Bouldering Holds and Techniques: A Complete Guide

Every hold on a climbing wall can be categorised by its shape, orientation, and the grip position it requires. Understanding these categories lets you immediately recognise what a hold demands from your body before you are even on the wall.

Crimp

The most fundamental hold in finger-intensive bouldering. A crimp is a small ledge — typically 10-20mm deep — that you grip with your fingers curled over the edge. There are three grip variants:

• Full crimp: All fingers curled, thumb wrapped over the index finger. Maximises contact force but places extreme load on the A2 pulley tendon. High injury risk.
• Half crimp: Fingers bent at roughly 90°, thumb not engaged. The most commonly recommended position — strong and safer than full crimp.
• Open hand: Fingers relatively straight, all pads in contact with the hold. The safest grip and the one most practitioners recommend developing first, though it requires more friction and open-hand strength.

Sloper

A rounded, sloping hold with no defined edge. You cannot hook fingers under it — instead, you rely on palm contact and friction. Slopers demand open-hand grip, high shoulder engagement, and body positioning directly below the hold. Moving through slopers with bent arms typically causes slippage; keeping arms extended and pushing down through the shoulder is key. Slopers are heavily featured in comp-style problems because they expose climbers who rely purely on finger strength.

Pinch

Any hold where you must grip from both sides, squeezing with your thumb opposed to your fingers. Pinch strength is highly specific — it is possible to be strong on crimps but weak on pinches. Routesetters use pinches to build problems that specifically reward climbers who train thumb strength and the thumb-opposing grip muscles of the forearm.

Jug

A deep, positive hold with a pronounced lip you can fully wrap your hand around. Named colloquially because gripping one feels like grabbing the handle of a jug. Jugs are the most positive hold type and are used as rest holds, start holds, and top holds. In hard problems, jugs often appear after a crux sequence as recovery holds. A jug rail is a large jug spanning arm-width or more.

Pocket

A hole in the wall that accepts one or more fingers. Pockets are categorised by depth:

• Mono: A single-finger pocket. Extremely high load on one finger — monofingers are rarely used in youth or beginner competition due to injury risk.
• 2-finger pocket: Two fingers (typically middle and ring). Common in comp settings.
• 3-finger pocket: Three fingers. Less demanding than mono or two-finger, but still more specific than a full crimp.

Undercling

A hold oriented so the gripping surface faces downward, requiring an upward pulling motion with the palm facing the ceiling. Underclinging is physically counterintuitive but unlocks powerful body positions — by pulling out and up on an undercling, you can generate large amounts of upward drive while keeping your hips close to the wall.

Sidepull

A hold where the gripping surface faces sideways rather than outward. Sidepulls require a lateral pulling motion; the climber leans away from the hold to generate tension through it. Sidepulls often require precise foot placement to counterbalance the lateral force.

Gaston

The opposite of a sidepull: a hold where you grip with your elbow pointing outward and push the hold away from your body (like opening elevator doors). Gastons test a different set of shoulder muscles than pulling holds and appear frequently in comp problems designed to punish climbers who only train pulling strength.

Volume

Large geometric shapes — triangles, wedges, facets — bolted to the wall that change its angle and geometry. Volumes are not gripped in the traditional sense; rather, they serve as platforms for feet, surfaces for slopers, and structural elements that change how the wall behaves. Competition-format routesetting in the past decade has been heavily volume-influenced, creating steep, complex terrain that rewards whole-body movement over finger strength alone.

Tufa

Elongated vertical or diagonal ridges — often shaped like stalactites — that are gripped in a pinch-and-pull or hug-like fashion. Common in Spanish limestone sport climbing outdoors, but increasingly featured in comp settings. Tufas reward compression strength and a specific hugging technique where both hands grip the tufa from different angles.

Beyond footwork, bouldering requires a vocabulary of full-body movement techniques that determine whether a climber reaches the next hold at all. These range from fully static controlled positions to explosive airborne dynamics.

Dyno (Dynamic Jump)

A dyno (short for dynamic) is a move where the climber generates momentum and becomes fully airborne — both feet and hands leave the wall simultaneously at the moment of release. The climber catches the target hold at the apex of their trajectory. Dynos are one of the most visually spectacular moves in comp bouldering and are deliberately set by routesetters for crowd engagement.

Sub-categories of dynos include:

• Double dyno: Jumping from one set of holds to reach two widely separated target holds simultaneously.
• Paddle/run and jump dyno: The climber runs along the wall or generates momentum through a rocking sequence before releasing into the dyno. Common in comp-style settings where the start features a runway of large holds leading to an explosive jump.
• Cross-body dyno: Reaching across with the opposite arm to catch a distant hold.

