The effect of route difficulty on mental toughness and anxiety in sport climbing

This study intends to examine the impacts of route difficulty on the state anxiety and mental toughness level in sport climbing. Our study is designed as an experimental study with a control application. In this context, the working group consisted of 34 athletes with intermediate level sports climbing skills. The athletes were asked to climb two routes, which was easy and difficult to their specified climbing ability. State anxiety inventory and mental toughness scale were applied before and after the climbs. The climbs were made in the style of lead climbing on the 15 m high negative slope climbing wall. The difficulties and standardization of the climbing routes were made by two elite climbers. Dependent variable in the analysis of data Paired Samples T Test, in the analysis of independent variables; Independent Samples T Test was used in two groups and One Way Anova test was used in groups with more than two. Correlation analysis was used to examine their relations. As a result of the statistical analysis, a significant change was detected in the state anxiety levels before and after climbing on both routes. In addition, a significant difference was found between the anxiety level before climbing the difficult route and the anxiety level before the easy route climbing. It was observed that there was a significant difference between the mental toughness scores after climbing the easy and difficult routes. According to the marital status variable, there was a significant difference in the pre-difficult state anxiety level in favor of married people. No difference was found between mental toughness and marital status. No difference was found between mental toughness and marital status. No significant difference was found in state anxiety and mental resilience according to gender, age, experience, educational status, training frequency and climbing ability. In conclusion, it can be said that route difficulty affects the state anxiety in athletes with intermediate climbing ability. For athletes with intermediate climbing ability, route difficulty does not seem to be a factor that will make a difference in mental toughness. It can also be said that state anxiety and mental endurance have a mild relationship in sport climbing.