Coordination in climbing: effect of skill, practice and constraints manipulation

BACKGROUND: Climbing is a physical activity and sport involving many subdisciplines. Minimization of prolonged pauses, use of a relatively simple path through a route and smooth transitions between movements broadly define skilled coordination in climbing. OBJECTIVES: To provide an overview of the constraints on skilled coordination in climbing and to explore future directions in this emerging field. METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted in 2014 and retrieved studies reporting perceptual and movement data during climbing tasks. To be eligible for the qualitative synthesis, studies were required to report perceptual or movement data during climbing tasks graded for difficulty. RESULTS: Qualitative synthesis of 42 studies was carried out, showing that skilled coordination in climbing is underpinned by superior perception of climbing opportunities; optimization of spatial-temporal features pertaining to body-to-wall coordination, the climb trajectory and hand-to-hold surface contact; and minimization of exploratory behaviour. Improvements in skilled coordination due to practice are related to task novelty and the difficulty of the climbing route relative to the individual's ability level. CONCLUSION: Perceptual and motor adaptations that improve skilled coordination are highly significant for improving the climbing ability level. Elite climbers exhibit advantages in detection and use of climbing opportunities when visually inspecting a route from the ground and when physically moving though a route. However, the need to provide clear guidelines on how to improve climbing skill arises from uncertainties regarding the impacts of different practice interventions on learning and transfer

The Importance of Importance in the Physical Self: Support for the Theoretically Appealing but Empirically Elusive Model of James

This study tested James's theoretical assumption that the importance people attribute to different physical self-domains, in combination with perceived competence in those domains, influences higher order self-concepts. Data from four large samples (total N=1,831) from Sweden, Great Britain, Portugal, and Turkey were analyzed. A new version of an instrument, the Physical Self-Perception Profile-Revised (PSPP-R), was used to measure perceived competence and importance of physical self-domains, along with global self-esteem. Competence-importance interactions contributed significantly to higher order self-concepts in 3 of 4 PSPP subdomains. The same result was found in the structural equation modeling analyses and latent interaction analyses. Idiographic analyses showed that domains rated as intraindividually more important explained more global self-esteem variance compared with less important domains. In general, support for James's hypothesis was found across the different analyses. Differences between the methodology and results in the present study compared with previous studies are discussed. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Personality © 2011, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Leisure, optimal experience and psychological selection : cultural and developmental perspectives

The scientific literature on leisure has proposed different approaches to classify free time activities. However, there is a substantial convergence among authors in distinguishing between two broad typologies of leisure. The first typology refers to activities characterized by clear structure and rules, fostering engagement, fulfillment, and long-term commitment. It includes active leisure activities as defined by Csikszentmihalyi (Flow. The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row, New York, 1990); structured activities promoting concentration and effort toward goal achievement, as identified by Kleiber and his colleagues (J Leisure Res 18:169-176, 1986); and serious leisure activities (Stebbins RA, New directions in the theory and research of serious leisure. The Edwin Mellen, Lewiston, 2001; Serious leisure: A perspective for our time. Transaction Publishers, London, 2007) that foster participants' long-term acquisition of special skills, knowledge, and experience. The second typology of leisure comprises activities requiring low energy investment and promoting relaxation (Csikszentmihalyi M, Flow. The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row, New York, 1990), unstructured tasks that provide pleasure and fun without high demands (Kubey R, Csikszentmihalyi M, Television and the quality of life: How viewing shapes everyday experience. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, 1990; Larson, RW, Kleiber D, Daily experience of adolescents. In: Tolan P, Cohler B (eds) Handbook of clinical research and practice with adolescents. Wiley, New York, pp 125-145, 1993), and casual leisure activities, immediately enjoyable and rewarding, relatively short-lived, and requiring little or no specialist training (Stebbins RA, Serious leisure: A perspective for our time