Training a stronger grip?

[Wehrwolfe625]

Here is the grip that is working for me.

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[shws]

captains of crush are nice. do not over do, you can end up hurting your hand

[Wesquire]

I use heavy grippers instead of CoC. I don't care what the actual poundage is, just need the right resistance...and HG are like 1/2 the price. I'm doing reps on the HG 250 now. They are a little easier than the #2.5, but not by too much. I train ~5 days a week. 6-8 sets of 8-12 reps. Usually finish with 2-3 sets of holding it closed for as long as I can. I've never had any injuries or anything, but I'm also 24 years old with a background in weightlifting and rock climbing (bouldering actually). I find that I'd probably benefit way more from building grip endurance than peak output. Training extensors can't hurt, but realistically, your crushing muscles are going to be way stronger than the extensors no matter what you do. Tendons are actually the most susceptible to injury when training grip. Your strength improves faster than the tendons can keep up. When I was climbing, I saw a guy snap his tendon in half just from gripping too hard on a hold.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Wesquire

[tha1000]

Not that I profess to be a great shooter, but I do have a pretty solid grip strength base. CoC are great, but ease into it or you will wind up hurt. I dead lift a lot, double overhand, no wraps. I do a lot of pullups, rowing, and weighted carries, and some more esoteric grip training stuff. Grip training is the basis of any good strength training routine, in my opinion. If you can't hold the weight, you can't pick it up. I do think grip strength and grip training translates well to shooting sports and combat sports: bjj, wrestling, whatever.

[Oilfieldmonkey]

I tried the COC grippers for about a year but never found it to help as much as picking up heavy things. Farmers walk, deadlift, pinching 2 25# plates together for static hold.

[Jake Di Vita]

Tendons are actually the most susceptible to injury when training grip. Your strength improves faster than the tendons can keep up. When I was climbing, I saw a guy snap his tendon in half just from gripping too hard on a hold.

I mostly agree, but to be fair, healthy tendons almost never spontaneously rupture without something catastrophic happening. Guy in question likely had finger issues for a long time that he just attributed to soreness then continued past the warning signs his body gave him.

[bkfranklin22]

grip consistency and locked wrist are way more important than grip tightness.

[turnandshoot4]

I don't know that I agree with the above statement. While they are important, the ability to actually hold on to the pistol as you are shooting is more important than a perfect grip consistency. You can have a perfectly consistent grip, with locked wrists, and have absolutely no control of a pistol.

[Nimitz]

1. to effectively manage recoil (you don't control it) you need a consistent, crushing grip ... grip the pistol until your hands start to shake, then back off until they stop; that's how hard you should be gripping the pistol. The tips of your weak hand fingers should be white from grip pressure. If after 20-30 of dry fire your hands don't strt to hurt you are not gripping hard enough.

2. Also need to be able to produce the same, consistent grip on command, at speed

It's just like your ability to shoot ... you can't just be fast and you can't just be accuracte .... you need to be accurate at speed ....

Edited July 22, 2015 by Nimitz

[hankdiesel]

Join a gym...and a get a grip strengthener, as stated above...I keep one in my rig and get reps in while I'm driving!

[Rangerdug]

If you were to do either the CoC or DOH dead lifts, who'd be better off? The dude doing dead lifts; it is functional strength. If you can't grip it you can't dead lift it. The other significant advantage is the associated muscle gain with DLs. A larger/stronger lower body, back, abs, arms will provide more body weight and strength to help with the recoil. And body builders are not strength training; there is a significant difference.

Though I agree that DOH do in part help grip strength, I disagree the end all be all claim. The mechanics involved in the grip are different, in DOL; the mechanical advantage is only in the contraction of hand and fingers, minus the thumb. The thumb and heel plays no part in the lift. Whereas in shooting you are using the fingers and the counter force of heel of hand and thumb.

That being said I don't think the COC is the perfect answer either. Again you lose efficiency and effort of the index and middle fingers with those type of devices. However, it is convenient.

In the end anything is better than nothing, but it is silly to think that there is a one stop solution to total grip strength.

Pat McNamara and his Combat Strength Training site has some exercises.

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Edited January 8, 2016 by Rangerdug

[tha1000]

John Brookfield has a couple of books out on grip strength training, more with a strongman slant than anything. But they have some great off the wall exercises in it that can be done with stuff you likely have laying around the house with no need for buying specialized equipment. He's a big proponent of a lot of dexterity work and developing the grip finger by finger, both of which would seem to be of huge benefit to the practical shooter. They're available from iron mind or on amazon kindle. It's something to check out if you get bored with just clicking a gripper all day long.

[arkadi]

For your amusement, I have this since Soviet times. Used to train for tennis. Had a set of different firmness, but only one left. Like it much more than CoC-style grippers. The IronMind's Egg is probably closest match.

The label says: Price -.45 rubles, Quality 1.

[ducky0811]

Training for proper technique and strength is good. Coming into ipsc shooting out of a bullseye background, I, like many shooters had to learn to KEEP my grip tight after firing the first shot, during target transitions and after reloads, etc. I had a tendency to relax my grip after the first shot and my recoil management would suffer. Best fix I found for it? Our favourite thing, range time!!! This has been a really good thread!

