Examination of studies on sports climbing: A content analysis

Aim: Detailed investigation, classification and content analysis of scientific/academic studies related to sport climbing. Material and Method: Among the academic/scientific articles and theses published in the YÖK National Thesis Center, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases related to sport climbing between 2010 and 2022, there were 12 academic/scientific articles and theses published that answered the research questions whose Full texts were accessible and were found to be suitable for the investigation. 145 scientific studies, including diploma theses and 133 articles, were included in the research. As part of this research, the distribution of scientific studies by year, number of samples, methods of data analysis, number of authors, research topics, publication types, writing languages and data collection instruments were analyzed using the "content analysis method". Results: In recent years, the number of studies on sport climbing has increased. While there were 33 studies between 2010 and 2015 that were able to answer the research questions, it was found that between 2016 and 2022 there were 112 studies that met these criteria. In quantitative studies, at most samples between 1 and 25 were preferred. It was found that the quantitative research method was used more extensively in the studies. The research topics are mainly sport climbing-specific sport injuries, physical fitness, physiological and psychological effects of sport climbing, and 69.7% of the studies are multi-authored. 83.4 % of the studies were in English, 16.6% in Turkish. 91 % of the studies consisted of articles, and experiments and document analysis were the most preferred data collection tools. Conclusion: It may be more beneficial to deepen studies biomechanics, current technologies, recreation, and sports nutrition into new research on sport climbing.