Tips Tester Hand Positioning

[bencrush]

I have had my Chris Rice Tips Tester since late December of 2016.  I love the design of it and am flabbergasted that it hasn't been featured in a plethora of contests since its invention.  I also happen to be really, really weak on this lift.  Which doesn't always make me a fan of a particular griplement.  But in the TT's case, it reminds me of when I first got a 1" vbar and had to claw my way up to respectable poundage...on my slow climb to 400+.  I don't see any top 10 performances on the TT in my future.  But that doesn't deter me from wanting to be a good study of the implement and work my way to respectable in the future on this device. 

I have done 4 workouts with the TT.  The first 3 workouts I gripped it exactly in the center.  I centered my knuckles on either side of the center of the handle when I performed the lift.  The most I lifted in that style was 127lbs. 

On my 4th workout, I copied the style that I saw one of the top 3 (on the Barrel Strength leaderboard) guys using - the offset hand positioning as seen in the photo below.

This gave me an instant 11 pound increase in the amount I was able to lift.  Not surprising really, since it essentially made it feel like a tilted fingertip vbar lift. 

I assume this hand placement is within contest rules since I've seen it on at least one high level cert. 

Am I missing something by not training with my hand perfectly centered? 

How offset of a grip is allowed within the rules?  What if I had my pinky flush with the edge of the implement.  Would that still be legal?  I haven't tried it that way, but I assume that because the tilt would be more extreme than the slightly offset grip that I would be able to lift more weight that way too. 

I am still limited by fingertip strength when I grip it offset like in the picture above.  But it does have a slightly different feel to it than when my hand is centered.  When my hand is centered it feels more like a fingertip pinch test.  When it is offset it feels more like a fingertip vbar test.