Colour graded holds

If your local climbing gym utilises colour graded holds, speak with a member of staff at the climbing gym to understand how their system works.

Understanding the Types of Holds

The different types of holds you will see in climbing gym or centre have different names, so here’s a breakdown of what to lookout for:

Jugs

Large, easy-to-hold grips that are usually more beginner friendly

Crimps

Small edges that fit only your fingertips and require decent finger strength

Pinches

Just like the name, this is a pinch grip that require you to pinch the hold with your fingers and thumb

Slopers

Rounded holds without a defined edge. A good awareness of your bodies weight and where you are on the wall will help with this, rather than grip.

Warming Up and Cooling Off

Bouldering Mats/ Crash Pads

Warming up is extremely important before bouldering to prevent injury and ensure you perform at your best. Some problems will require you to get into some tough positions, so performing a decent warm up before climbing will help reduce any risk of injury during the session.

A full body warm up should be performed, focusing on your fingers, wrists, forearms, shoulders, back, hips, ankles and upper legs. This should be a dynamic warm up, to get blood flowing around the body and to help prepare you for the session ahead.

Once you have completed this, don’t just head onto the harder climbs of the session, work your way up to this, to ensure your body is fully prepared to tackle some of the harder climbs.

Stretching after a session is as important as the warmup. This will help you recover and can lead to less muscle soreness in the following days. A 10–15-minute cool down will be enough to help you feel relaxed following your climb.

Technique

Bouldering is a skill and technique-based activity, so just being strong will only get you so far. Understanding the basics to your technique can help you progress quicker during the first few months of your bouldering career.

Use your legs: A common mistake amongst beginners is relying too much on their arms and upper body strength. This mistake can cause you to fatigue quicker, so utilising your legs can help take some of the strain away from your upper body.

Straight arms: Climbing with bent arms can be incredibly tiring, as you’re utilising more of your muscles than is necessary. Keeping your arms straight will help you conserve energy when bent arms aren’t required.

Weight shifting: Moving your weight from one foot to another can help you stay in control when on the wall. Practice this on some of the easier routes before taking it to some of the more technical routes.

Take your time: One of the most common mistakes you’ll see is not taking your time. Climbing fast can cause you to make mistakes. Take your time and focus on each movement.

Body position: Keep your hips close to the wall where possible to help reduce strain on your upper body.

Knot tying: Now this only applies to tope rope climbing, it’s useful to practice the figure 8 knot-tying technique. This will be taught at your induction session, but if you are struggling with the technique, an instructor at your climbing gym can always help you out.

Falling Safely

Falling from the wall is guaranteed to happen and expected when climbing, so knowing how to minimise the impact of your fall to keep yourself safe and injury free is vital.

Land with bent knees: Bend your knees to help absorb the impact when landing.

Tuck your arms: When you fall, falling with your arms out or behind you can lead to injuries of your wrist’s, arms and shoulders. Tucking your arms in when falling will prevent this from happening.

Roll backwards: Once you have absorbed the landing with your knees, you can further reduce impact by rolling backwards, helping to reduce the chance of injury even more.

Be aware of others: As much as it’s the responsibility of others to not walk within your falling zone while climbing, always look around you to avoid falling onto someone else

Falling while tope rope or lead climbing

Keep an eye on your rope: The last thing you want when lead climbing is tangling your rope as this can put you at higher risk of injury. With this in mind, you should always:

Communicate with you belayer: Communication between the belayer and you is key to safety. The belayer should be keeping a close eye on you while you’re on the wall in case of an emergency but shouting out commands such as “falling!” and “watch me!” will help you belayer react quicker in the event that you do fall.

Relax when you fall: : Tensing up can cause the fall to feel worse when the rope becomes fully extended.

Look down for obstructions in your fall path

Don’t push off the wall unless there’s a clear obstruction

Don’t grab anything on the way down: reaching out for the wall on your way down can lead to your finger catching on one of the holds.

Top Tips

Staying Safe

Leave your water bottle off the mat and phone in your locker, and never walk beneath someone who is climbing, as they could fall off at any moment.

Tips for tackling a Bouldering problem

Each route or “problem” is unique to itself. Part of the magic of the sport is the problem-solving aspect in figuring out how to approach each climb.

Plan your route: Look at the route to understand the holds and visualise how you are going to tackle them. You should look for a clear path from start to finish.

Break it down: Break the route down into sections and identify any difficult points in the route (known as the “crux”) where you are likely to struggle. Here you can plan for these parts individually.

Don't rush it: Focus on precise and controlled movements. Moving too quickly through a problem can cause errors.

Take a rest: Not resting between attempts will likely cause fatigue and poorer performance. Take a step back, allow your body to recover and re-analyse how you’re going to tackle the problem.

Common Mistakes for Beginners

Skipping the warm-up: Not warming up is likely to result in injury, so make sure you spend 10 minutes warming up before each session.

Overusing your arms: Relying heavily on your arms will lead to exhaustion very quickly. Think about using the rest of your body to distribute your weight evenly, and reduce strain on your arms.

Ignoring footwork: Utilising good footwork is one of the best ways to ensure progression. Good foot placement can make a climb feel much easier.

Advancing too fast: A lot of beginners attempt to move through the difficulty scale too fast, but it’s much better to practice on easier routes to train your technique and strength.

How to Progress

Like with anything else, the longer you spend practicing, the better you are likely to become. Here are some tips that can help to supplement this along your journey:

Speak to and watch other climbers: Observing and speaking to other climbers will give you an insight into how they tackle their climbs, to give you inspiration for yours. Plus, they may even give you some tips!

Work on your weaknesses: If you notice you struggle with slopers, then train them. It’s likely some of the easier routes will utilise the hold you are having difficulty with, so go back a few steps and train your technique, which will gradually help you to build the capacity to tackle the holds you’ve been having problems with.

Cross-train: Training in the climbing gym which is focused on improving climbing strength will help you perform better on the wall.

There you have it—that’s everything you need to get started and enjoy your climbing journey! It can feel overwhelming at first, but climbing is one of the most rewarding sports once you start to see your progression.

If you’re new to climbing, we highly recommend trying indoor climbing first. It’s a safe and controlled environment to learn the basics and build your confidence. When you’re ready to head outdoors, always go with someone experienced, especially if you’re a beginner. Safety first ensures every climb is a fun and memorable one!

Take your time, enjoy the process, and most importantly—have fun climbing!