Small Hand Question

[bsnone1]

For those of you with experience and small hands...

So I had a session in the field last night throwing roughly 120-150 times. When I got home I realized that I started to blister on my index finger in two places, one on the "rip point" of the first joint of the finger - from what I've been able to research on here is that this is a tell tale sign of a slip? The other one that developed was on the 3rd joint of the index finger (the part closest to the pad of the hand). I think this is a result of working on getting the finger above the disc and having the back of the disc still "above the fold" of the hand. I end up having to grip pretty tightly - more tightly than I probably should be for sure, but I worried that these blisters are signs of other problems. Should I just be prepared to tape up when I head out to practice going forward or should I be making adjustments to prevent these type of blisters?

Again, I have pretty small fingers (my index finger is 73mm, with the middle joint roughly 21ish mm) - at this point I'm not throwing anything faster than I speed 9 driver as the rims for anything larger are really tough to maneuver correctly into my hand. Any feedback is appreciated.

*Edit* Should I also wait for my skin to heal before practicing more or am I good to just tape up and throw?

[JR]

I remeasured my index finger from the base between the middle and index finger and the length is 69 mm and the outermost line in my second to first joint is 18 mm. Have i grown at adult age or has throwing pulled my fingers longer like the Spanish inquisition? I have gotten 17 mm before for the middle section length measuring from the same spot with the same tape measure stretched straight. Maybe i'm growing to the challenge of throwing wider discs

I have not had enough help from sports tapes plastic or paper based once the skin is peeled deep enough then rest is the only option. While slipping is harder on the skin than ripping squeezing tight can damage skin for new players.

I heard that Jussi Meresmaa could not participate as a thrower in the world distance record breaking attempt competition after he won the Big D 8=world distance throwing championship because the skin on his index finger split. He is a long time throwing veteran with a lot of power so the skin can be subjected to a lot of stress with powerful throwers. So he participated as an official running to catch the discs to measure how far they went.

It is normal that most players need to develop their skin thickness and toughness (happens automatically over time) for months to one year+. Reducing the amount of throws helps too and yes i know and remember how that can be hard especially when you get breakthroughs. A smooth disc won't abrade the skin extra so picking where to grip plays a part too and you can sand molding imperfections (protrusions) from a disc and it remains competition legal.

Grip wise i would not change anything necessarily if the grip works flight wise. I would like you to test your theory about gripping less hard. Loosen too much and the disc slips to the side too early. Grip too hard has not been a problem for me usually It is damn near impossible and usually grip strength is the least of the grip lock causes in effect.

Another way to extend the sessions is to vary where the disc touches the skin and you'd get the double benefit of getting to experiment with all kinds of grips. There are millions of possible variations.

[bsnone1]

Finding the balance between loose grip vs firm grip has proven to be a challenge. TO get the disc where I like to have it in my hand does take a fairly solid amount of pressure that I can feel in my tendons. I'm planning on experimenting trying to get the feel for what will produce the best possible flight/distance for my personal throws. Somedays it is painfully obvious that Rome wasn't built in a day but I'm very much looking forward to building on everything I've learned lately...

[JHern]

I have large palm and shorter fingers, yielding over all average hand size. I think this has a lot to do with the reason I can throw a Cyclone almost as far as a Katana. You might like shallower depth rims better than large depth ones.