Injuries, Injury Prevention and Training in Climbing – Volume II

This Research Topic is the second volume of the Research Topic “Injuries, Injury Prevention and Training in Climbing”. Please see the first volume here.

Climbing as an activity has a long and proud history of ascending mountains and steep walls. Still, as a newly acknowledged Olympic sport, climbing has a short history of systematic training and injury prevention. Sport climbing is divided in three disciplines (bouldering, lead climbing, speed climbing) that requires different physiological and psychological abilities witch again lead to different mechanical loading and thereby possible injuries. Furthermore, climbing is practiced by a diversified population from the recreational climber to the professional athlete. One of the things that separates climbing from most other Olympic sports is that a vast majority of the athletes operates outside the federations. Even internationally high performing climbers are not organized or part of a team with trainers and health personnel.

Climbing is a complex activity that relies on multiple skills. Hence, climbing performance depends on an interaction of physiological, psychological, technical, and tactical factors. The scientific body of literature to better understand climbing is growing. Still, climbing is a relatively young research topic with a lot of unanswered questions. In general, there is a need for increased knowledge concerning factors regarding the onset and epidemiology of injuries and preventative measures to avoid injuries, including training.

For example, onset and distribution of injuries, how to prevent injuries by systematic training, what kind of training is safe and not, return to sport after an injury are some of the topics that needs further attention from researchers.

Thus, the aim of this Research Topic is to provide and highlight research that increase the scientific knowledge regarding injuries, injury prevention and training in climbing.

For this thematic issue we will accept scientific papers that elucidate the:

• Factors determining injuries in climbing
• Epidemiology of climbing injuries
• Effect of different training interventions on climbing-related injuries
• Physiological tests as a part of injury prevention
• Prevalence and avoidance of climbing-related injuries
• Protocols for injury prevention, including protocols for screening of athletes
• Suggestions for return to sport protocols after an injury
• How to train safe and safety in training.