A LITTLE BIT ABOUT US
Whatever your goals may be - pushing human climbing limits or picking up the basics of the sport, Grit Climbing is here to help you achieve them. Combining scientific knowledge and decades of experience, you can expect training to be effective, all tailored for you. Meet the Grit Team from Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.
MEET YOUR COACHING TEAM
DERYL
Co-Founder and Head Climbing Performance Coach
Victoria, Australia Head Coach
Physiotherapist
Melbourne
Deryl has been climbing for 14 years and it has changed her life ever since she started!
Training hard and competing in all 3 disciplines of lead speed and boulder as she grew up, Deryl has won over 30 medals and represented Singapore in multiple World Youth and Asian Youth Climbing Championships. It then sparked her interest in movement of the human body. She has since studied sport science and a Masters of Physiotherapy. She also enjoys climbing outdoors in her free time.
Finding joy in helping people excel in the sport & pushing their limits injury free, she founded Grit Climbing. She has been coaching high performance athletes for 10 years and is currently Head Coach for the Victorian Climbing Team (Australia).
Equipped with both the necessary knowledge and experience, Deryl looks forward to help climbers like you achieve your goals no matter what they may be!
LAUCHLAN
Climbing Performance Coach
& Climbing Strength & Conditioning Coach
Melbourne
Lauchlan found his passion for climbing over 10 years ago and hasn’t stopped since. Climbing in China, the United States and throughout Australia.
His dedication to understanding the intricacies of movement and technique, combined with a deep knowledge of strength and power development will benefit whether you’re a seasoned pro or novice.
Lauchlan’s approach to coaching is to identify and strengthen weaknesses, understand and improve strengths and unlocking the ability to dig deep.
KAMAN
Senior Climbing Performance Coach
and Climbing Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Melbourne
Kam has a passion for health and fitness with a cumulative coaching experience of over 10 years. She started as a scuba diving instructor and sports climbing guide overseas before returning to Melbourne and has since become a certified personal trainer, calisthenics coach and surf coach. She was also assisting with the running of climbing technique workshop in alliance with climb mechanics pre-covid.
Kam is currently studying her Master of Clinical Exercise Science enroute to becoming an accredited exercise physiologist. She has worked with elite sporting groups and the professional football team Western Bulldogs.
Climbing feeds Kam’s passion for human movement and she is here to help develop strength and conditioning towards your goals.
BELDRIC
Climbing Performance Coach
Melbourne
Beldric spent his early years studying Finance to earn the big bucks then becoming a banker for a few years. How he started climbing was his friend brought him bouldering, the very next day he bought shoes and down the climbing rabbit hole he happily went. Leaving his banking job to work in a climbing gym, his journey as a sports climbing coach began.
His passion for the sport translates into his lessons through instilling strong climbing fundamentals to prevent injuries and towards a longevity in the sport. He has experience coaching climbers of a wide skill and age range, ensuring that they are able to achieve their desired goal while retaining that joy for climbing.
He believes sport climbing is a lifestyle that can help everyone’s physical and mental health. With the right attitude, mindset and consistency anyone can climb!
John Levingston
Climbing Performance Coach
& Competition Pyschology Mentor
Melbourne
John has been climbing for 7 years and was a professional water ski jumper for 10 years with numerous accomplishments including as follows:
● 2 World Cup Titles
● 7 Times Australian Team member
● 15 National Championships 3 Open Men Jump Titles.
● 3 Australiasian Championships
● Silver World Championships 1993
● Water Ski and Wakeboard Hall of Fame Inductee 2018
As a former high performing international athlete, John has a vast knowledge and experience of competing in sport.
He has the ability to understand what athletes have to go through to reach their full potential.
His ability to deliver courses & knowledge in a compelling and memorable way enables students to implement and retain what they learn.
He has a passion for helping parents understand how to best support their high performing children achieve their potential.
