Rock climbing holds vary in so many ways, size, texture, color, material, etc. It’s most common to see plastic holds at rock gyms, but occasionally you can find other materials being used too, such as wood, metal, or actual rock that’s been cut and shaped a certain way.
All this variation can make it hard for a new climber to know how to get up certain routes. Thankfully, the main holds that you find on a route from start to finish are categorized into 7 different kinds of holds. Knowing what type a hold you’re reaching for enables you to move and position yourself in a way that’ll support your climb, instead of challenging it.
To help memorize the different classes of indoor rock climbing holds, you can use either of these acronyms; J-F CUPPS or FJ CUPPS. (I’m a bit of a car guy, so I think of the old Toyota FJs to trigger my memory for the rest of FJ CUPPS. My wife does care for cars and prefers the J-F CUPPS acronym, because it sounds like a name; like the ROY G BIV rainbow acronym.)
| FJ CUPPS | J-F CUPPS |
| Foothold Jug Crimp Undercling Pinch Sloper | Foothold Jug Crimp Undercling Pinch Sloper |
Foothold
A lot of the time a past handhold can be used as a foothold, but that’s not always ideal for a route or realistic to the outdoors. Footholds are made to provide necessary support when a handhold isn’t able to. Sometimes route setters will strategically place footholds to mentally challenge the climber. For example, one person I know loves to place extra holds in strange places to confuse you or spark out of the box ideas.
Footholds come in some funky shapes and sizes too, making some solid foundations to pivot on, and others more of a trap door on the route.
Jug
Jugs are the stereotypical holds that you can comfortably get your whole hand on. The ones that you typically see kids climbing on at a YMCA or Boys & Girls Club rock wall. Whether you’re bouldering or sport climbing, finding one of these on a route is heaven sent. It enables you to recompose yourself, pause for a breath or two, and keep on attacking the route.
Crimp
These are the holds that “separate the boys from the men.” (Or girls from the women.) Crimps can be extremely technical and require high intensity. They’re typically categorized in 4 different groups; open, half, full, and closed.
You can safely assume that a crimpy hold is going to hurt your fingers relatively fast too. This makes them easy to injure yourself on when you’re pumped or completely spent at the end of a climbing session.
With that being said, crimps also become easier over time. As you spend more time on the wall, you naturally try different body positions, build your strength, and learn how to better approach different types of crimps. The size of the holds makes a big difference too. The more length of your fingers you can get onto a hold, the more surface area there is to spread your weight and increase your grip.
Undercling
These holds make you feel cool! They require you to rotate your hand, so the outside of if (the dorsal side) is towards the wall. You feel like Spiderman or a monkey, magically climbing up a wall.
Physically, it tends to provide relief too, because instead of the pull up feeling that usually comes with climbing, you can use leverage and different body dynamics that aren’t nearly as.
Because of this, these holds can create moments to rest, chalk up, and plan your next move.
These can produce two types of emotions; the relief we get from a jug, or to the misery from a crimp. This is because pockets vary in size. They can be holes large enough to fit your entire hand in, or so small you can barely get 1-2 fingers in it.
Large pockets and jugs tend to be interchangeable, while small pockets aren’t intended to be a single hold to keep you on the wall. Instead, tiny pockets are usually treated as a way to assist you to a different hold. This isn’t always the case though. Some routes, more difficult ones, treat pockets as their own holds and really put you to the test.
Pinch
Like crimps, pinches can vary in intensity by how much of your hand you can get on them. The more you climb and experience these, the stronger your grip strength becomes too.
However, the angle of the pinch hold also plays a huge factor in its difficulty. Sometimes they’re slanted 10-30 degrees so you can rotate your body and turn the pinch into a jug.
Sloper
These can be exceptionally fun on a route, or they can test your patience.
I like to compare slopers to cats; they want you to be gentle and soft with them. Slopers are the same.
These usually require you to slow down and slowly move from one point to another. If you try to be harsh and fast, then they become a mix bag to hold onto.
One climber that I met, has left arm end at the elbow. He exemplifies the approach to slopers perfectly! Slopers tend to require two hands precisely and gently placed on the hold. This climber doesn’t have that option. Instead, he maximizes what grip he can get with a single hand on slopers and slowly moves his feet up the wall. Any sudden movement or slight jerk during a progression like this, and he falls. But when he’s patient, calm, and slow, it’s like he’s floating.
The Recap
These are just the standard types of holds that you commonly find at local rock gyms. But for climbers, these are like the core colors an artist uses when creating a work of art.
I challenge you to think beyond the holds and how to climb them. For example, if you’re on a route that’s in the corner, then use that. Position your body so you can push off one wall, while bringing you up the other. You might have routes with ledges or volumes, either of these can be used as a hand or foothold. It’s free game. Be creative with it.
If you ever have the chance to climb outdoors, do it! It’ll open your mind to movement variations you don’t typically think of when only climbing indoors. You’ll experience an entirely new sense of freedom too. It’s one of the cores to climbing, and how it’s become popular today. A freedom that rekindles a person’s child-like sense of adventure.