Performance
What Separates Elite International Climbers from each other? (Künzell et al, 2021)
Key Take Aways
✅ Top climbers (females > males) differentiated themselves from other elite climbers by their ability to create different strategies for a boulder problem, making them more successful
✅ The ability to create several solutions for boulder problems is very important in bouldering performance
✅ There are other factors that make elite climbers better than their cohort besides physical trainable characteristics
Population
Elite male and female boulderers
Summary
Many coaches believe there is actually very little that differentiates elite climbers from each other in terms of trainable characteristics. In a 2017 study, coaches agree that finger strength is important for bouldering but “all participants (at the elite level) have sufficient strength”
Aptly put, it does not matter for the competition performance “whether you can do 5 or 7 one-armed pull-ups”, said one German coach
Coaches agree that “coordinative and cognitive abilities are the decisive factors for top performance”
In competition, climbers are often faced with the question of whether they should continue with a strategy or change the strategy on a boulder problem
A 2021 study determined:
1️⃣ Whether creating a new strategy is more or less successful than sticking with the first strategy
2️⃣ Whether changing a strategy was correlated with a higher world ranking
Results
👉 Males were 23% successful when they changed strategy and only 5% successful when they stayed with first strategy
👉 Females were 22% successful when they changed strategy and only 4% successful when they stayed with first strategy
CItation
Künzell S, Thomiczek J, Winkler M. et al. (2021). Finding new creative solutions is a key component in world-class competitive bouldering. Ger J Exerc Sport Res 51, 112–115
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