What's the general consensus here? I'm curious..

do you guys hook it or lather up with tacky for WFD?

Hook grip feels so akward to me throwing, it's very difficult to get past it. No issues with my thumb in reards to pain or discomfort, just feels incredibly akward while spinning.

I prefer to wrap my fingers in athletic tape and put a few dabs of tacky on it to prevent the WFD from slipping out prematurely due to the smootheness of the tape. If I go bareback I don't need tacky at all, but within 7-8 throws at least callus gets ripped off...

what do you guy do?

DOOD!

I have the same freaking problem...my hand is jacked right now, and if it doesn't get better most ricky-tick Justin White is going to whip my a$$.

I'm all doped up on coffee and Thera-flu - I hope no one minds my long-winded appreciation of hook gripping...

I think hook grip is the easiest way. The best thing about hook gripping is that you don't have to squeeze with your grip to hold on to the weight. This relaxes the arm and shoulder and gives you a longer lever to throw the weight with. Also helps keep the whole mentality  of the throw smooth and long.

I started hook gripping in 2001 and I have finally perfected my method only this year. I now wear a pretty tight soft leather glove with half of the pointer and middle finger cut off and the whole thumb cut off. I tape just my thumb. But I've only recently learned how to properly tape it...

Harrison's secret recipe of awesomeness:

1)Take a 1/2 wide piece of tape that is twice as long as your thumb and wrap from the base of your thumb up and over the tip back down to the other side. Do this once more - crossing the pieces of tape so the x is on the tip of your thumb.

2) Then loosely wrap the thumb with torn 1/2 wide athletic tape - till you have the thumb wrapped 2-4 layers thick - make it a little thicker towards the top than at the base of the thumb - gives a bit of a wedge effect to really help secure the grip.

Then, with the help of some lovely Brock's Magic Tacky, I put just a DOT on my pointer and middle finger and get it worked in really tight onto a small spot on my thumb. I want that 1/4 inch of surface on my thumb to be really sticky - but nowwhere else. I will chalk the rest of my thumb, the sides of my pointer and middle fingers and the handle of the weight to get rid of other peoples tacky residue.

3) Don't over hook the thumb. You want to see at least a 1/2" of thumb showing at the bottom. The center joint of my thumb is centered between my two fingers.

The day I started this excessive routine, I had a 2' pr in LWD at 84' 10". Also, because of the taping method, I have no more thumb pain.

The problem with a super tacky glove imo is that all that tack slows down how fast the weight leaves your hand. Maybe I'm wrong but if the weight is glued to your entire palm and fingers, how can that not limit distance if the sticky is slightly counter acting the momentum of the weight? Granted, Ryan Vierra and Karl Dodge, with super tacky gloves went 49' 10 and 47' 11.5 in the HWD without the hook gripping...but not everyone is superhuman.

Thanks to everyone for their contribution. I'll be giving this some deep throught in the next couple months. Right now I have homemade WFD and the handle is made out of 3/4" ID steel pipe, so a hook grip doesn't quite fit that the way it would a standard D or O handle.. Once I get some legit implements to practice with, maybe I'll give it a shot.

will barron wrote: The problem with a super tacky glove imo is that all that tack slows down how fast the weight leaves your hand. Maybe I'm wrong but if the weight is glued to your entire palm and fingers, how can that not limit distance if the sticky is slightly counter acting the momentum of the weight? Granted, Ryan Vierra and Karl Dodge, with super tacky gloves went 49' 10 and 47' 11.5 in the HWD without the hook gripping...but not everyone is superhuman.

that was a great write up, I'll definately give it more thought. I had a question regarding your rationale for the tacky. All of us tack the shit out of our hands when we throw hammer so we can stay looser. Would the tacked up gloves for WFD be the same thing for hammers? As long as the weight is moving fast enough, there wouldn't be any "counter acting" right? thoughts?

Not trying to argue, just picking brains. Thanks for all the replies!!

hook grip it is, I can't friggin hold on to the went when I get a really good pull on it..

twice I would have nailed 35+ HWFD and twice it ripped out of my hand around the 2 o'clock position..

Thanks for the advice errbody

Please do Dan...my hands keep failing me, and it impacts my lifts and my throwing.

Really pissing me off.

no one has mentioned it, but another thing to help with the calluses . . . . shave them off or use some sort of pumus type stone to grind them off.  both methods work best in the shower.

I use my wife's heel doctor pumus stone thingy every morning when I take a shower.  no callous, or at least minimized callous, means the handle is less like to hang on it and tear it off.

i know, i know, you guys think chicks dig callouses.  but, they dig big WFD throws more.   

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Thanks Dan!  Check M's site last night hunting for these things..do you have the name so I can order some?

I practiced hook yesterday and although my thumb hurt like shit, overeall it felt pretty good. I'll be looking for a glove shortly, maybe.. for now, I just wrapped my hand in tape right where the handle sits (on top of the spot you always get calluses below your fingers) to avoid pulling a callus off. I shave my calluses too, but it doesn't always help and I'll still pull them off...

I've talked to people who hold the weight in their fingers with the hook grip, and I've talked to people who hold the weight tight in their palm with a hook grip. What's the consensus on this?

http://www.nasgaweb.com/forums/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6142&KW=hook+grip - Once again...

Mr. Natural wrote: http://www.nasgaweb.com/forums/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6142&KW=hook+grip - Once again...

I didn't tape my thumb like that yesterday, I just threw a bunch of tape on in an unfashioned manner because I was in a hurry and only throwing LWFD.. I tried the handle-in-finger method this link refers too and it wasn't as comfortable as having it in my palm with the thumb wrapped around. I also had my middle and index finger on my thumb, but that is most likely due to the diameter of my implement handle, I'll be getting some legit D handles shortly but until then I'll have to keep practicing with what I've got. I talked to 2 different athletes this weekend about the hook grip, one pro and one about to go pro.. one preferred the handle in finger hook method and one preferred the handle in palm hook method.. which is why I was asking.. didn't mean to annoy anybody with ??s that have already been covered, sorry

Dave is just demonstrating his search engineering computer super geekiness.

I started using hook grip just this year and found it made a massive difference. When I get my turns right in the WFD there is just too much force to be able to hold onto it for me - but with the hook - it stays put. Thumb hurts a bit.

And in WFH it is what put me up into the top 3 at Castle Hill. Because having seen my video - my pull is about half that of anyone else :)

Dose the whole glove and hook grip thing apply for WOB event? It looked to me that dude in the video wore mechanic gloves that looked a size smaller than what he'd normaly would wear.

Thanks for the video