How Many Grippsters Are There?

[Grippster]

I was just thinking the other day, the grip board (which is pretty much the biggest grip strength community) has just over 11,000 members. Many of these members do not train grip anymore, or do so rather casually. So that leaves really a small group that is really serious about building hand and forearm strength. It makes me wonder about the other 6 billion people in the world. How many people who have serious natural strength are we missing out on? People are constantly debating the human potential, for example the topic that has been hot recently is the one about whether or not anyone will certify on the #4. I'd say it's narrow minded to think that our little niche community contains the strongest of humans. MANY strong men don't even know what COC grippers are. But I do wonder how many people actually train grip seriously. Opinions, thoughts, maybe some facts anyone?

[Pancake Sprawl]

this is the same debate for any sport. like in boxing, there is some guy out there who is a barber, or a dessert chef or something that has the "potential" to destroy the Klitschko's. the difference between them and the average joe is that they are actually proving themselves. there is somebody out there that can beat Fedor, but maybe he's not interested in fighting. the same as me, a lot of people pushed me to play football because i'm big, and they kept saying you can go to college just with your size alone and blah blah blah, but i'm not interested in football, could i have been a college football player? maybe ...could i have played nfl? maybe ...but nobody knows for sure, and for myself i'm ok with that, football is just not my thing.

i guess what i'm trying to say is, you can have all the potential in the world, but without effort it means absolutely nothing.

[meelhama]

I was just thinking the other day, the grip board (which is pretty much the biggest grip strength community) has just over 11,000 members. Many of these members do not train grip anymore, or do so rather casually. So that leaves really a small group that is really serious about building hand and forearm strength. It makes me wonder about the other 6 billion people in the world. How many people who have serious natural strength are we missing out on? People are constantly debating the human potential, for example the topic that has been hot recently is the one about whether or not anyone will certify on the #4. I'd say it's narrow minded to think that our little niche community contains the strongest of humans. MANY strong men don't even know what COC grippers are. But I do wonder how many people actually train grip seriously. Opinions, thoughts, maybe some facts anyone?

We have a niche that, by another name, is loved by many people. Just think of how many manual laborers have little grip challanges without any knowledge of gripboard or grippers. There must be thousands of FOS of which we have never heard. Just like lifting an anvil by the horn, many challanges invovle what is familiar to strong men wherever they may be. They may practice it, train for it, but do not call it a sport.

[shizen]

I guarantee the strongest weightlifter, grip athlete, w/e has never even tried the sport. Thats just the nature of how it is.

But its rather pointless, the 'best' are not always the ones with the best potential but the ones that train the hardest and smartest who end up at top. Many examples of this in every sport.

[climber511]

One of the lines I liked on the old TV show West Wing was "the world is run by those that show up". The essence of any sport is to show up - being the strongest guy in your gym means very little unless you prove it on the platform , court, or playing field at some point. People still argue all the time about some of Paul Anderson's gym and exhibition lifts - but his competition lifts - everyone believes because they can be proven. At any given contest, the strongest guy may not be there, or may not win if he is there. The essence of competition is the best person, at this place, and at this time. Is there some pig farmer in Iowa that has a better grip than Chad? Who knows? And if he doesn't show up - no one will ever know either.

[matthcarl]

Whatever. I'm just here to have fun

[Grippster]

I just noticed that we tend to rate feats of grip strength based on what our strongest members can do. I'm definitely not taking anything away from the guys at the top on this board, but I found it intriguing to think about how many people DO have the potential and never tried or did any official lifts/closes. I totally agree with the saying "the world is run by those that show up" but I find it helps me stay open minded when I consider the size of our board compared to the world. I think this is a good reason to never give up and continue training through those rough times when you haven't made progress for a month, because no one really knows the limits of their bodies.

p.s. I totally agree with you writer, aren't we all enjoying grip training ?

