Zihlmann et al., Current Issues in Sport Science, 2025
Background
- Many climbers believe they are stronger in a half-crimp grip than in an open hand grip.
- However, the crimp places greater stress on finger pulleys, raising injury risk.
- If climbers are not actually stronger in crimp, they might be unnecessarily exposing themselves to injuries.
Study Aim
- To test whether climbers can accurately self-assess their maximal finger strength in half-crimp vs. open hand grips.
- Hypothesis: higher-level climbers would assess their strength more accurately.
Methods
- Participants: 85 climbers (intermediate, advanced, elite; men & women).
- Measures: Self-assessment questionnaire (expected differences) + actual force tests on a 23 mm rung campus board.
- Grip conditions: Dominant vs. non-dominant hand × open hand vs. half-crimp.
Key Findings
- Measured strength
- For all groups and sexes, slightly higher forces were produced in the open hand position than in the half-crimp (on the 23 mm deep rung).
- Finger strength increased with climbing level (intermediate < advanced < elite).
- Self-assessment accuracy
- Climbers often overestimated their half-crimp strength, especially advanced climbers (≈9.8% for non-dominant hand).
- Intermediate and elite climbers also tended to overestimate half-crimp, but less strongly.
- No significant advantage for higher skill levels in overall accuracy.
- Intermediate and advanced climbers frequently overestimated the strength of their dominant hand, while elite climbers judged more accurately.
- Injury prevention insight
- Since the open hand grip is at least as strong, often stronger than half-crimp on deeper holds, and it reduces pulley stress, it should be used whenever possible.
Conclusions
- Climbers’ assumptions about being stronger in half-crimp are not supported by actual measurements on deeper rungs.
- Skill level does not reliably predict self-assessment accuracy, though elite climbers may be slightly better.
- Practical takeaway: On rungs where the full distal phalanx fits (~23 mm deep), climbers should prefer the open hand grip for both performance and injury prevention.