UKC

Hi Folks,

My name is Dave Giles, I£m a doctoral researcher at the University of Derby. I am looking for participants for my next Ph.D. study, which is taking place in February 2016 at Awesome Walls Sheffield.

The study aims to explore determinants of climbing performance and the effectiveness of specific coaching interventions. Participation will involve attending two sessions at the wall, on two consecutive days (weekends, evening and daytime available). If you would like to take part you will need to meet the following criteria:
- You are a competent lead climber
- You can lead climb indoors on-sight (first time without rest) between 6a+ (min) and 6b+ (max)
- You are between the age of 18 and 45
- You do not suffer from any known cardiovascular diseases or illnesses
- You are not taking oral contraceptives (women) [They interfere with saliva samples]

More details may be found on http://www.climbingkinetics.co.uk and updates will be posted on Facebook (http://tiny.cc/sqdw7x - please feel free to like and share).

If you would like to participate, or would simply like more information, either reply below or drop me an email.

Thank you,

Dave Giles
d.giles@derby.ac.uk

In reply to DaveAGiles:

I would be up for taking part but on a good day I have a solid chance of onsighting a 6c or 6c+ so I'm slightly outside your criteria. I don't know how critical that is.

If you don't get enough volunteers, perhaps I might be useful.

In reply to Luke90:


Doesn't it mean the routes being used will be 6a+-6b+ rather than climbers operating in that very narrow bracket?

In reply to winhill:

Not the way I read it but perhaps I was wrong. The website he linked to adds an extra stipulation of "Red-point no harder than French 6c (max) indoors". Either way, I'm happy to take part if I'm of any use to his study.

In reply to Luke90:


No, you're right, I saw that bit on the website too. Might depend which wall you climb at as to whether you'd hit the criteria or not.

In reply to Luke90:
Hi Luke,

Yes you are right, your on-sight grade is a little too high to be included. I will keep you in mind if I expand the criteria.

The grades refer to the climber, rather than the routes, like Winhill speculated.

Thank you for the reply.

In reply to Luke90:

The red-point criteria is there to ensure that there isn't too much of a disparity between on-sight and red-point grades.

In reply to DaveAGiles:

I think you're going to find your grade criteria are too tight. I might be able to help, but climb slightly harder. That said, I've been under the weather for a while, so I'm pretty shit just now - catch me before I get back to normal!

Edit: maybe I understand the grade criteria a bit more. I'm guessing such a short-term coaching technique is only going to work for those with less experience and technique? In which case you'd need to extend you criteria downwards rather than upwards?

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Hi Jon,

The issue is actually logistics regrading the route setting. I will have a much better idea in the next week or so as to how well this is recruiting, and if I will need to make adjustments to the criteria.

I will keep a list of those who are a little outside the criteria, I may be in touch. Either way, thanks for the reply.

A big thank you to everyone that has contact me so far.

I am now up to about 30 climbers, out of the total 50 needed.

If you are interested in taking part, please drop me an email at d.giles@derby.ac.uk

Cheers!

Still looking for last few participants.

Free sessions are shown here: http://www.climbingkinetics.co.uk/#!sessions/c1n8o

If you are interested, but are not sure about a particular aspect, or would like more information please email me at d.giles@derby.ac.uk

Cheers!

In reply to DaveAGiles:
Are you managing to stay inside your criteria, or have you had to relax them a bit to get the numbers up?
I'd probably be up for participating, but I'm a wee bit above your upper age limit.

In reply to DaveAGiles: clearly those of us well over 45 are a lost cause! I'm intrigued as to the reason?

In reply to deepsoup:

Hi Deepsoup. Possibly, would you mind dropping me an email? d.giles@derby.ac.uk

In reply to kevin stephens:

Defiantly not a lost cause . Without giving too much away, and unduly influencing any potential participants, the interventions that I am looking at are appropriate for any age group of climbers. However, it is the physiological measures that I am looking at that are influenced by age. There is a lot of variation between individuals anyway, so anything I can do to reduce that makes analysis easier.

I will post up a summary when I am done. or drop me an email, happy to chat more if you are interested.

Cheers Dave