If you’re stuck at V4 (around 6B/6B+ on the Font scale), it’s rarely because you’re weak in general. V5 asks for three things that V4 lets you get away without: feet that stay on when the wall gets steep, fingers that hold smaller edges, and the ability to commit to moves you aren’t sure of. Usually one of those is lagging well behind the others, and the fix depends on which one.
Why V4 is where so many climbers stall
Up to about V3, you can climb most problems by pulling. The holds are positive, the walls are mostly vertical, and a strong pull covers for loose feet. Around V4, setters start asking for specific movement: a heel hook that has to take weight, a drop knee to get your hip in, a toe hook to stop your feet swinging off on the steep wall. Holds get smaller and further apart at the same time.
So the jump from V4 to V5 isn’t one more unit of the same thing. It’s a different test. That’s why climbing more of what you already do stops working here: you’re getting better at V4s, which isn’t the same as getting closer to V5.
One honest caveat before you start: gym grades vary. A V4 at one wall can feel like a V5 at another, and a single soft or stiff problem tells you little. Judge your level by the problems you can’t do across a few sessions, not by one tick.
The three gaps
1. Feet on steep ground
The most common V4 ceiling. On vertical walls you’re fine. On anything overhanging, your feet cut, your hips sag away from the wall, and you end up campusing moves that shouldn’t need it.
You probably have this gap if:
- your feet come off before your hands do on steep problems;
- you rarely use heel or toe hooks unless the beta video does;
- you can do the moves on a steep problem individually, but not linked.
Closing it is skill work, not strength work. Take steep problems two grades below your max and climb them with one rule: your feet don’t cut unless the move needs it. When they do cut, get them back on the wall straight away. Add a heel or toe hook wherever one would work, even when you don’t need it, so the movement stops feeling unfamiliar. Pull your hips into the wall with the hooked foot instead of just resting it there.
2. Fingers on smaller holds
Some climbers can read and move well but simply can’t hold the crimps on V5s. The holds on their project feel fine to pull on statically and impossible to catch or move off.
You probably have this gap if:
- you fall off small holds while your body position looks right;
- you can do every move on a crimpy V5 except the ones on the smallest edges;
- you climb well on slopers and pinches but avoid crimp-heavy problems.
Finger strength does matter for bouldering. In a 2025 study of 19 male climbers, finger strength measured by hanging from a 22 mm edge was the factor most strongly linked to bouldering grade, more than grip strength or pull-ups. But that’s a small group, and a link between strength and grade doesn’t mean strength training alone moves your grade. In a randomised trial with 31 advanced boulderers, five weeks of extra finger training made fingers stronger but didn’t improve bouldering performance. The authors point out that technique, shoulder strength and flexibility also decide what you can climb.
So treat fingers as one gap to close, not a shortcut past the other two. And go carefully: tendons adapt more slowly than muscle. If you’re still in your first year of climbing, skip the hangboard and let climbing do the finger work. If you’re past that, a finger-strength plan you can do on the gym wall is the gentlest place to start: short, sub-maximal holds, at the start of a session, with plenty of rest. Sharp pain in a finger means stop, and pain that’s still there the next day means see a physiotherapist before you climb on it.
3. Trying hard
The gap nobody films. You have the moves and the strength, but you climb V5s like you’re trying not to fall: you hesitate before the hard move, half-commit to the jump, and drop off at the crux without really pulling.
You probably have this gap if:
- you get to the crux of a problem fresh, then let go rather than fall off;
- you rarely try a move more than a couple of times before moving on;
- dynamic moves feel scary rather than just hard.
The fix is practice at committing. Pick a problem with one hard move. Rest properly between goes, two to three minutes. Then give the move everything: decide the sequence on the ground, and on the wall, go for it fully even if you think you’ll miss. A full-effort miss tells you what to change. A half attempt tells you nothing. Committing is a habit like any other: the more full-effort attempts you’ve made, the more normal the next one feels.
Find your gap: the V4 audit
Guessing is how people spend six months training the wrong thing. Over your next two or three sessions, try five problems at V5, or the hardest V4s you haven’t done. Spread them across styles: at least one steep, one crimpy, one with a dynamic move. Each time you fall, note one word for why.
| What happened when you fell | What it points to | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
| Feet cut, hips swung out, couldn’t hold the swing | Feet on steep ground | Steep problems two grades down, feet stay on, add hooks |
| Body was in the right place, hand still came off a small hold | Fingers | Gym-wall finger work at the start of two sessions a week |
| Reached the move and let go, or didn’t fully go for it | Trying hard | One-move problems, full-effort attempts, proper rest |
| Didn’t know what to do, ran out of ideas | Reading and movement | Watch others, try three different sequences before giving up |
| Fine on the first try, terrible by the fourth | Tiredness, not a gap | Try hard problems earlier in the session, rest longer |
After 15–20 falls, one row usually stands out. That’s your gap. If two rows are close, start with the skill one (feet or trying hard). Skill changes tend to show sooner; finger strength builds over months.
A four-week block for the gap you found
Keep your normal climbing and add one focused block per session at the start, while you’re fresh. Warm up properly first: 10–15 minutes of easy climbing, then a few progressively harder problems.
- Weeks 1–3: two sessions a week start with 20–30 minutes on your gap. If it’s fingers, follow the doses in the finger plan rather than making them up. Then climb as normal, finishing a bit earlier than usual.
- Week 4: go easier. Shorter sessions, no extra gap work, then redo the audit problems at the end of the week.
Expect one or two audit problems to go, not a jump to V5 across the board. A problem that felt impossible becoming possible is a real result. If nothing moves after the block, run the audit again: the gap may have been a different one, or a broader plateau about routine rather than one missing skill.
What not to do
- Don’t add campus boarding to get past V4. At this level the gap is rarely power that a campus board would fix, and it loads fingers very hard.
- Don’t only climb your style. If every V4 you’ve ticked is a vertical crimp problem, V5 will find the steep wall for you.
- Don’t trust one session. A bad day isn’t a plateau. Judge over weeks.
If you’re newer and V4 has come quickly, you may not be stuck at all: what matters in your first year is still mostly volume and variety. And if you’d rather not track falls in your notes app, Mantle builds your training week by week from what you log, with retests, so you can see whether the gap is actually closing.