Edited March 5, 2009 by Grippster

[abagh89]

I just noticed that we tend to rate feats of grip strength based on what our strongest members can do. I'm definitely not taking anything away from the guys at the top on this board, but I found it intriguing to think about how many people DO have the potential and never tried or did any official lifts/closes. I totally agree with the saying "the world is run by those that show up" but I find it helps me stay open minded when I consider the size of our board compared to the world. I think this is a good reason to never give up and continue training through those rough times when you haven't made progress for a month, because no one really knows the limits of their bodies.

p.s. I totally agree with you writer, aren't we all enjoying grip training ?

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3. how do you know who has the potential and who doesnt? i couldnt get the trainer to parallel when i first got my coc gripper set, my gripper workouts are only once or twice a week for a couple minutes, a warm up and 1 negative and im done, and now a year later im at a 2.5 and im just a guy with below average strength. I have a friend who couldnt close the trainer as well and just by coming over once a couple weeks and playing around with it is close to closing a 3. point is i thought i was doing ok in grip but when more people try, the bar gets raised and thats the same with any sport.my gripper close then doesnt look that great. When ANY sport grows the bar gets raised. its really silly to think that out of the 11,000 members here we represent the strongest in grip, i dont think anyone thinks that..

Since this is all hypothetical lets say everyone trained grip, idk why but lets say it became this huge world sport bigger then football, baseball etc. you will find a number 3 close will be below average-average level of strength, if you dont think so your delusional. in your origional thread your comparing the gripboard to the whole world with 6 BILLION PEOPLE. i dont know if anyone can grasp that number, we wouldnt represent even the top 20 percent strongest of grip. Any sport grows with competition, thats how records get broken, so by simple reasoning the more people who train grip the more likely that a record would fall.. you mention many strongmen dont know COCs. Why does it have to be strongmen? average old folks have the potential easily...some of the number 3 closers on this board in threads said they arent top athletes just average guys, and they closed a 3 with a couple months training even less, so i dont see any reason to think that any average healthy person couldnt do the same with some training.. You just cant compare the two..

Just to put things into perspective if you think your a 1 in a MILLION athlete that would mean in the world there are 6000 people just like you.

[The Natural]

Allow the esteemed Mr. Johnson to clarify the topic of talent pools...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9b8p610fBA

(skip to 4:15)

-Rex

[Grippster]

I just noticed that we tend to rate feats of grip strength based on what our strongest members can do. I'm definitely not taking anything away from the guys at the top on this board, but I found it intriguing to think about how many people DO have the potential and never tried or did any official lifts/closes. I totally agree with the saying "the world is run by those that show up" but I find it helps me stay open minded when I consider the size of our board compared to the world. I think this is a good reason to never give up and continue training through those rough times when you haven't made progress for a month, because no one really knows the limits of their bodies.

p.s. I totally agree with you writer, aren't we all enjoying grip training ?

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3. how do you know who has the potential and who doesnt? i couldnt get the trainer to parallel when i first got my coc gripper set, my gripper workouts are only once or twice a week for a couple minutes, a warm up and 1 negative and im done, and now a year later im at a 2.5 and im just a guy with below average strength. I have a friend who couldnt close the trainer as well and just by coming over once a couple weeks and playing around with it is close to closing a 3. point is i thought i was doing ok in grip but when more people try, the bar gets raised and thats the same with any sport.my gripper close then doesnt look that great. When ANY sport grows the bar gets raised. its really silly to think that out of the 11,000 members here we represent the strongest in grip, i dont think anyone thinks that..

Since this is all hypothetical lets say everyone trained grip, idk why but lets say it became this huge world sport bigger then football, baseball etc. you will find a number 3 close will be below average-average level of strength, if you dont think so your delusional. in your origional thread your comparing the gripboard to the whole world with 6 BILLION PEOPLE. i dont know if anyone can grasp that number, we wouldnt represent even the top 20 percent strongest of grip. Any sport grows with competition, thats how records get broken, so by simple reasoning the more people who train grip the more likely that a record would fall.. you mention many strongmen dont know COCs. Why does it have to be strongmen? average old folks have the potential easily...some of the number 3 closers on this board in threads said they arent top athletes just average guys, and they closed a 3 with a couple months training even less, so i dont see any reason to think that any average healthy person couldnt do the same with some training.. You just cant compare the two..

