This Sunday i am off to Japan for the 11th time. I will be training at Tsukuba University 6 days a week and resting on Sundays. So i may not have much posting over the next few weeks. This is the 3rd time i will be training at Tsukuba uni and it is a great place to train and stay if your are ever in the mood for hard training in Japan The reason why i am going is so that i can concentrate purely on Judo for the lead up to our OJU Continental in August. It is also summer there and winter here in Australia so at least i get away from the freezing cold.
I recently received a new product that Pat from Grapplingstore.com now has in stock. It is called prohands and it is designed to strengthen not just your grip but each individual finger. It is a fantastic invention.
For hard grip fighting and grip breaking in Judo, and solid gi chokes in BJJ you must have a strong grip. If you dont have a strong grip you will find you wont have the edge in gripping your opponent in throws and takedowns or that little bit extra in order to finish that gi choke in BJJ.
Everyone has seen the devices that your squeeze really hard to strengthen your forearms (eg Captains of crush). But in Judo and BJJ you need the forearm strength of a power lifter as well as the finger strength of a rock climber. That's why the prohands is really useful.
I have found that exercises you can do with the prohands gripmaster strengthen both your forearms as well as each finger individually or in a combination.
The exercises for the gripmaster can be found at http://www.prohands.net/exercise
I especially like the finger tip pinch, trigger grip and the flat fist. To make sure i don't forget to use it i actually leave it in the drivers side door of my car and use it while i am at the traffic lights or when my wife is driving the car.
I highly recommended that grapplers at all ability levels buy and use the gripmaster on a regular basis to help strengthen each finger as well as your forearms muscles, it will really help your ability to hold your opponents gi whether they are trying to break your grip or not.
If you are interested in purchasing a gripmaster head too.. http://www.grapplingstore.com/contents/en-uk/d268.html
I haven't really been doing much today as I am just relaxing the last few days before the nationals this weekend. I am really looking forward to competing as I have had really good training and preparation due to the fact of me being in brazil recently,
it is now coming into winter in australia and this is the season where your fingers really cop a beating. Winter here is rather cold and due to the amount of grip fighting in judo it is crucial to make sure your fingers are warm before training.
I thought I would post some strategies I employ to make sure my fingers don't get injured in the winter time.
It is always important to make sure your fingernails are short, this is to protect them from getting ripped of during grip fighting as well as preventing you from accidently scratching your fellow competitors.
On the way to training I make sure I put on a nice warm pair of gloves. Then by the time I get to training my fingers are pretty warm.
Lastly I always tape my fingers and in some cases I buddy tape them to stop them getting stuck in my opponents gi while grip fighting.
I'm a firm believer in scheduling randori (fighting) early in a session and then complete a technical session afterwards, but in winter I always schedule randori to be later on in the session to make sure everyone's fingers are warm.
another good strategy to employ in winter time is to encourage less grip fighting. I try to get the younger students to adopt one of jigoro kanos fundamental ideas of using your opponents grip against them opposed to breaking grips.
