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A Novel Tool for the Assessment of Sport Climbers' Movement Performance

Publication at Faculty of Physical Education and Sport |
2020

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the validity and reliability of a novel movement-performance assessment tool for climbing/sport climbing. Methods: First, salient climbing movement-performance factors were identified through an iterative consultation process with 10 expert climbing coaches; the resulting Climber's Movement Performance Assessment Tool (CM-PAT) contained 14 items in 5 categories.

Second, 61 intermediate to advanced climbers ascended a single route, which was video recorded. Subsequently, 4 experienced (>10 y coaching) coaches used the CM-PAT to observe and score the climbers' performance.

Interrater reliability and comparisons with existing measures of climbing performance (6-mo self-reported ability, success and failure, climbing pace [m.min(-1)], and geometric entropy) were made. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient (2,k) for the 4 raters demonstrated excellent reliability (>.81) between observers and good to excellent test-retest reliability (.71-.91).

Pearson correlations between self-reported ability and CM-PAT scores explained 61% of the variance in self-reported climbing performance compared with 16% for geometric entropy and 52% for climbing pace. Considering differences in successful and unsuccessful climbers, the CM-PAT (P < .0005; d = 2.14), geometric entropy (P = .014; d = 0.67), and pace (P < .0005; d = 1.88) were able to differentiate between groups.

Conclusions: The CM-PAT is the first sport climbing performance observational instrument to be developed through a thorough iterative process with expert coaches. Excellent interrater and test-retest reliability and excellent agreement with self-reported ability and with existing quantitative measures of performance support its recommendation for use in coaching and research contexts.

Notably, a key advantage over existing measures is the identification of coachable elements of performance.