Just to put things into perspective if you think your a 1 in a MILLION athlete that would mean in the world there are 6000 people just like you.

No I didn't mean strong men as in an actual "strongman" I just meant average people who are naturally strong. Of course lots of "strongmen" know about Captains of Crush.

[Hubgeezer]

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3...

Since this is all hypothetical lets say everyone trained grip, idk why but lets say it became this huge world sport bigger then football, baseball etc. you will find a number 3 close will be below average-average level of strength, if you dont think so your delusional. in your origional thread your comparing the gripboard to the whole world with 6 BILLION PEOPLE. i dont know if anyone can grasp that number, we wouldnt represent even the top 20 percent strongest of grip...

Just to put things into perspective if you think your a 1 in a MILLION athlete that would mean in the world there are 6000 people just like you.

500 million out of 6 billion could close a 3 the first try? Okay, let's make 3 billion of them women. Then 500 million out of 3 billion men would close a 3 the first time? Taking out the children, the elderly, and the disabled, 500 million out 2 billion men could close a 3 the first time? Any healthy adult man would have a one in four chance of closing a 3 the first time? The conclusion from that would be that Ronnie Coleman and Bill Kazmaier, neither of whom were able to close a 3 on their first try (or any try) are not in the top quartile of the general population when it comes to strength.

Sounds reasonable, nothing delusional at all about that to me.

[Grippster]

Ronnie Coleman couldn't close the #3? lmao for a guy that's jacked like he is that's damn embarrassing. That means his grip isn't much stronger than mine when I was doing really good with the grippers.

[Magnus]

Ronnie Coleman couldn't close the #3? lmao for a guy that's jacked like he is that's damn embarrassing. That means his grip isn't much stronger than mine when I was doing really good with the grippers.

No way, not the case. Ronnie has an incredible grip. Here's what happened: Randy handed Ronnie a very stout #3. Using absolutely NO set (of coarse, because he didn't even know how to set a gripper), he clamped it down to around 1/8-1/16. Not at all embarrassing.

But, what is embarrassing is that Kovacs couldn't close a #2

Edited March 6, 2009 by Magnus

[MatterOverMind]

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3.

You're saying that 1 in 12 people might be able to close a #3 on the first try and that 1 in 6 people could do it with a couple months training?

That's absurd.

[twig]

Maybe he means an English Billion, which is 6,000,000,000,000 unlike the American Billion which is only 9 0's ... but thet the Earth would be REALLY crowded!

[abagh89]

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3...

Since this is all hypothetical lets say everyone trained grip, idk why but lets say it became this huge world sport bigger then football, baseball etc. you will find a number 3 close will be below average-average level of strength, if you dont think so your delusional. in your origional thread your comparing the gripboard to the whole world with 6 BILLION PEOPLE. i dont know if anyone can grasp that number, we wouldnt represent even the top 20 percent strongest of grip...

Just to put things into perspective if you think your a 1 in a MILLION athlete that would mean in the world there are 6000 people just like you.

500 million out of 6 billion could close a 3 the first try? Okay, let's make 3 billion of them women. Then 500 million out of 3 billion men would close a 3 the first time? Taking out the children, the elderly, and the disabled, 500 million out 2 billion men could close a 3 the first time? Any healthy adult man would have a one in four chance of closing a 3 the first time? The conclusion from that would be that Ronnie Coleman and Bill Kazmaier, neither of whom were able to close a 3 on their first try (or any try) are not in the top quartile of the general population when it comes to strength.

Sounds reasonable, nothing delusional at all about that to me.

why dont you give me a figure then?

you know what, i wont hurt your ego, your right dude, your the top 1 percent of the world when it comes to hand strength, and 500 million out of 6 billion is delusional i dont know what i was thinking. IT seems i hurt some feelings when i said other people with some training could close a 3 ( i guess you think you are superman or gods gift to earth in terms of strength)

the more accurate number according to you would be 400 people right? give me a figure then since im so wrong...

But guess what pal? no one will know the answer its all just a guess...

and what in the world does ronnie coleman or bill kazmaier have to do with anything? DO they TRAIN grippers? read my post dude.. i said with a couple months training a healthy male would be able, im sure if bill or ronnie gave grippers a serious go they would have it closed in a few weeks.

