Hand Size Vs. Ability Close A Gripper

[Magnus]

This is just something I've been throwing around in my head. May sound stupid, but it kinda makes sense if you think about it: I think that there may be a "perfect" size hand for using grippers. Think about it; small hands make it hard to set, especially TNS, makes the CCS a disadvantage, and also makes it harder to do thinks like RT, blob lifting, etc. But, I think having large hands can also be a disadvantage considering that the hard part of the sweep in the gripper is larger than someone with smaller hands, therefore making the a gripper close with large hands more like closing a filed gripper with small hands. I have somewhat large hands (8in), and I know I could close my grippers more easily if the were slightly shorter, decreasing the distance I had to touch the handles. Also, larger hands close the gripper with the 2nd knuckle, whereas shorter handles use more of the 1st, making it harder for big hands to click the handles because the fingers are kind of "running out of room". So, I think the perfect hand size is about 7.25-7.5in. Not that it makes any difference, considering that we can't change our hand size, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

Edited May 20, 2008 by Magnus

[lifesnotfair]

Just food for thought:

Check the Mash Monster Ladder, specially levels 3 and up.... who do you see?

Vigeant, Larson, Sexton, Morton, Edgin, Woodall, Bussi, Aaron and Teemu. Out of these 9 people, unless I am mistaken, only Teemu has hands under 8" in length. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[OldGuy]

I agree with Magnus. I have long believed there was an ideal handsize for closing grippers. I also think that the larger the thumb pad the better. I have huge hands, but small thumb pads. Not a good combination, but I have been able to close a #3 no set.

Edited May 20, 2008 by OldGuy

[Magnus]

I agree with Arturo. I have long believed there was an ideal handsize for closing grippers. I also think that the larger the thumb pad the better. I have huge hands, but small thumb pads. Not a good combination, but I have been able to close a #3 no set.

I agree, the bigger thumb-pad gives a much stronger set.

[Koura]

Yep, Teemu has small hands that are well under 8". I think i can say that they are little more than 7". Still those can do strange things..

[ewokhugo]

Temmu's hands are about 7 1/2 :-)

i guess i have perfect hands size! about 7.3:-)

never thought about it but its a very interesting theory:-)

[jad]

Rob Vigeant has some of the largest hands out there and he seems to do just fine with a MMS so at a certain point maybe your hands could be too big for the gripper but you're talking Mark Felix hands. You could always not set it as deep if you feel your "sweetspot" is outside of parallel. IMO, the bigger the better with ideal being a short, narrow palm, long fingers, and a huge thumbpad.

The MMS set is about as fair as it's gonna get. The MM process might favor the large handed guys a little more because you have to show your set and if parallel takes less energy for a large handed guy due to the leverage then there you go. The same could be said of the 20MM block process. However regarding the MM certs, this really isn't an issue because most guys, large handed or not, seem to throw caution to the wind and hope the pause button favors them when it comes judging time.

[OldGuy]

If your hand is very large, setting a gripper serves no purpose as the gripper already fits without the partial initial close using assistance from the other hand. I myself can gain nothing from using a set. Vigeant has both huge hands and thumb pads.

[The Natural]

Closing a gripper of strength X is far more impressive when you are not using your other hand to help close it. So I would say the bigger the hand, the better, as it allows one to use a wider set. As far as I know, noobdy has ever closed a #4 or thereabouts with a TNS, but the person who does it will most certainly have very large hands. In other words, the greatest gripper feats possible are suited to those with very large hands.

Edited May 20, 2008 by The Natural

[Magnus]

Just to clarify, I'm not saying small hands are good. I'm just saying that there is an "ideal" size.

[lukeamdman]

Hmmm, I'm not convinced either way. One thing I do know is that there is one guy in my office at work who closed my easy 250 without any training at all, and his hands are 8.25". He's the only guy so far I've seen close a 250 without any grip training or weight lifting.

[acorn]

Size doesnt matter so much. Stop worrying about it and get to work.

- Aaron

[Koura]

Size doesnt matter so much. Stop worrying about it and get to work.

- Aaron

That's the thing.

[wscorpion]

Yet another hand size topic

Well, I probably have one of the smallest hands on the board with barely 7".

At this moment I can:

TNS a #2

CCS the #2.5

MMS the #3

I'm not sure about the advantage / disadvantage though. For the larger hand it might be more difficult to get the final close, but for the smaller hand it's more difficult to set the gripper. Of course CCS and TNS are definitely more difficult with smaller hands.

However, this doesn't change the fact that I will eventually CCS the #3 and perhaps even TNS close it.

It might take longer, but it's not impossible

Pinching, that's a different story.

