Climbing Psychology
Psychological Skills that Experienced Climbers Use (Young, 2014)
Key Take Aways
✅ Experienced climbers utilize several psychological skills more frequently than novice climbers
✅ Experienced climbers use psychological skills likely to be able to focus on task execution and goal attainment under high stress conditions
Summary
Certainly climbing is physically demanding but it’s also mentally demanding
Climbers are constantly challenged with unpredictable and dynamic environments, potential safety threats (e.g. equipment failure), and potential for serious injury or death
Psychological skills have been reported not only to increase sport ability, but also to enhance sport performance within traditional sports
A study in 2014 looked at psychological skills utilized by risk sport athletes, including climbing
Compared to novice climbers, experienced climbers are more likely to utilize the following psychological skills at a higher rate:
👉Coping with adversity
👉Concentration
👉Freedom from worry
2 Quotes from the study:
“…it appears that psychological skills are not only employed by risk sport athletes, but that these skills tend to increase in usage as one’s experience in risk sport intensifies.”
“…the usage of psychological skills may be viewed by the more experienced risk sport athlete as an important complement to the technical, tactical, and physical abilities already employed by him or her.”
CItation
Young PR, Knight EL. (2014). “Use of Psychological Skills by Risk Sport Athletes”. Journal of human performance in extreme environments. Vol 11, issue 2, article 2
Link