Design and validation of an observational instrument to assess the technical execution in top-rope climbing

Abstract

The aim of this study was to design and validate an observational instrument to assess the technical execution in top-rope climbing. This observational instrument allows researchers to assess the progression of climbers in relation to the achievement of key aspects of climbing movements. Firstly, a review of the specialized literature was performed to establish a set of criteria for observation. Secondly, content validation was carried out through the agreement and consensus method among ten expert judges at the qualitative level (degree of understanding, appropriateness of wording, relevance of questions, etc.), and quantitative level (global assessment on a scale from 0 to 10). Thirdly, this instrument was applied to a sample of seven climbers on an indoor climbing wall. Reliability was calculated through the application of the test-retest method. The results indicated that the instrument has optimal levels of reliability and validity for evaluating the technical execution of beginning climbers. The instrument can be considered as a useful tool which could be applied by instructors and teachers for discriminating the learning stage in beginning climbers.