Inexperienced Sport Climbers Might Perceive and Utilize New Opportunities for Action by Merely Observing a Model

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether observing an expert climber would enable inexperienced climbers to perceive and accomplish new possibilities for action and whether this would facilitate their climbing performance. The focus was on what information is obtained during observation of a motor action. Three groups of inexperienced male participants (N = 24) observed either a video model of an expert method of climbing, a video model of a novice method of climbing, or the climbing wall on video without a model. Participants subsequently climbed the wall. This procedure of observation followed by climbing was repeated five times. Analysis showed participants perceived and subsequently utilized information from the videotapes and that this resulted in faster and more fluent climbing (as assessed by the geometric entropy of the body center of gravity). The results are discussed in terms of perceiving and accomplishing opportunities for action or affordances.

Constraints representing a meta-stable régime facilitate exploration during practice and transfer of learning in a complex multi-articular task

“…The higher the entropy value, the higher the irregularity of the climbing trajectory, whereas the lower the entropy value, the more regular is the route trajectory. GIE has a number of advantages over other reported spatial variables (such as the average movement distance [7]) in that it is readily interpreted with respect to climbing activity, accounts for climb height and, shown to be effective for detecting skill [2], practice [2], route [8] and technique effects in climbing tasks [5,9]. Furthermore, data collection to perform an entropy calculation is relatively straight forward, involving use of a single camera [10].…”

Coordination in Climbing: Effect of Skill, Practice and Constraints Manipulation

“…Similarly, Seifert et al [26] showed that specific characteristics of acquired coordination patterns support performance fluency (see also Boschker and Bakker [52]). Seifert et al [26] tested transfer of experienced rock climbers and inexperienced rock climbers when climbing in an unfamiliar ice-climbing environment.…”

“…Broadly, practice effects indicate that exploratory behaviours reduce with practice [39,96] whilst indicators of improved efficiency increase [24,39,44,52,80,95]. Boschker and…”

“…However, understanding issues such as, the role of existing skill level on transfer [26], how or why new coordination modes emerge, or the specific impacts of interventions and pedagogical strategies [52], need to be approached by observing coordination behaviours over practice and learning timescales.…”

“…Understanding coordination in climbing requires assessment of spatial and temporal relationships that emerge between an individual's perceptual and movement systems (intrapersonal), and surface features of a climbing environment (extra-personal). Measures relevant to understanding coordination during climbing tasks can, therefore, include: forces applied at hand-holds [44,47], limb [42] or whole body kinematics [39,43,48], neuro-muscular activation [49], gaze position [50], cognitions and perceptions [40,51,52].…”