People have closed the 3 the first try, and they wernt huge guys like ronnie coleman or bill kazmaier... if you think they are the only people on earth that could do that then i dont know what to say.

Edited March 6, 2009 by adam baghbanbashi

[Paul Savage]

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3...

Since this is all hypothetical lets say everyone trained grip, idk why but lets say it became this huge world sport bigger then football, baseball etc. you will find a number 3 close will be below average-average level of strength, if you dont think so your delusional. in your origional thread your comparing the gripboard to the whole world with 6 BILLION PEOPLE. i dont know if anyone can grasp that number, we wouldnt represent even the top 20 percent strongest of grip...

Just to put things into perspective if you think your a 1 in a MILLION athlete that would mean in the world there are 6000 people just like you.

500 million out of 6 billion could close a 3 the first try? Okay, let's make 3 billion of them women. Then 500 million out of 3 billion men would close a 3 the first time? Taking out the children, the elderly, and the disabled, 500 million out 2 billion men could close a 3 the first time? Any healthy adult man would have a one in four chance of closing a 3 the first time? The conclusion from that would be that Ronnie Coleman and Bill Kazmaier, neither of whom were able to close a 3 on their first try (or any try) are not in the top quartile of the general population when it comes to strength.

Sounds reasonable, nothing delusional at all about that to me.

why dont you give me a figure then?

you know what, i wont hurt your ego, your right dude, your the top 1 percent of the world when it comes to hand strength, and 500 million out of 6 billion is delusional i dont know what i was thinking. IT seems i hurt some feelings when i said other people with some training could close a 3 ( i guess you think you are superman or gods gift to earth in terms of strength)

the more accurate number according to you would be 400 people right? give me a figure then since im so wrong...

But guess what pal? no one will know the answer its all just a guess...

and what in the world does ronnie coleman or bill kazmaier have to do with anything? DO they TRAIN grippers? read my post dude.. i said with a couple months training a healthy male would be able, im sure if bill or ronnie gave grippers a serious go they would have it closed in a few weeks.

People have closed the 3 the first try, and they wernt huge guys like ronnie coleman or bill kazmaier... if you think they are the only people on earth that could do that then i dont know what to say.

nobody thinks this, but your numbers are way off, hundreds of people have tried my #1 an #2 grippers, an only 3 people ever closed the #1, an only 1 person ever closed the #2 + nearly all of these people were weight trainers. The only guy i ever got that came close to closing #3 was a guy whos an absolute freak of nature, he was bench pressing 3 plates a side for reps first time lifting weights and now has some of the most crazy gym numbers out there. If he couldn't do it first try, id imagine the percentage that could would be something along the lines of 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent.

I do however agree that the potential for grip strength is WAY past the current, for example, i feel it would definately be 'possible' for one of the freaks to close a gripper along the lines of a beef builder world class e.g a captains of crush #6

[Grippster]

Ronnie Coleman couldn't close the #3? lmao for a guy that's jacked like he is that's damn embarrassing. That means his grip isn't much stronger than mine when I was doing really good with the grippers.

No way, not the case. Ronnie has an incredible grip. Here's what happened: Randy handed Ronnie a very stout #3. Using absolutely NO set (of coarse, because he didn't even know how to set a gripper), he clamped it down to around 1/8-1/16. Not at all embarrassing.

But, what is embarrassing is that Kovacs couldn't close a #2

Ah, I see. Well then it sounds like he could easily close it with a set because most people on the board probably couldn't close the HG250 with a really crap set. If you don't hold the gripper right I'm pretty sure even an Hg100 is unclosable if your fingers can't curl around it properly.

if your talking about the whole world with 6 billion people... probably 500 million could close a 3 the first try maybe alot more.....who knows..a billion people with only couple months training could close a 3...

Since this is all hypothetical lets say everyone trained grip, idk why but lets say it became this huge world sport bigger then football, baseball etc. you will find a number 3 close will be below average-average level of strength, if you dont think so your delusional. in your origional thread your comparing the gripboard to the whole world with 6 BILLION PEOPLE. i dont know if anyone can grasp that number, we wouldnt represent even the top 20 percent strongest of grip...