I have the feeling that on a 54mm block for the 2HP smaller hands might even be more of an advantage then a disadvantage.

The same goes for hub lifting and other smaller pinch objects.

The blob, definitely harder for me. I will never be able to lift the blob 50 by it's face simply because my hands don't fit, I can't even reach the corners of the blob when I lay my hand on it

In most grip events larger hands will have the advantage (blob, 2" bars, inch dumbbell, etc) but smaller hands can have their advantage as well.

So to get back to the original statement. There might be an ideal handsize for grippers, but that doesn't mean it's ideal for the other grip events as well

Perhaps in the future ways will exist to increase the hand size, but for now, we'll just have to live with it

Edited May 20, 2008 by White Scorpion

[CoC#3]

I agree with Oldguy on this isue. My hands are about 8'' and my thumbpads fairly large. I need at least a 20mm set to get maximum leverage.

[bencrush]

Mine is 7 and 7/8" and due to a longer than normal thumb I feel it's about the "perfect" size for TNS and CCS on grippers around 2.75". 3" I can do but it's not as comfortable.

[Magnus]

Hmmm, I'm not convinced either way. One thing I do know is that there is one guy in my office at work who closed my easy 250 without any training at all, and his hands are 8.25". He's the only guy so far I've seen close a 250 without any grip training or weight lifting.

My dad can no-set close my hard 250 no problem, and I'm pretty sure he can probably get my 3.08 300 to a few mm's, but he never messes with them much. He's got a very strong grip, but he never trains or anything, just genetically strong and has huge forearms. My bro-in-law can also get the 250 pretty close no-set, and I'm sure he could close it with a deeper set. He also doesn't train grip but is very strong and has huge forearms.

Edited May 20, 2008 by Magnus

[rolf]

My hands are pretty much exactly 20 cm (8").

You guys seem to be forgetting one important factor. Hand size is made of palm size and middle finger length. I, for one, have large-ish palms but short fingers: Of the 20 cm, only 8.2 cm (3-3/8") is middle finger length, leaving 11.8 cm (4-5/8") for the palm.

[Alawadhi]

Just food for thought:

Check the Mash Monster Ladder, specially levels 3 and up.... who do you see?

Vigeant, Larson, Sexton, Morton, Edgin, Woodall, Bussi, Aaron and Teemu. Out of these 9 people, unless I am mistaken, only Teemu has hands under 8" in length. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?autocom...=si&img=277

[kinselbj]

Another noobie question, but how do yo measure your hands? Is it from the fingertip of you longest finger to the base of your wrist?

[DAN PRAYDIS]

Just food for thought:

Check the Mash Monster Ladder, specially levels 3 and up.... who do you see?

Vigeant, Larson, Sexton, Morton, Edgin, Woodall, Bussi, Aaron and Teemu. Out of these 9 people, unless I am mistaken, only Teemu has hands under 8" in length. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

where does tommy fit in here gripper42004 what size is his hands he closed two no.3 at once

[lifesnotfair]

Dan: I was just speaking of the MM ladder, not people who've done great things with grippers

Thanks for the picture of Edgin's hand, they seem to be less than 8" indeed!

[OldGuy]

Yet another hand size topic

Well, I probably have one of the smallest hands on the board with barely 7".

At this moment I can:

TNS a #2

CCS the #2.5

MMS the #3

I'm not sure about the advantage / disadvantage though. For the larger hand it might be more difficult to get the final close, but for the smaller hand it's more difficult to set the gripper. Of course CCS and TNS are definitely more difficult with smaller hands.

However, this doesn't change the fact that I will eventually CCS the #3 and perhaps even TNS close it.

It might take longer, but it's not impossible

Pinching, that's a different story.

I have the feeling that on a 54mm block for the 2HP smaller hands might even be more of an advantage then a disadvantage.

The same goes for hub lifting and other smaller pinch objects.

The blob, definitely harder for me. I will never be able to lift the blob 50 by it's face simply because my hands don't fit, I can't even reach the corners of the blob when I lay my hand on it

In most grip events larger hands will have the advantage (blob, 2" bars, inch dumbbell, etc) but smaller hands can have their advantage as well.

So to get back to the original statement. There might be an ideal handsize for grippers, but that doesn't mean it's ideal for the other grip events as well

Perhaps in the future ways will exist to increase the hand size, but for now, we'll just have to live with it

Very good post!

[naturalstrength]

"Big hands I know you're the one"(to help me close big grippers, or not!)

-Violent Femmes

[Magnus]

Another noobie question, but how do yo measure your hands? Is it from the fingertip of you longest finger to the base of your wrist?

Bottom of palm to tip of middle finger.