Psychological factors that influence performance in youth advanced climbers

Abstract

Introduction: Rock climbing performance in lead can be measured in two ways: on-sight and red-point. On-sight climbing demands greater physiological and psychological factors. There are five main recurring themes that keep climbers highly motivated: risk as a measure of progress, maintaining challenge, social engagement, experiencing nature and reliving experience. Climbing anxiety comes from two stressors: risk management and anxiety related to performance. Somatic anxiety is common to both beginners and experts. Methodology: The study included 17 youth advanced climbers. We used a motivation inventory, two questionnaires for measuring anxiety (as a trait and as a state) and one more anxiety test from the Cognitrom battery. Results: Performance correlated with climbing experience, competitive experience, status orientation and competition orientation. Red-point performance correlated negatively with desire to learn. Somatic anxiety as a state increased when the level of motivation, the commitment, the fearlessness and the preference for difficulty decreased. Self-confidence increased when the level of security of success and independence increased. On-sight performance was predicted by: somatic anxiety as a state (negatively) and facilitation of anxiety (positively). On the other hand, red-point performance was positively predicted by status orientation. Conclusions: The psychological factors that influence on-sight and red-point performance are different. In on-sight climbing the emphasis is on anxiety and in red-point climbing the emphasis is on motivation.

Keywords

• Sport climbing
• Advanced climbers
• Climbing anxiety
• Status orientation
• Desire to learn