Just to put things into perspective if you think your a 1 in a MILLION athlete that would mean in the world there are 6000 people just like you.

500 million out of 6 billion could close a 3 the first try? Okay, let's make 3 billion of them women. Then 500 million out of 3 billion men would close a 3 the first time? Taking out the children, the elderly, and the disabled, 500 million out 2 billion men could close a 3 the first time? Any healthy adult man would have a one in four chance of closing a 3 the first time? The conclusion from that would be that Ronnie Coleman and Bill Kazmaier, neither of whom were able to close a 3 on their first try (or any try) are not in the top quartile of the general population when it comes to strength.

Sounds reasonable, nothing delusional at all about that to me.

why dont you give me a figure then?

you know what, i wont hurt your ego, your right dude, your the top 1 percent of the world when it comes to hand strength, and 500 million out of 6 billion is delusional i dont know what i was thinking. IT seems i hurt some feelings when i said other people with some training could close a 3 ( i guess you think you are superman or gods gift to earth in terms of strength)

the more accurate number according to you would be 400 people right? give me a figure then since im so wrong...

But guess what pal? no one will know the answer its all just a guess...

and what in the world does ronnie coleman or bill kazmaier have to do with anything? DO they TRAIN grippers? read my post dude.. i said with a couple months training a healthy male would be able, im sure if bill or ronnie gave grippers a serious go they would have it closed in a few weeks.

People have closed the 3 the first try, and they wernt huge guys like ronnie coleman or bill kazmaier... if you think they are the only people on earth that could do that then i dont know what to say.

nobody thinks this, but your numbers are way off, hundreds of people have tried my #1 an #2 grippers, an only 3 people ever closed the #1, an only 1 person ever closed the #2 + nearly all of these people were weight trainers. The only guy i ever got that came close to closing #3 was a guy whos an absolute freak of nature, he was bench pressing 3 plates a side for reps first time lifting weights and now has some of the most crazy gym numbers out there. If he couldn't do it first try, id imagine the percentage that could would be something along the lines of 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent.

I do however agree that the potential for grip strength is WAY past the current, for example, i feel it would definately be 'possible' for one of the freaks to close a gripper along the lines of a beef builder world class e.g a captains of crush #6

Magnus is pretty much one of those freaks. He doesn't even focus grip training that much and he could probably rep the HG500. He does 2 reps with the #4 with 3 fingers.

[AnimalCage]

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtop...=knife&st=0

This thread is a few years old, but it proves a point. A gentleman with grippers for anyone to try said over the years his #2 had been closed only three times before we got there. He assured us it had been tried over ten thousand times.

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtop...;hl=josh+bigger

This was my experience with seeing someone close a #3 first time. You really have to see the size of his arms and hands to believe them. There just aren't that many people walking around with Josh's level of power.

Considering my personal experiences above, and through the years here on the gripboard, it is my belief that few people would close the #3 first time. With a few months training, out of 6 billion people, maybe a few thousand. With a lot of training, the number grows significantly.

[abagh89]

Ok guys just read this thread again, been busy with school so I couldn’t really post a correct response earlier, I was in a hurry and it did not come out quite right. I didn’t literally mean 500 million people could close the 3 the first time, I was just throwing out a number to show that it would be high up there if you searched the world over, Just like I’m sure Paul savage in the earlier post on this thread didn’t literally mean 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent of the world could close a 3 the first time, because that percentage would not even make up 1 human being. He was just trying to say that there are few people could close the 3 the first time and I was trying to say the opposite. Fair?

