I got bit by the rock climbing bug on a trip to Utah in 2001. It was just playing around on a few boulders, but I couldn't get enough of it. Upon my return to civilization (i.e. Philadelphia), I made it my goal to be a part of this sport in any way that I could. While being a professional competition climber was always out of reach, teaching others about this great sport was a real option.
The vast majority of us will never climb "professionally". There are only an elite few who can support themselves strictly through sponsorships and competitions, and many only just barely so. There are, however, opportunities for those who chose to pursue them should they wish.
Walk the Walk
First and foremost, you have to know the sport. There is no getting around this. If you don't know an ATC from a GriGri, or know a follow-through figure 8 from a German Death Knot, you have no business teaching it.
The simple solution: learn it! There are plenty of facilities that can teach you the basics from anywhere from $30-$60, including an equipment rental. Once you get your feet wet (the local climbing gym is a great place for this, depending on their reputation), practice, practice, practice. Most experienced climbers are willing to give pointers on how to complete a difficult move or route, or on how to train to get stronger. But there is no escaping the reality that is having experience before you can legitimately work in this industry.
There is no faking it in this sport. The rock climbing community as a whole is relatively welcoming of newcomers and willing to teach newer climbers the ins and outs. By the same token, rock climbers can spot a "faker" from a mile away.
There was this one evening when I was working as an instructor at one of our local gyms when a group of 4 college kids came in, two guys and two gals. They didn't want to take lessons, and two of them made claims that they had "extensive" climbing experience. When we questioned him about it to get an idea of what his definition of "extensive" was, it came down to that he had worked as a belayer on one of those inflatable climbing walls at a fair near his home. Mind you, this was about 2 weeks after the news story of the girl in Massachusetts who had fallen and died on one of those due to belayer error, a first in the United States.
My coworker (a Scottish ex-pat with over 10 years climbing experience all over the world) and I had them fill out the prerequisite forms, which included a questionnaire about their climbing experience on the back. Needless to say, his answers rang hollow, such as his mountaineering experience claims ("Yeah, I have scrambled around on the rock behind my house"). When told that the belay test required that he be able to tie a follow-through figure 8 knot, the group responded, "We don't even know what that is." Yeah…fakers.
Safety!
This is the one and only commandment of climbing. Granted, the mere act of climbing up a sheer rock face is taking safety for granted, but nonetheless, all climbers know that every movement is a measured act of safety. Belayers especially understand this because if their climber falls, their sole responsibility in that moment is to attempt to keep the climber from decking by maintaining their hold on the rope.
You must have a keen eye and sense for safety when working as a climbing instructor. If you are lax about it, your clients will be lax about it, a deadly combination with new climbers. If you are paranoid about it, focus on it with every step you teach, your clients will share the same respect for the dangerous activity of which they are about to partake. So if you have been climbing in the local gym and have a tendency to drop your climbers, you may not be ready to teach this. The key is to have a track record of always belaying correctly every time. For instance, I can boast a clean record of 7 years of climbing and never once having dropped a climber.
Start at the Bottom
More than likely, you will not be able to jump right in to an instructor's role unless you have a decent background in climbing. This probably means that you will have to be a "belay slave" at first.
Some summer camp programs are starting to include climbing as one of the activities. This could be a good opportunity to learn the ropes (no pun intended) while also acting as a counselor. Outward Bound, one of the countries top outdoor education schools, second only to NOLS, runs a program out of its Baltimore base called "Super Kids" where local 4th and 5th graders come out for 2 days of games and outdoor education, which includes time on the climbing wall.
I lucked out and got my first gig as the High Ropes Specialist for this program because I had originally signed on as a counselor and the guy who was the specialist had to drop out at the last minute. Because I already had my foot in the door, and had the most climbing experience out of the rest of the crew, I was called up to fulfill the role.
The other counselors had to learn about how to belay, put harnesses on correctly, and the safety concerns with our high-roped elements; some of them eventually turned this first summer of being at the bottom of the ladder into full-time careers with Outward Bound and other outdoor education agencies.
As a side note, we did have one counselor who was essentially an "assistant", but desired more responsibility. Her line of thinking was that she had an advanced degree and deserved a more prominent position. She never received it. On more than one occasion, I had to intervene at one of her events because she wasn't managing the kids' safety properly, and on one occasion, she almost dropped a kid from the top of the wall.