Deadpoint

A deadpoint is a controlled dynamic move that is distinct from a full dyno in that the climber does not become fully airborne — at least one point of contact (usually a foot) may remain on the wall. The key characteristic is that the climber catches the target hold at the apex of their upward momentum (the dead point), when vertical velocity is momentarily zero. This allows the hand to land on a small or difficult hold with minimal impact force. Deadpoints are arguably the most important dynamic technique in technical bouldering — most moves that feel static to observers actually involve a micro-deadpoint.

Campus

Climbing without using the feet — moving between hand holds using only upper body pulling strength. Campusing tests raw upper body power in its purest form. It is named after the Campus Board training tool developed by Wolfgang Güllich. In competition, specific moves may be intended to be campused, but routesetters generally avoid setting full-campus problems due to the extreme injury risk.

Mantle

Pressing down on top of a hold or ledge to transition from a hanging position to a standing or balanced position on top of it. Named for the motion of getting out of a swimming pool — pushing down with palms rather than pulling. Mantles require shoulder and tricep strength and are common on volume tops, wall lips, and certain indoor problems that mimic crack or ledge terrain.

Compression

Squeezing two holds (or a hold and the wall) inward from both sides simultaneously, using opposing force to maintain friction and body position. Compression problems appear on steep terrain where there are no edges to pull outward on — instead, the climber generates friction through body tension and inward pressure. The classic compression move is bear-hugging a volume between both palms and pressing inward.

Figure Four

An advanced technique where the climber hooks one leg over the same-side arm (crossing the leg over the forearm), using the weight of the leg and the geometry of the position to dramatically extend reach. Figure fours appear in very specific problem geometries — typically steep overhangs where the target hold is far above and to the side. Rarely set in mainstream competition but used at the elite level.

Rose Move (Paddle / Swing)

Using the momentum of the swinging body — rather than static strength — to generate reach or power. A rose move or paddle involves deliberately initiating a lateral swing and catching a hold at the moment the swing brings the arm closest to it. Common in comp-style problems built on large volumes where dynamic momentum is the intended movement style.

Coordination Moves

Problems that require multiple body actions to happen simultaneously — for example, a jump where both hands must catch separate holds at exactly the same time, or a move where foot placement must coincide with a hand catch. Coordination moves are designed to test timing, rhythm, and the climber's ability to execute complex movement sequences they have never rehearsed.

In competition finals, climbers face problems they have never seen and receive exactly 2 minutes of observation time before the clock starts on their first attempt. This observation period — watching the wall from the ground — is one of the highest-skill elements of competition bouldering and the point where movement intelligence separates elite climbers from everyone else.

What Happens During Observation

After leaving isolation, finalists gather at the edge of the competition zone to observe all four (or five) problems simultaneously during a shared observation window. They can move between viewing positions but cannot touch the wall or holds. No coaching input is permitted. Athletes are free to mime sequences with their hands, discuss possible beta with teammates (within earshot limitations), or simply stand and visualise.

Elite climbers use this time to:

1. Identify hold types: What is each hold? Crimp? Sloper? Pinch? Does it face up, sideways, or down?
2. Identify required technique: Is there an obvious heel hook position? Does the body need to rotate? Is there a dyno?
3. Map the crux: Where is the hardest section of the problem? What are the one or two moves that will stop most climbers?
4. Plan the sequence: What is the intended left-right hand order? Where do the feet go?
5. Identify rest positions: Are there places to pause and recover grip endurance?
6. Plan backup sequences: If the primary sequence fails, what is the alternative?

The Crux Identification Skill

Identifying the crux (the hardest section) from the ground is a trainable skill. Experienced climbers look for:

• The most unusual hold type in the sequence — the hold that is least forgiving.
• Maximum reach requirements — where does the climber need to be most extended?
• Transition zones — where the hold type changes, since the transition itself is often harder than either individual hold.
• Body position constraints — where does the geometry force an awkward or powerful position?

Adapting Mid-Climb

Observation plans frequently fail in practice. A hold that appeared like a definite crimp from the ground turns out to be slightly sloping and requires open-hand technique. A heel hook that seemed obvious does not match the wall geometry at height. Elite climbers practise micro-reading — continuously re-evaluating the sequence as they climb and adapting on the fly without losing body position or wasting precious time.

The onsight ability — completing a problem on the first attempt having only observed it from the ground — is the most prized skill in comp bouldering. A flash (onsight) scores a single attempt toward tops, the best possible outcome. Developing onsight ability requires thousands of hours of exposure to novel movement and deliberate practice at restraining the instinct to watch others' beta before attempting.

Route judges evaluate whether these holds are "controlled" — a nuanced standard that determines tops and zones. For the full route judge workflow and what constitutes a valid top or zone, see our Bouldering Judging guide.