I keep reading that grip strength is really important in football (& rugby & wrestling & any other sport). Do you have your athletes work their grip? What sort of stuff?
I bet that wheelbarrow work hits the grip!
I already knew about that one but I’m sure there’s more. I think he knows about softball lifts.
Check out the book “Mastery of Hand Strength” by John Brookfield. Brookfield is one of the top authorities on hand strength and his book is an excellent source of training info. Lots of inovative training ideas.
Look through the previous issues section for the last couple of months. there is a good article on grip training in there. It is by Chad Waterbury and I think its called “old school grip training” or something like that
Well the moderator probably won’t let me post this, but go to http://grippage.cyberpump.com/ and read everything there. It is the premier information site for grip training. These guys and girls do some awesome exercises. Make sure to read the articles and FAQ section.
Try these for grip strength: Farmer’s walk, bar hang (30 seconds), kettlebell work, bottoms up (using a kettle bell, have the ball end upwards on a single hand overhead press… killer), and yes, wheelbarrow walks.
Geez you guys I already post on the Grip Board (under my real name, Nathan Say), I’ve got MoHS & all of Bill Hinbern’s grip books, I pinch grip 35’s+another 5, etc. I was just wondering if Coach Davies had his athletes do anything specific for football & if it was the usual stuff or if it was something I haven’t heard of.
Hey, you should be coaching us. Sounds as if you know all the tricks and then some. At least you know we’re reading your posts on the Grip Board.
Other then what’s already been mentioned you can try doing all your exercises with a thick bar. If you dont have thick bars use a towel or pipe insulation wrapped around the bar along with towel chins. Another good one is dumbell farmers walks with the dumbells draped through a towel.
We do an enormous amount of grip work, both in weight training and ball drills. With the resistance work there is a huge list of work that rarely doesn’t involve grip work. Mediums of varied with such things as thick bar’s, non-conforming objects, kettlebells, thick rope and of course - wheelbarrow training. However what also needs to carefully looked at is ball handling - this area is horribly overlooked and you need to always maintain the relationship between strength of grip and your sport specific needs… Please let me how I can help you. In faith, Coach Davies
Without setting out an entire routine here, do your athletes have special grip workouts where that’s it, or is grip done at the end of the other workouts? How many times/week or does it vary with each athlete? What sort of non-conforming objects? (I like the sound of that vertical kettlebell press) btw I agree that just about everybody is lacking in hand strength. It’s probably the weakest area in most trainers, except for maybe overhead strength.
Many exercises movements, I believe should be done with various mediums. I typically interchange mediums all the time so a kettlebell swing can equally be performed with sand bags, kegs or heavy rocks. The kbell “bottoms up” press is a great lift (feel free to email me for a photo). Ball drills are mandantory before and after each session - there is no use training an area if the carryover to our sport isnt there. Careful attention must be made that in developing grip strength you are not ignoring the ability to handle the ball. I use a wide grouping of drills with both a normal and slick football (emulate rain situation). I look forward to hearing from you. In faith, Coach Davies