Teaching: Technique and didactics

The Caruso® Method (MC) is a system that identifies and organizes the technical-motor contents related to rock climbing, ice climbing, and off-piste skiing, facilitating their learning. It is, therefore, a valuable tool available to instructors-trainers to develop the specific motor skills of students and athletes. Although correctly learning the various techniques from a practical and theoretical point of view is a relatively easy task (which still requires commitment, application, and willingness to learn and engage), knowing how to teach is a much more complex matter.

Technique is the content that can be transmitted and taught. At the same time, it encapsulates the essence of movement and the experience of those who came before us, allowing one to learn faster and without defects.

Didactics, on the other hand, concerns the teaching and the form of presenting the Technique, as well as the general precautions used by the teacher.

In the mountain environment, since climbing technique did not exist before, it was thought that teaching, for example, climbing, could be done without the slightest notion of Technique. But didactics aims to teach Technique better; otherwise, it makes no sense and remains a purely intellectual phenomenon. It is evident that these are complementary aspects, and didactics must be at the service of technique.

The MC is primarily Technique (see all the techniques devised) but, at the same time, a “Method” in the proper sense, as it uses techniques in a very specific way and according to important didactic principles that include exclusive concepts of psychology, maieutics, and cognition, such as the Focal Point (PF).

In the world of climbing and mountaineering, the belief is still widespread that the strongest climber is also the best teacher. In almost all other fields, sporting and otherwise, it is known and obvious that the ability to teach has little to do with performance: very few people can excel on both fronts; in fact, to teach well, one needs qualities that those pursuing their own individual performance generally do not have. Today, there are instructors authorized by the author to teach the Caruso Method. They have trained within IAMA – International Academy of Mountaineering and Climbing, the mountaineering school of the San Marino Alpine Club (CASM), under the direct guidance of Paolo Caruso and all following the same training path aimed, in addition to deepening the techniques and principles of the Method, at developing the didactic skills necessary for teaching climbing.