The "V" pinch developer

The last few weeks at the school we've been working on pressure point manipulation and pinching... which is fairly easy for most of the big strong guys, who don't really need it so much, but not very easy for the women and kids.

So I came up with a couple of nice little additions to use with the Vulcan and other grippers.
You can use a single pinch end piece if the gripper has an extended handle... like the one below. Or you can use two with a standard gripper (the CoC guide and sport are great for this).
You'll also notice, with the Vulcan shown, I replaced the heavy spring with a much weaker spring I found in the garage.

Thanks David.

This, in my opinion, is vastly superior to a TTK type setup.
You can pretty much practice any type of pinch from any angle you can dream up... above your head, behind your back, thumb up, thumb down, thumb to the right or left side, fingers in any hold position. It's highly mobile, make it part of your regular workout routine... or sit on the couch, watch a movie and work on your pinch... anybody can do it, even me!
Slide a couple on some of your old retired grippers. Those that you no longer use because they're to easy... I'll tell you what, you won't think they're to easy anymore when you have to pinch them closed instead of squeeze them so.

I don't have any desire to market it... as I only dreamed it up to help our students (and myself, of course), so I made up enough to do that...
You, have my wholehearted permission to market and sell it. Include it with your Vulcans if you like.
Imagine, with one extraordinary device... a Vulcan with a screw in extendable handle and or two "V" pinch ends, allows a person to exercise every part of the grip range including any kind of pinch, all for less than the price of five nice standard grippers... very good selling point!

BTW, I neglected to post pictures of it actually being used in my first post.... so here's some:


Vulcan, wide grip from the side


Closed


Thumb pressure point manipulation type pinch
Of course the design could be changed to where they screw into the bottom of a Vulcan...


But if they slide on and off you can use them with other grippers as well. Different grippers have slightly different sized handles, one loop of electrician's tape on the handle then slide it over takes care of any slippage.
Slide a couple, one with a wider grip area on the bottom, onto a CoC "T"....


Grasp in a standard TTK fashion...


and Arrrgh.... can't quite close it!


Change the grip position... fingers and thumb to this angle... and bam! Close a "T" with your thumb!
See, this way allows you to recycle all those old grippers... and turn them into pinch challenge grippers!

very cool idea Bill!

Thanks Jeff.

I've had some emails and a few requests to sell some of these.... Again, I have no interest in marketing these... David is set up already with a website and a manufacturor... if he wants to do it, he's more than welcome.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but I have to much to do in a day, every day, to have time to devote to properly selling or marketing.

Thanks for the interest though!

Great ideas as usual, also i think it's quite impressive that you can get that close to shutting a trainer in a pinch grip.

Thanks Sam.
At various times over the years I have dislocated both of my thumbs doing grappling... so to try and prevent that I worked my hands and thumbs out by using sponge rubber type balls... and so I felt I had a pretty good grip and pinch.
Well, when I started incorporating grippers and pinch training into the Martial Arts school, I was indeed the strongest by far in both grip and pinch.
That's not the case now.

My top black belt candidate student right now is a 17 year old boy (just turned 17 in late August), by the name of Patrick Freeman... Patrick started grip training with the method I outlined in another thread about 2 1/2 months ago. His starting grip strength was 110 lbs. on the baseline digital dynamometer... this last Friday he pulled 161 lbs on the dyno with his grip.... and snap CLOSED the CoC #1 with his PINCH!
I can't quite close the Trainer... yet Patrick made it look EASY closing the #1!

Yeah, my grip is still a lot stronger than his, 178 lbs. with my left and 180 right handed... but his PINCH totally blows mine away... and the only training he's done with it is using the Vulcan "V" pinch setup and in between using those little gripper shaped weight clamps with his pinch...
By the time he's 18... he just might be a pretty darn awesome individual!

I'd be interested in these as well. This is a much better idea then using the spring clamps.

One of our students is a doctor who's dealt with a LOT of rehab cases involving hands. As a doctor serving in the Gulf War, "Doc" has seen literally hundreds of cases needing rehab.
Doc is a fan of the V pinch idea and shared a few ideas with me.

Below, are pics of a few of the exercises Doc recommends when using the V pinchers. There's more, but these seemed the most applicable for the "grip guy's" purposes:


ring + pinky finger opposing the thumb using a Vulcan setup


ring + pinky finger opposing the thumb anothe view


ring + pinky finger opposing the thumb using a standard gripper


don't be a wimp.... CLOSE IT!


place one end on the heel of your palm, crush closed with just the pinky/ring fingers


index finger opposing the thumb using a regular style gripper


now with the middle finger


use a standard TTK type grip, thumb down, and close it all the way


TTK style, thumb up... make sure you close it all the way


don't forget about the right hand too!

Of course all these exercises can be done with other apparatus... but using a V pinch is just so convenient!

Some good exercises with it. Too bad it's not going to do most of us any good as it's not being sold and few of us probably have access to someone who can make one for us.

been trying out two small lengths of copper pipe, flattened at the end, works ok, my lowest gripper coc1 is super difficult

Just guessing but I'd imagine the one thing would be to add a set screw or what might be called a locking screw/nut to the side of them (looking sort of like a weight collar with grip flanges)... so it doesn't rotate with an unsquare grip. I thought about that as well, although a couple at the school do have them... I was just to lazy to put them on my own pinchers!

David Horne wrote:I think we'll be producing them. Just want to check the prototype when it's done. Thanks to Bill for the idea; so far we've changed one thing.

I'll keep you posted.