The Hook Grip

Good stuff from Wayne Hill.




Joined: 8/29/04
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Posted: 12/22/04 at 5:23pm | IP Logged

First of all, I find it much better to lay the thumb along the side of the handle, rather than lapping it over.  If you do it like this <holds up hand with thumb in "just-right" position> you get a good grip and it doesn't hurt much (but you still need tape).

Anyway, here's my taping technique:

 - If it's hot out, spray a thin coat of baseball tacky (or equivalent) to the thumb all around.  Allow to dry before taping.  This helps avoid the "tape flying with the weight" syndrome.
 - Lay one strip of tape from the base of your thumb, along the top of your thumb, wrapping over tip of thumb, and back toward the palm.  It doesn't need or want to go beyond the thumb.  It helps a lot if you bend your thumb tip 30 degrees or so as you do this, so the tape won't be stretched when your thumb is in the right position.
 - Lay a second strip along the inside of the thumb (between thumb and forefinger), over the tip and along the other side.
 - Squish the loose flaps together over your thumb.
 - Take a third strip and wrap it around the base of your thumb a couple of times, reasonably tightly.  This will hold the other two strips in place.  In fact, all of the tape so far has been intended to form a stable base that won't come flying off (especially important when your hand sweats).
 - Here's the part that does the work.  Lay on 2-3 layers of tape, each about 6-8" long, thusly:  starting on the nail/first joint, with the free end angled about 45 degrees away from the thumb and out away from your wrist, wrap it around the first joint and back over the knuckle (uh, does anybody follow that?).  It's helpful to bend the thumb as you apply this to avoid stretching the tape.
 - Apply a small amount of Brock's Magic Tacky <TM> to the thumbnail area of the tape, and you're good to go.

Let me know if this isn't clear.

-Wayne
Wayne Hill
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Joined: 8/29/04
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Posted: 1/31/07 at 7:53pm | IP Logged

OK, here's a few pics of grip hooking with an implement handle.

First of all, I place my thumb-tip along the handle opposite from my palm, not reaching my thumb to the "top" of the handle (where my fingers will lie).  If you reach your thumb around the handle, you won't even believe the stress on your thumb during a big pull.  Dave Barron's picture above also shows the thumb placed this way.  This shot shows the thumb taped, which I'll describe more below.





This shot shows the grip closed (without the thumb tape).  The middle and ring fingers are lapped easily over the thumb.  I could have reached my fingers further over the thumb (and this is a temptation when you really, really want to hang on), but again this is a big mistake.  There's a just-right spot that your fingers will find with a bit of practice.





This shot shows the thumb tape.  This helps prevent bruising of your thumb, which is very likely to happen otherwise.  This consists of two 6-8" strips of athletic tape (1-1/2" wide, torn in half), wound from the thumb nail upward.  For lefties (like me), wrap counter-clockwise (looking from the end).  For righties, wrap clockwise.  Just wrap it so it lies smoothly on your skin:  NOT tight.





If you use tacky, put just a tiny dab on the tips of your middle and/or ring fingers, or on the tape by your nail.  As was mentioned above, if you get tacky on the handle, you're likely to hear about it from someone who really, really hates that.

-Wayne

This is a really interesting topic to me.  The grip on the handle was something that I was asking a few guys about at my first (and only) Highland Games in mid-July.  Most people just said to grab it however felt "solid."  I have an unusually strong grip and felt like I had a harder time letting go than I should have.  One throw on the 56lb HWFD I actually wasn't able to let go and I lost my balance and did a spectacular face-plant with the weight still anchored firmly to my hand.  Good for a few laughs from the crowd, but not good for my body or pride, lol.

What I was curious about was whether to let the handle rest near the tips of my fingers or get it as close to my palm as possible in a position of strength. 

Speaking of grip, I had a hard time letting go of the Light Hammer too and I'm sure that's just part of the learning curve but I've already stopped 90% of my grip training (until earlier this year I've been a self-professed grip guy since 2000) in hopes that it'll make releasing the implements easier.  I'm aware that a good number of HG athletes have phenomenal grips so I'm sure my grip strength won't regress to pre-training levels either.

I personally don't like hooking along the handle. Full wrap does hurt but you get used to it the more you use it. I use a thin glove and tape my thumb the same way that is described above on the outside of the glove. I do this for both the HWFD and the LWFD. I do not use a glove for WOB but still use hook grip. It always hurts the most on HWFD for me.

I first saw Andy Vincent using a glove and hook gripping. It got rid of much of the pain once I started doing that as well.

C. Smith wrote: I hook with a glove, and wrap the thumb.

I adopted this a year ago and and pretty comfortable to throw with.  

I'm glad there is a thread for this, because I've been struggling with this for awhile!

C. Smith wrote: No, I put a layer of tape on my thumb, put the glove on, then tape the wrist.  Then I tacky the glove and wrap my thumb as deep as it will go and hook.  If you're talking about thick D handles, well, now you know why I hate them so.

Jake, I use a thin glove and tape the thumb of the glove.  This is more for glove longevity than it is for comfort.  I did the same thing with the thicker leather work gloves I used, but I cut the tips off the pointer and middle finger, then taped the glove to keep the seams from coming apart.  I did this because the biggest gloves I could find at Lowe's were too tight to get a good, deep hook in, and removing the fingertips fixed the problem.  I also tape the glove to my wrist.