Anticipating optimal climbing solutions: Evidence from Olympic Bouldering

Anticipation constitutes a cognitive subprocess that enables athletes to predict future events through the integration of prior experience, domain-specific knowledge, and contextual information. Research on anticipation has predominantly focused on open, highly time-constrained sports characterized by complex interpersonal interactions and dynamic athlete-environment reciprocity. This study explored anticipation within a more closed sporting context without direct opponent interactions by examining how climbing level and experience shape the anticipation of optimal climbing solutions. Intermediate, advanced, and elite climbers were tasked with climbing a boulder featuring three climbing options of varying difficulty (Option 1: easiest; Option 2: intermediate; Option 3: most difficult). Participants’ anticipation skills were inferred from their choice of option, alongside follow-up self-reports to elucidate the rationale underlying strategic approaches and option selection. Data collection encompassed option selection, responses to follow-up questions, and climbing performance (boulder completion). Elite climbers were more successful in completing the boulder and more often selected the easiest Option 1. They more often reported deliberately selecting a specific option, with most of them intentionally choosing Option 1 while consciously avoiding the more difficult options. In anticipating a specific option, they more often indicated relying on perceptual cues from the holds. Taken together, findings suggest that climbing level and experience are critical factors in anticipating optimal climbing solutions. Such prospective anticipation relies on accurate processing of contextual information, which is based on the detection and interpretation of cues from holds during route previewing. This process requires an extensive climbing movement repertoire shaped by climbing level and prior experience.