Behavioural repertoire influences the rate and nature of learning in climbing: Implications for individualised learning design in preparation for extreme sports participation

Extreme climbing where participants perform while knowing that a simple mistake could result in death requires a skill set normally acquired in non-extreme environments. In the ecological dynamics approaches to perception and action, skill acquisition involves a process where existing repertoire of a learner are destabilized and re-organized through practice. This has been observed in bi-manual coordination and postural regulation tasks, where individuals begin practice using one mode of coordination before transitioning to another more effective movement pattern during practice. However, individuals may also improve through practice without qualitatively reorganizing movement system components (they do not find a new movement pattern). To explain these individual differences (presence/absence of the discovery of new actions) during learning, a key candidate is the existing coordination repertoire present prior to learning under a new set of constraints. In this study, the learning dynamics of body configuration patterns organized with respect to an indoor climbing surface were observed and an existing repertoire of coordination evaluated. Specifically, performance outcomes and movement patterns of eight individuals, identified as being in the Coordination stage of learning were observed across 42 trials of practice over a seven-week period. A pre-, post-test scanning procedure was used to determine existing patterns of movement coordination and the emergence of new movement patterns after the practice period. Different learning dynamics were identified at the individual level of analysis by examining trial-to-trial performance in terms of jerk (an indicator of climbing fluency). The different learning dynamics included: continuous-, sudden-, and no-improvement (or more precisely very slow-improvement). Individuals showing sudden-improvement appeared to acquire a new movement pattern of coordination, whereas those showing continuous-improvement did not (they simply improved performance). The individual who did not improve in terms of jerk, improved in-terms of distance climbed. The findings have implications for determining and predicting how individual differences can shape learning dynamics and interact with learning design to prepare individuals to perform under constraints that promote exploration of limits of system degeneracy.