[GunBugBit]

My grip training kit. The thing on the right with springs goes back to the late 1970s. It can accomodate 6 springs, which feels about l like a CoC 0.5 (120 lbs), so I suppose each spring must be about 20 lbs of resistance. The nice thing about it is that all of your fingers pull straight back.

[P.E. Kelley]

Probably beneath you guys...but here is my video on Grip.

Edited February 20, 2016 by P.E. Kelley

[fireman1776]

This game is about how high you can grip your gun, not how strong your grip is

Look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=45QhpvY9LZc

If its only about how high you can grip, why does Bob Vogel even do Captains of Crush? And why didn't he stop with the COC #1? He can grip a #3 which is 285lbs…if it wasn't very important he wouldn't waste his time.

Very true. I recently watched the full version of the video clip and he explains that grip strength is extremely important. Then goes on to talk about how he basically has super human grip strength. His grip technique works because he has a grip strength stronger than almost everyone else.

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[GunBugBit]

If Bob Vogel can close a #3, he could get certified with CoC and get his name on the list.

Joe Kinney was the first officially acknowledged to close a #4. That is superhuman grip strength; only 5 individuals are certified to that level. The #3 is entry-level world class.

[BillGarlandJr]

This game is about how high you can grip your gun, not how strong your grip is

Look at this video:

If its only about how high you can grip, why does Bob Vogel even do Captains of Crush? And why didn't he stop with the COC #1? He can grip a #3 which is 285lbs…if it wasn't very important he wouldn't waste his time.

Vogel's grip is very strong. Big hands, small hands, medium hands.....it doesn't really matter what size your hands are....stronger is better. That being said, I'm a big fan of using kettlebells. Talk about bang for your buck! Your grip really gets worked, and at the same time you're hitting posterior chain and core strength, all of which will benefit your shooting.

[NateTSU]

Great videos by Patrick Kelley and Bob Vogel. I use captains of crush for grip strength training and a sand bag for a workout, not a fancy crossfit bag but a bag of sand from Home Depot wrapped in a trash bag and duct tape. By the time I'm done with a workout my hands and forearms are on fire! I have seen a larger improvement by fixing my technique than I have by focusing on strength alone.

[GunBugBit]

Joe Kinney is an un-extraordinary looking guy. Normal build and even his hands look average. Except, he closed the #4 and could make beer cans explode in his hands.

Same with Vogel. Normal fit build, notable development in the forearms but nothing that unusual. Strength is not often evident by outward appearance.

[FWSixgunner]

Weight lifting is not nearly as useful for building grip strength as working with your hands day in and day out. I've been in the office for 7 years, but I still have more residual grip strength from working as a pipefitter than my body building brothers in law. They got pretty sheepish when they egged me into pulling out the #2 one night at dinner

I agree. Get a 24 oz ball peen hammer, find a big Boulder or stump and wail away. Or a tractor with 3-point hitch and a nice, heavy tandem disk. Then twist that center level adjustment bar (essentially a giant turn buckle) all the way in and out a few times by hand. Talk about something that will work those wrists!

I don't have a scintilla the expertise of Vogel, but I do know something about physics and anatomy and totally disagree with his comments about a Weaver-style grip/stance. Force applied perpendicular to the muzzle (Weaver) directly opposes recoil. Lock a 2x2 board in a vice and try moving it perpendicular the jaws, then parallel. The first wont budge (that's weaver). The other would be pressing hands together and allows the board to move.

Anatomy-wise, hands clasped together with arms extended is a long cantilever with little muscle and almost no skeletal support. Weaver-ish puts the bones of the arm much more in-line with the direction of the force and working more like a piston, also getting those big pecs, deltoids and triceps into the game.

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[tanks]

Anatomy-wise, hands clasped together with arms extended is a long cantilever with little muscle and almost no skeletal support. Weaver-ish puts the bones of the arm much more in-line with the direction of the force and working more like a piston, also getting those big pecs, deltoids and triceps into the game.

...

Except, that is only part of the grip. Here is a video that adds the other elements to provide skeletal and muscular support.

[aceinyerface]

I shoot a stock Glock 17, and am 127 pounds with very small hands. As much as I try and as much as my fundamentals have developed, I simply can't get myself to 'crush' the gun properly. Are there any drills or exercises to build on this, gadgets that work wonders, or things to think about as I practice?

Get yourself an assortment of COC trainers. Start working on your grip strength. Then roll your wrist over like Leatham and squeeze it. Notice how you are weaker with that grip.

Look at a picture of Eric Grauffel's grip, squeeze the grip straight but don't use the pointer finger very much. Notice how it is a stronger grip.

Ignore what I point out and keep doing what isn't working.

[motosapiens]

i don't know much about grip strength. from riding and racing dirtbikes and using free weights, I seem to have plenty. it's more an issue of focusing that grip. for a few months I had to consciously work on it in dryfire, to make sure I was gripping the gun the same way i need to in live fire. 10-15 yard bill drills or the garcia/stoeger dot drills should help you figure out how you need to grip the gun to most effectively manage recoil and keep the sights steady, but basically i just grip the living crap out of it with my weak hand, and some with my strong hand while keeping the upper part of my strong hand somewhat relaxed so the trigger finger can work properly.

Now it seems to come pretty naturally in dryfire, but I still do consciously check on it from time to time. watching my sights on dryfire speed drills gives me some feedback. the more i tense up my strong hand, the more the sights bounce up and down as i squeeze the trigger.