is our friendly lead administrator, working hard to keep Strong Mind running smoothly. Jess is an enthusiastic climber and outdoor lover based in North Wales.