Mental Skills Training in Youth Competition Climbing: Filling the Gap in Research and Practice

By Matt Leslie; Part I of II

Greetings Hidden Crux community! My name is Matt Leslie, and I am a Seattle-based climber, climbing instructor, and aspiring mental performance coach. There are so many things I love about climbing; the community, the wild places it takes us, and the physical challenge all stand out as reasons this sport has become a life-long pursuit. Over the years, I feel my relationship with climbing has grown as I continue to develop a deep appreciation for the mental challenges climbing presents. My interest in enhancing my own and others' mental performance led me to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, where I recently graduated with a master's degree studying applied sport psychology. I am currently using the skills and lessons I learned in my program as a climbing instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School, and as the Boys Basketball Coach at the Northwest School in Seattle.

During my studies, I connected with members of the Hidden Crux team as I worked on my final applied project: "Research to Practice: An Examination of Youth Climbing Coaches' Knowledge, Perceptions, and Understanding of Mental Skills Training." I chose this project as it sits at the intersection of my three passions: climbing, mental skills training, and coaching education. The goal of my project was to interview USAC certified youth climbing coaches from across the country, seeking to understand their knowledge of mental skills training (MST), the value they see in MST, and how they are currently incorporating MST into their current coaching practice.

Mental Skills Training in Youth Sport

Mental skills training is the "systematic and consistent practice of mental or psychological skills for the purpose of enhancing performance, increasing enjoyment, or achieving greater sport or physical activity of self-satisfaction" (Weinberg & Gould, 2019, p.262). Numerous sport psychology scholars have explored the question of whether athletes and coaches find value in applying mental skills training in youth sport populations. Bell and colleagues (2020) interviewed elite athletes from a wide range of sports (swimming, track and field, etc.) and found that athletes who had exposure to mental skills training were more apt to value and apply the skills. This also applied to coaches. When coaches valued mental skills training, they were more likely to use the skills with their athletes.

These findings highlight the importance of educating youth coaches on the value and application of these skills and exposing youth athletes to mental skills training from an early age. While interviews with youth coaches have shown that coaches value mental skills training, they are often unsure of where to learn about these skills, and lack confidence in incorporating them into their own training (Thelwell et al., 20118; Barker & Winter, 2014).

Addressing the Gap: Research Questions and Results

While many other youth sport populations have been studied, there is a gap in the sport psychology literature when it comes to competition climbing. To address this gap, I interviewed eight youth competition climbing coaches from across the United States. I asked the following questions:

1. What are some characteristics of mentally strong climbers?

2. How do you currently use mental skills training in your coaching practice?

3. If you were to engage in continuing education on mental skills training, what would be your desired mode of receiving the content, and what would be your desired learning outcomes?

To be included in the research study, participants needed to have held a USAC coaching certification within the last two years, and have actively coached youth competitions climbers within the last two years.

1. What are some characteristics of mentally strong climbers?
This question served as a means to get the coaches thinking about the mental side of competition climbing. The most prevalent answers were:

• possessing a positive relationship with failure (75% of participants), and

• performing in the presence of fear (37%)

2. How do you currently use mental skills training in your coaching practice?
This question aimed to identify what knowledge the coaches currently had of mental skills training, and how they currently use and teach these skills in their coaching practice.

• 37.5% of coaches mentioned addressing their athletes' use of self-talk

• 50% discussed using visualization exercises

• 62.5% discussed the importance of their athletes using their breath to regulate their emotions and physiological arousal

• 62.5% noted the importance of developing their athletes' route reading abilities

• 100% of participants stated using simulation training or mock competitions to help their athletes prepare for onsight competitions, which were considered more mentally challenging and of greater importance than redpoint competitions.

3. What would be your desired mode and outcome of continuing education?
The final question asked if participants would seek out continuing education on mental skills training and, if so, what they would want that training to look like.

• Of note, all participants (100%) expressed a strong desire to learn more about mental skills training in order to improve their youth athletes' performance and enjoyment.

• Additionally, 62.5% expressed that they wanted the training to address their own lack of knowledge on the subject, and

• 50% wanted to acquire mental training tools and strategies to enhance their own performance, in addition to their athletes. This outcome is unique to climbing, as all the coaches interviewed as being driven athletes themselves, whereas many other youth-sport coaches are "retired" from the sport they coach.

In terms of preferred mode of receiving educational content, 50% expressed liking videos they can access on demand. Additionally, 62.5% of all interviewees stated a preference for in person workshops, where they could learn from both the facilitators and their coaching peers.

Filling the Gap: A Mental Skills Training Workshop for Coaches

After analyzing the results, the findings from the interviews were used to create a pilot mental skills training workshop. As highlighted in the interviews, this workshop taught youth climbing coaches a systematic way to practice and teach distinct mental skills (self-talk, arousal regulations, and imagery) to enhance their athletes' and their own climbing performance.

For the full scoop on Matt's pilot workshop, stay tuned for Part II - out soon!

Barker, S., & Winter, S. (2014). The practice of sport psychology: A youth coaches’ perspective. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 9(2), 379-392. 

Bell, A. F., Knight, C. J., Lovett, V. E., & Shearer, C. (2020). Understanding elite youth athletes’ knowledge and perceptions of sport psychology. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 0(0), 1–23. 

Thelwell, R. C., Wood, J., Harwood, C., Woolway, T., & van Raalte, J. L. (2018). The role, benefits, and selection of sport psychology consultants: Perceptions of youth-sport coaches and parents. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 35, 131–142. 

Weinberg, R.S., & Gould. D. (2019). Introduction to psychological skills training. In R.S. Weinberg & D. Gould (Eds.), Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology(pp.262- 282). Human Kinetics.