Now, as far as Animalcage’s post with the Emerson knife. Since when does a little knife show represent what the population as a whole out there can do? I am sure though that a lot of people have tried the number three at that show and were unsuccessful. But here’s something to think about.. How many people at that show or at your work when you pass around grippers give it a 100 percent maximum squeeze? Many don’t. Usually when a “Gripster” brings his grippers to work or school, they show people its “easy” by doing reps with it, and then they hand it over for other people to try. When the person receives the gripper, they ASSUME it’s the difficulty of a plastic coated gripper that they used as a kid or tried out in the past, they attempt to squeeze the gripper with about let’s say 40% exertion. They struggle with the gripper probably only moving the handles a little, realize that it’s not an easy gripper, smile, and hand it back over. Based on past experience and judging from threads, this Is how it normally goes. Here’s a real example: brought a number 1 gripper to a party, passed it around to people and it was not closed by anybody. Then the class clown in our school showed up, he tried the gripper and failed miserably (Everyone was laughing at him, Now what was different about him was that he did not care, he barely moved it the first time, gave a suprized look, then let out a huge scream and was straining (with people now roaring with laughter) and he managed to close it. After that, a couple other guys who barely moved the gripper the first time, gave it a maximum squeeze and were successful. Point is, at work why would someone give a maximum squeeze? Especially at a knife show, with many people around and not in a party setting, usually after they give it a half hearted go the first time, they just hand it back, and that’s normal. Many people become embarrassed or don’t want to risk looking like a fool, they don’t want to try again for fear of trying hard and failing.

[AnimalCage]

Now, as far as Animalcage’s post with the Emerson knife. Since when does a little knife show represent what the population as a whole out there can do?

Here’s a real example: brought a number 1 gripper to a party, passed it around to people and it was not closed by anybody. Then the class clown in our school showed up, he tried the gripper and failed miserably (Everyone was laughing at him, Now what was different about him was that he did not care, he barely moved it the first time, gave a suprized look, then let out a huge scream and was straining (with people now roaring with laughter) and he managed to close it. After that, a couple other guys who barely moved the gripper the first time, gave it a maximum squeeze and were successful.

This is why I don't normally respond to these types of threads. And geez, I thought my response was actually decent. But it's 1:30 am, and I can't sleep.

You want to compare tens of thousands of attempts at a #2 and #3 with your "real" example of a party with a class clown struggling to close a #1? I realize your point is about effort, but I think you're unknowingly making the point that its difficult for first timers to close a #1, nevermind a number three. Out of your group, 0% could close the #3 first time. Out of the Emerson group, 0% closed the #3 first time. My point: you have to either be a freak of nature or have a lifetime of manual labor to close a #3 first time, with a few exceptions allowed.

You also shouldn't call the knife show a "little" show, because you haven't been there. Belittling the show to make your point look better does a huge disservice to the caliber of craftsman that take immense pride in the work they do. I am not a knife person. My only knife is a Leatherman. I had a great time walking around and admiring the incredible quality that these people produce. Granted it was a few years ago, but if memory serves me, there had to be at least 150 vendors there. Not a little show by any stretch. Also keep in mind that the vendors and attendees of knife shows generally aren't the effeminate type.

I've defended my post, and I've had my say. Maybe trying to close the #3 myself will make me sleepy :snooze

[fortes mãos]

Delete

[abagh89]

Well, I’m in a boring class right now so I usually love to reply to these types of threads. I replied in the first place because Grippster was asking in the First post and I quote “It makes me wonder about the other 6 billion people in the world. How many people who have serious natural strength are we missing out on?” to me the answer was obvious, you’re missing out a lot of natural strength, and when you’re talking about the whole world, yes a knife show is “little” and the tens of thousands that has tried it, are “little” in terms of billions. I was not belittling the show itself.

[Grippster]

btw you mentioned that people often don't try 100% when they first try a hard gripper. I'd have to agree with this because I have a friend who doesn't look very strong and is fairly skinny but he gave it everything when I handed him the BC250 and he was about a 1/4 inch from closing it. I have a friend who weighs almost 300lbs and is an absolute tank/monster but he is lazy and was unable to close it. He also took no set and didn't even know the handles were supposed to touch. He sorta thought "almost" was good enough lol

[eltorrente]

I was reading this, and was amazed at the "500 million" estimate.. Pretty crazy number there.. I wonder how many could, though - without training(?). 500,000? 100,000? Whatever the case, it is a very small percentage - certainly not 1 in 12 (including women, children, elderly, etc..).