The Climbing Movement Repertoire in Olympic Bouldering: Exploring Its Role in Decision-Making, Performance, and Time Constraint Management

In Olympic bouldering, climbers must solve a series of boulders, which are short routes set on low-height climbing walls. Time constraints imposed by competition regulations limit the time available for strategic decisions and climbing attempts. An extensive climbing movement repertoire helps climbers to identify meaningful movement patterns and anticipate climbing solutions. Expert routesetters-those climbers responsible for setting boulders-have been described to possess an extensive climbing movement repertoire. This study explored the role of the movement repertoire as an underlying cognitive system in decision-making, climbing performance, and time constraint management in Olympic bouldering. A total of 48 elite climbers-including 24 climbers with professional routesetting expertise (RS) and 24 climbers without any routesetting expertise (NR)-were tasked with climbing two boulders under varying time constraints (B1: four minutes; B2: two minutes). Data collected included non-stored climbing movements, strategic decision-making, and performance-related variables. In both boulders, the RS group had fewer non-stored climbing movements, showed enhanced decision-making skills (shorter previewing times, more effective climbing solutions, fewer strategic adjustments), and achieved better climbing performances (higher top rates, fewer attempts, higher holds in best attempts). Furthermore, in B2, the RS group was less perturbed by increased time constraints, showing a smaller decline in non-stored climbing movements, strategic decision-making, and climbing performance compared to the NR group. Routesetting expertise appears to be a relevant performance parameter in climbing. Climbers with such expertise benefit from their extensive movement repertoire to make efficient decisions, optimize performance, and effectively manage time constraints.