An Investigation into the prevention of injuries in climbing

Abstract

This investigation aims to find methods of preventing injury in climbing, in order to do this research into the types of injuries experienced and causes of such needed to be conducted. The data collected a study of 52 climbers, showed that over the course of their climbing lifetime 71.7% have had at least one injury. The investigation found out that the most common injury amongst climbers was an over-use injury to a person tendon in the hand, wrist or fingers, accounting for 40.5% in the study. The most common cause of injury was research and found to be poor technique. There is little data out there on the long-term effects of preventative measures to injury, however the opinion of the participants of the survey believed warming up to the best preventative measure.

Introduction

The sport of climbing has progressed a lot in recent years, particularly with a growing trend in indoor climbing. According to an article by the Association of British Climbers (ABC) [1] there were around 1,000,000 independent indoor climbers in the UK in 2017, 100,000 of these climbing regularly. The same article also stated that numbers seems to be growing by 15-20% each year.

Given the rise in popularity of climbing it’s likely to increase the number of new climbers trying the sport for the first time. This could result in lower levels of experience and knowledge on safe practises. Especially when considering bouldering which requires little to know training before taking part in. This could lend itself to an increased chance of injuries. Over the course of this investigation, research will be undertaken to find the most common injuries and causes of such. Focus will be put on this data and connections to demographics. Current preventative measures will also be looked out to find room for improvement or completely new measures. The aims of these studies will be to establish a niche problem within the sport of climbing that hasn’t been focused on.

In order to effectively summarise a vast sport with literally hundreds of medical documents relating to climbing and health, this dissertation was organised into a specific structure. Initially a literature review would be conducted using pre-assigned objectives and key words to narrow down searches. Following this primary data would be planned and conducted to elaborate on the findings of the previous section or fill in absences needed to answer crucial research objectives. Once the data was collected the findings of both secondary and primary research would be discussed to produce insights on injuries and prevention methods within climbing. Ultimately these insights would be evaluated and combined or eliminated to one primary problem that could be focused on in following sections. Some tertiary, problems might also follow through to the design specification stage, so that the product could potentially solve more than one issue.