Analysis of Competition and Training Videos of Speed Climbing Athletes Using Feature and Human Body Keypoint Detection Algorithms

Dominik Pandurevic,Klaus Hochradel,Paweł Draga,Alexander Sutor

doi:10.3390/s22062251

Abstract

Compared to 25 years ago, the climbing sport itself has changed dramatically. From a rock climbing modification to a separation in three independent disciplines, the requirements to athletes and trainers increased rapidly. To ensure continuous improvement of the sport itself, the usage of measurement and sensor technology is unavoidable. Especially in the field of the discipline speed climbing, which will be performed as a single discipline at the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris, the current state of the art of movement analysis only consists of video analysis and the benefit of the experience of trainers. Therefore, this paper presents a novel method, which supports trainers and athletes and enables analysis of motion sequences and techniques. Prerecorded video footage is combined with existing feature and human body keypoint detection algorithms and standardized boundary conditions. Therefore, several image processing steps are necessary to convert the recorded movement of different speed climbing athletes to significant parameters for detailed analysis. By studying climbing trials of professional athletes and the used techniques in different sections of the speed climbing wall, the aim among others is to get comparable results and detect mistakes. As a conclusion, the presented method enables powerful analysis of speed climbing training and competition and serves with the aid of a user-friendly designed interface as a support for trainers and athletes for the evaluation of motion sequences.

Highlights

The attendance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021 forms without any doubt the historical peak in competitive sport climbing
The following data sets originate from the comparison of two athletes with different motion patterns and techniques
As a result of their success in the speed climbing world, there are among others two unique start motions named by their originators, namely the Reza-Move and Tomoa-Skip

Summary

Introduction

The attendance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021 forms without any doubt the historical peak in competitive sport climbing. The criticized decision of the International Olympic Committee to evaluate a single discipline, which is composed of bouldering, lead climbing, and speed climbing, demands a completely different preparation from the athletes. Compared to the individual and mostly complex movements for bouldering and lead climbing, there are due to the uniformly designed climbing route only a few techniques used in speed climbing. This discipline requires high motor skills and addresses different group of muscles leading to a rearrangement of training methods. Whilst trainers benefit from their experience, it is difficult to detect at first sight mistakes and differentiate two athletes with a similar technique at a competitive race. A tool is implemented, which enables the visualization of all exported datasets and the route map of each athlete

Methods

Results

Conclusion