Thick Bar Event Balancing Out Hand Sizes

[tja]

Jad made this comment in another thread: "Judging a PRO strongman competitor's grip by whether or not he can close a #3 is silly but so is judging someone with 9" hands grip ability by how well they do on thickbar and wide pinch." Given it and the Euro pinch setup, I came to think about variable thickness thick bar handle for competitions.

Has it been tried out in any contest? Each contestant would get a handle where he can wrap his hands around to fingers being, e.g., 1-2cm from touching? Shouldn't be hard to implement, selection of pipes sliding on top of each other or something.

[mobsterone]

1) No

2) Search for the 'fair bar' idea by Joe Roark

3) having to add yet more means of 'fairness' by using different size handles makes a 7 hour competition into a 9 hour one

4) The 'fair bar' idea falls on its arse each and every time you do an all round competition because in 'all round' small, medium and large hands all get a balanced fair share.

5) Some suggestions need removing not adding. So if medleys only suit large handed guys take em out. Do not set up different medleys.

6) Ditto the thread you referred to. Some ideas, in isolation, seem a little hard to work. So the argument there about timed medleys not being completely fair may hold a little water but unless a all round competition is nothing but medleys it's not quite the issue it seems to be.

[tja]

Thank you for pointing out the other thread.

[Bob Lipinski]

As one of the "small hand whiners" my best answer for this is that life is not always fair. I can live with thick bar events, just don't take the damn set away from me!

[mobsterone]

I can agree with that.

[burkhardmacht]

As one of the "small hand whiners" my best answer for this is that life is not always fair. I can live with thick bar events, just don't take the damn set away from me!

#

OK, then let's do 2Handpinch always on 54mm for everybody!

Good idea Joonas - had the same idea and it was declared null and void - ignorant if You ask me. I don't understand why we use a 2HP setup which is adjustable for different handsizes while refusing to think about the idea of different fatbar sizes. It would make competition more fair. Would be logical IMO to transfer the same principles on the fatbar events. The opposite thing would be to do 2HP with the same width for everybody. Both solutions are good.

Don't think I'm complaining - fatbar is my favorite grip discipline.

[Number Ten Ox]

I'm not completely opposed to this idea but I could see it getting taken too far. Next do we have parrallel set grippers with the distance between the handles being adjusted to hand sizes since the sweet spot is larger for large handed folks?

[lifesnotfair]

I'm not completely opposed to this idea but I could see it getting taken too far. Next do we have parrallel set grippers with the distance between the handles being adjusted to hand sizes since the sweet spot is larger for large handed folks?

What is wrong with that? It would make perfect sense to me. If they use the blocks like they do in British comps, it could be like, 30mm for large handed and 20mm for small handed, or whatever is decided after a thoughtful study. Like it was mentioned, the Pinch apparatus is fair to all, why not try to make it fair on other events? I reckon making it fair on grippers is easier that thickbar! Just use different size of blocks, or different widths of "credit card"..

[mobsterone]

20mm is fair. Like I said lets not become the anal freaks of the lifting world eh?

[The Mac]

Plus there is the consideration that the pinch is adjustable to let everyone lift as much weight as possible.

I'm guessing that most will lift the heaviest weights on a bar that is more or less the size of a standard bar - hardly what we would consider a "Fat Bar" event.

For gripper, their would be no way to determine what a "fair" distance was. Everyone would be using 1mm spacers to close the heaviest grippers.

[tja]

Cheers Burkhard, I'm liking fatbar alot, too. The only problem I have with it is that I'm (still) too weak But I'm working on it!

Fatbar is a measure of open-hand strength. One guy has hands that he can hook around a 2" bar, the other has his fingers 1/2" from touching. Not a fair comparison of open-hand strength between the two.

Also, I don't think the duration of a competition should be an issue. Pick the FBBC rolling handles that come in 2, 2.5 and 3 inches in diameter. If your fingers reach around, go to next size. Doesn't take any extra time.

As far as grippers go, I haven't heard anyone complaining about ~parallel sets vs. hand size. I don't know any events that favor small hands over large hands. So I don't think another event balancing out the advantages would something that can be considered as taking things to extremes. Boxing has weight classes, etc.

[unequipped]

friends,

dont forget.

the fatbars comes from the history around 100 years ago (louis "apollon" uni, thomas inch).

when i touch an apollons axle, or an inch-loader i am thinking about these great athletes, and i feel like a part of strengthhistory - and i have not large, strong hands.

you can not change these bar-diameters.

Edited December 14, 2007 by unequipped

[mobsterone]

Cheers Burkhard, I'm liking fatbar alot, too. The only problem I have with it is that I'm (still) too weak But I'm working on it!

Fatbar is a measure of open-hand strength. One guy has hands that he can hook around a 2" bar, the other has his fingers 1/2" from touching. Not a fair comparison of open-hand strength between the two.

Also, I don't think the duration of a competition should be an issue. Pick the FBBC rolling handles that come in 2, 2.5 and 3 inches in diameter. If your fingers reach around, go to next size. Doesn't take any extra time.

As far as grippers go, I haven't heard anyone complaining about ~parallel sets vs. hand size. I don't know any events that favor small hands over large hands. So I don't think another event balancing out the advantages would something that can be considered as taking things to extremes. Boxing has weight classes, etc.

1) The whole point of setting grippers is to get them to a place where they become easy to close - ie: the strongest position.

2) If we accept any validity to the hand size argument then allowing a 20mm set evens the playing field out completely. In other words the smallest handed person is no longer at a disadvantage.

3) As per unequipped's comment thick bar sizes are pretty much any bar thicker than normal and most agree that 2" and up is bigger / thicker. A thick bar is a test in and off itself and so it should remain as is. We don't see Ironmind moving the handle size on Rolling Thunder to suit.

4) There are events where smaller hands help just as there are events where larger hands also do.

As for time... small hand and large hand medleys, differing widths on 2 hand pinch and now a suggestion for different size thick bars... And that's just three events.