One of the most important factors of climbing is staying on the wall by holding on, which is made easier by finger and grip strength. However, knowing how to hold a hold can also make a huge difference to how you climb. This is why I love visiting other climbing centres, as they all set with different brands of holds so you get to climb on something new.

 Even though they are all pretty self-explanatory I though it would be worth doing a breakdown of hold types:

 

Jug 
A generous hold that has a very positive grip for the whole hand, much like a door handle. 
Sloper 
  Usually rounded and edgeless which means it requires plenty of friction to hold, and just the right amount of chalk.
Crimp 
Easy to spot (or not as the case may be) as they have a very small edge which can be held with the first pads of your fingers/fingertips.

 

holds 1

Pinch
Much like it sounds, this is normally a longer chunk of a hold which depends on grip strength between fingers and thumb to hold.

Pocket 
This hold is only suitable for 1-3 fingers, and requires great finger strength to use and move from safely.

holds 2

 Being at the lower end of the grade spectrum means most of the time I end up having very positive hand holds in the problems I climb. This is cool, but there are so many hold varieties out there that it’s kind of shame I don’t get try them out in climbs. To remedy this, I make an effort to move to and from the different styles of hand holds whilst traversing, which I’ve found quite helpful and challenging! 

agirlwhoclimbs 4