BRYAN
Climbing Performance Coach
Speed Specialist
Adelaide
Bryan spent 3 years dedicated to the craft of speed climbing which has brought him to compete in World cups and Asian Championships before retiring in 2016.
Alongside his competitive career, Bryan also coached speed climbing at a college level with back to back championship winners.
He was engaged as the national speed climbing coach for Australia from 2018 to 2020 where he helped to prepare the team for World Youth Championship, IFSC World Cups, and Climbing Olympics.
Despite being predominantly a speed climber, Bryan also enjoys bouldering and leading recreationally with his hardest send grade of V13 Ammagamma (Grampians) on bouldering and 8a Transilvania (Margalef).
Bryan’s coaching method aims to develop independent learners by introducing biomechanics and critical thinking. With 8 years wealth of coaching experience, Bryan is able to tailor suit coaching programs from beginner to competetive atheltes.
MEET THE GRIT CLIMBING ATHLETES
who have been training hard with us for their competition victories
![IMG_20210118_073824_615[6880].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c1071_78df7fe0a0c849e9b43b9bb9385b65e2~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_199,y_0,w_638,h_1000/fill/w_115,h_180,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/IMG_20210118_073824_615%5B6880%5D.jpg)
HUGO HORNSHAW
National Climber turned Elite Leisure Climber
I started rock climbing at 11 years old, after a couple years I decided I wanted to take my climbing more seriously so I started training with Chew from Grit. I managed to win a few youth Nationals and even got to travel the world to compete in the youth World Championships. These days I have chosen to submit my life to following my Lord Jesus "For Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). This has meant getting my priorities in order and letting go of the climbing just for it's own sake, but I still really enjoy climbing and doing it unto the Lord for his glory, and taking freinds and teaching them how to climb. It's also just a great way to meet people and connect with them while exercising and having a ton of fun, ticks every box really. I now live and work on a farm in QLD.
FIONA BOLINGER
American/ Australian Youth A Climber
Fiona began climbing at 6 years old and fell in love with the sport immediately. Since 2019, she has been training with Grit Climbing to improve her strength and movement techniques.
She currently holds first place in speed (Youth B, NSW, 2021) and second place in bouldering (Youth B, VIC, 2021). In her last Australian National Competition (2019), she came in 2nd overall (Youth C) and 1st for speed. Fiona loves the competitive race up the speed wall and the rush of adrenaline that accompanies it. As for climbing in general, she really enjoys the variety of challenge that the sport offers.
Her future goals are to represent Australia on the national team and to drop her speed climbing time to under 10 seconds.
pic: Dan Andreas
MIA WEEDA
Australian Jr Climber
I started climbing at my local gym in 2016 and was fascinated by competition climbing as soon as I heard about it. I started competing casually a year later, and in 2018 decided to train seriously so I could qualify for the national team. I first represented Australia in 2019 and have since participated in three open world cups and three youth world championships.
Climbing has been one of the best and most consistent parts of my life, and I don’t know where I’d be without it. When life gets hard, it’s a safe, familiar place I can return to. Many of my best experiences have come from competitive climbing. It has given me the chance to travel, to be part of a great community and to pursue goals that are meaningful to me.
Although I’m not done with competitions, I’ve decided to step back from them for a while. I’m about to start the last semester of my degree in political science, and I’m focussing on getting to graduation and then pursuing a career in international relations. On top of that, after an injury earlier this year and a hard few months, I reached a point where I was fearing competitions more than I was looking forward to them. I’ve realised that stepping back from competitive climbing is not the same as giving up, and I’m excited to keep training hard with less pressure and see where it gets me!
DYLAN PARKS
Australian Youth A Climber
Dylan Parks started climbing when he was 9 years old and quickly grew to love it because it was a fun challenge trying to become a better climber. He has been competing in Australia for just over 5 years and have been state and national champion many times. A future goal of his is to make the 2024 Olympics as well as compete in Boulder and Lead world cups for Australia but overall he just want to have fun becoming a strong climber.