The real Spiderman could be YOU

It will never be mistaken for Mount Everest, but a multi-colored rock-climbing wall rising 30 feet from the Esby Gym floor could help Rowan students learn to scale Earth's greatest peak.

Or maybe it will just give them a great workout.

Either way, "it's really a big rush," said Michele DiCorcia, assistant professor of Health and Exercise Science in the College of Education.

DiCorcia, who came to Rowan three years ago specifically to teach Adventure Education and Experiential Learning, a general education course, said most newcomers to rock climbing - and to her class - have some degree of fear but that's to be expected.

It's her job to teach both usable skills and to help boost confidence levels so climbers stay calm on the wall or, one day, suspended on some craggy ledge.

Prior to any new climber's first ascent on the wall she puts them through a series of activities designed to gauge their confidence and demeanor, to purposely frustrate them.

"We don't want climbers to be frustrated or anxious while they're up on the wall so I'll try to cause frustration and anxiety on the ground," she said. "That way, I'll know how they'll act if they're frustrated while they're up there."

DiCorcia became a Rowan faculty member after teaching in public schools for several years and earning a doctorate in sports psychology.

While much of the challenge of climbing is physical, a significant part is overcoming limits set by a climber's own mind, and a calm state is essential.

"It's important that they learn how to work through the frustration instead of giving up," she said.

Her aspiring climbers learn basic climbing skills such as how to belay (secure by rope) another climber, and all about essential equipment before testing their mettle, sometime around mid-semester, on the wall.

DiCorcia said Rowan's rock wall can be plenty challenging for students willing to push themselves. In addition to the hundreds of hand and footholds mounted to it, the mostly flat wall angles out 45-degrees in one negative climb section and features numerous artificial crevices.

Mounted around the top of the wall are four wooden platforms that students may climb to as well as bells and horns they can ring or blow if they reach the peak.

"We call it 'Challenge by Choice' because you pick your own level of success," DiCorcia explained. "Some will never go to the top but they don't need to."

Still, she said, her students are encouraged to push themselves just farther than they thought they could go.

"If you say 'I can't' you won't," she said. "But if you try you'll be amazed at what you can do."

Chris Peatman, a freshman physical education major from Logan Township, tried rock climbing a few times before taking DiCorcia's Adventure Education class this semester. Belayed safely by DiCorcia, he Spidermanned his way right up in just the second week of classes.

"It's a blast," he said, winded but pumped after climbing the wall and squeezing a horn at the top. "For the most part it isn't that hard, it just depends on where you are on the wall."

As for DiCorcia, she's no dyed-in-the-wool mountain lady herself. She's been climbing for about five years and still learning the ropes, so to speak.

"I'm actually not great with heights but I feel it's mind over
matter," she said. "The more you do it, the easier it becomes."