Grip Training Tips For Athletes
by Joe Hashey, CSCS author of Bull Strength Conditioning
Athletes have to train grip, period. In most sports, the hands are connected to the object creating force. If you have weak hands and forearms, then less force will be generated or transferred to the object.
Think of it this way, having weak hands in sports is like trying to drive with square tires. You might have the most powerful engine in the world, but if the last part that touches the road doesn't work right, then you are going to have a tough time getting anywhere.
Examples of when hands are crucial energy transfer in sports: swinging a baseball bat, throwing a football, throwing a baseball, snapping a pass in basketball, etc, etc. If you have the hand strength of a wet noodle, then none of these activities is going to be very successful. The athlete can generate tons of power from the core and legs while pitching a baseball, but if their wrist isn't strong enough to maintain and accelerate this momentum, then they won't be successful.
Just grab something and hold on!
Well, being on Adam's site, I'm preaching to the choir when it comes to the importance of hand strength! Let's get to the example exercises.
When choosing grip exercises for athletic development they should fit into two categories: General grip strength and specific grip strength. I'll be talking more about the later.
Being strong in one grip exercise doesn't necessarily mean being dominant in ALL grip exercises. I was at the Diesel Crew's US Grip National's competition a few weeks back.
There was some extremely strong grip there! However, the same people did not win every event, as being the best at axle dead lift might not make you the best at two hand pinch.
Therefore, when developing an exercise program for athletes, make sure to include specific grip exercises to the demands of their sports (no, I'm not going to call these "functional" or I would have to choke myself...)
These exercises will fit some of Verkhoshanky's Criteria for Dynamic Correspondence, but not all of them. Here are some examples:
- Football players should include specific training that involves towels: towel shrugs, towel pull ups, etc. The players are often required to grab cloth on another player (tackling, defensive line moves, etc). The towel grip training will get them accustomed to their sport requirements.
Kettlebell Towel Swings
- Basketball players should work with thick grip and open hand training to get them ready to rip rebounds out of the air. Below is an example of bowling ball pull ups that would work extremely well.
- Baseball Players (swing) should include exercises to strengthen the forearms such as sledge hammer levering. This will help their wrists from being the weak link during the explosive swing.
- Baseball Players (throwing) need to include hand dexterity exercises to hold the seams and snap the ball to where they want it to go. Sledge hammer finger walking would go a long way to help this need out.
Finger Walking
In conclusion, analyze the sport demand and include these exercises in your grip training. Once the athlete has a strong general and specific hand strength program, their gains are going to be tremendous!
 Joe Hashey's Bull Strength Conditioning
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