Something that could be problem with a molded grip.... you'd only get one hold, and a real awkward offside.
Alex- I often like to simply paddle open handed. A few years ago - in a effort to get a better stroke by minimizing torque, I'd open one hand and then the other. Just for practice. Alternating between pressing down with an open palm, and then using just curled fingers. This led to doing both at the same time, with as little pressure as possible. After a while it became evident that a lot of pressure (or grip) was not really required. And now I often find myself doing this throughout the day. Not to say that I don't still get gripped ...
^~^~^ different strokes ~ for different folks ^~^~^
EZ - nice
Phil - sacrifices must be made in the name of science - I rarely switch hands anyway... might end up with an improved, but symmetric design. +1 on open handed, alternating grips.
There's two schools for ergonomics.. the "fit" school and the "generic". Fit, well, fits YOU and most likely noone else. See this school in a power tool - don't buy it unless you fit it, because otherwise its awkward to boot. Doesnt allow for changing your grip around much. The "generic" or "minimal" school provides just a clean surface with maybe some hints as to where your hand (foot, arse) should be or could be, but never a specific, body-conforming shape as to not hinder free movement. Shake, adjust to your needs, stir some more and out comes something like the angled walnut grip above - I like the approach. Will try myself, maybe it helps with my elbow. Not too much constriction, but also not too un-shaped for human use.
philcanoe is making a good point. Some people may tend to over-grip standard t-grips. My goal with my grips is to get the force to go through the lower palm, straight into the wrist, so that the fingers don't have to over grip. I know that my large hand tends to scrunch around a standard dowel T grip, which leads to extra strain on finger muscles that live in the forearm.
Yes - just another individual approach, like EZWATER went for....
... this is not something for everyone. I was noticing my two large knuckles were not in-line with my wrist. Which was something that I'd seen instructed in other sports (archery, karate, etc), so as to increase force, accuracy, or lessen wear on joints. And when I checked with my ZRE downriver paddle, their t-grip solved/answered part of that for me. This may not be the case for others... which was the premise of this thread.
^~^~^ different strokes ~ for different folks ^~^~^
To piggy back off of what Phil said... you don't really need to squeeze your T-grip that hard... all the power should come from pushing with your palm (remember...you just have to use Top hand to keep the paddle verticle as you pull with your shaft arm and back - remember to throw hips forward too)
Like I stated in my AB post. All you really need is thumb, pinky, and palm. Although other fingers do help....even when rolling, I try to demonstrate this when I teach people to roll...all you need is your palm. I can roll up without closing my hand at all. You are just prying it against your shaft arm.
try loosening up your grip and work on gaining power from other regions of the body.
one of the biggest things you need to squeeze the paddle for with all ur fingers is to stern pry - so instead try using other strokes to supplement for un-needed stern prys... aka bow draws(although I am starting to come to the conclusion that hard bow draws may be more dangerous and less effencient than a quick hard stern pry)
More so - the Cross stroke can help with having to throw less stern prys as well
Never could use a "Palm Grip" handle comfortably.
Made my hand sore.
Always used T grip.
Wrap the grip with minicell foam, if you dont like it you can always remove it. That would also make it bigger.
Paddling gloves worked for me.
Low brace on a rock and bleeding knuckles lead me there.
Maybe wetsuit/foam gloves might be worth a try.
Interesting thought I had about a Spade Shovel type handle/grip - ie no center post to have to work around. Would take some fab work. Probably good reason why this would not work but cant think of it.
still get gripped ...
