tennis ball (not for squeezing)

[Guest baldy]

Has anyone on here ever ripped a tennis ball apart? John Brookfield mentioned it in MOHS (my copy is with a friend, can't look it up to cite page) as a legitimate, albeit very hard, feat of extreme hand strength.

[Roark]

Baldy,

Super Athletes page 214:

"One of Vansittart's unique feats was to tear

a new tennis ball in half.Sometimes he would

vary this by simply gripping the ball so hard

that it burst!"

His feat is also mentioned in Strength & Health April

1955 p 42 and Muscular Development August 1971

p 49. I'll look these up later for you and get back.

Am in a rush now.

Joe

[Fuel Crusher]

Brookfield tested this 'bursting a tennis ball' by crushing one totally flat in a vice. When he released the vice the ball sprang back into shape. So bursting today's tennis balls with the hands is probably a grip myth.

Older tennis balls were probably different, and burstable.

[Guest woody36]

If you look at the bottom of the page "Franz Bienkowski"

is credited with bursting a tennis ball.

http://www.sandow.plus.com/Competition/Mighty%20Men/mm4.htm

Maybe Joe could shed some light?

[Guest Askalas]

Ripping a tennis ball in half is a feat that I REALLY want to be able to do.  I haven't attempted it and I will probably start to train for it after I reach a few other grip goals, like closing the #3.  I suspect you need a really strong key grip type hold on the tennis ball in order to start the tear.  Has anybody seen this done or know the technique involved?

[blueshadow]

I agree with FuelCrusher on this one, I have seen a new tennis ball run over by a Dodge Ram P/U 4x4 and still bounce back!  No doubt they are better made than in the past! As for some of the old time strongmen, I wonder if some of those balls were some how weakened, eg; by heating, freezing, etc, the only way I would believe such a feat would be if one of our own supermen claimed it!! Just my thoughts!

                                   JJ

[Fuel Crusher]

I doubt any of the legitimate old time strongmen weakened their tennis balls, they were probably made of a weaker material.

[Roark]

Looked up the other two refs, and nothing new to add.

One says Vansittart [Vansart] could squeeze tennis

balls until they (it?) burst; the other says he could

tear them apart, which to me is a greater feat.

Blueshadow, Fuel Crusher, you must be correct, the tennis balls of

today are probably very unlike those in Vansart's time,

in much the same way that metals have improved, so

it is difficult to access the meaning.

Anyway, it must have been a stupendous feat even

for his day because so few included it in performances.

It seems unlikely that today's tennis balls are prone to

bursting as were, apparently, the older ones.

And, was there a difference between those in England

and here in the states?

Vansart 1, tennis ball, Love.

[Guest baldy]

Joe & Woody, thanks for the references.  Brookfield did regard crushing one now as a fraud, however he did say tearing one apart is possible.  He said something about the hard part being to get a puncture to insert fingers into.  You would have to have extreme finger strength to jam one through the surface of a tennis ball.  I still don't know how easy it would be after that, though.

He made it sound like it is one of the most demanding feats of hand strength possible.  I do not recall him saying he has done it, but that is one of the beautiful things about John Brookfield:  He doesn't look for opportunities to toot his own horn.  All through MOHS he commends other strongmen on their feats of strength without saying that he could do the same thing in his sleep (though I am confident he could).

Of course, when you are the baddest dude in the valley you don't have to let others know.  They already do.