Introduction of a Measurement System for Quantitative Analysis of Force and Technique in Competitive Sport Climbing

Rapid development and progress in competitive sport climbing lead to increasing media attention and appreciation in the sports world. Therefore, the increase of requirements to climbing athletes are unavoidably. The next step to replace existing and objective training methods, is the digitalization in terms of development of suitable measurement systems. By determining the distribution of forces as well as analysing technique, the presented method enables the evaluation of athlete's performance. With the aid of this combined system composed of multiple 3-axis high-precision force sensor embedded climbing holds and a marker-less motion capturing framework - and a depending on the needs and application designed user-interface, coaches get the opportunity to evaluate their athlete's training outcomes. This sensor technology allows us to detect magnitude and direction of measured force vectors and the associated distribution of the body weight on hands versus feet. Additionally, the recording of athlete's motion including depth information enables calculation of relevant joint angles and body's centre of gravity. This measurement system, its modification and base components, respectively, could be used among others for dynamic move analysis in bouldering or video analysis in speed climbing.