mhhhyeah, feeling like blabbing about grips rn, illustrations still a wip, but, HANDS.
First rule of holds, you have opposable thumbs. Use them. This Is a threat.🫲🙂🫱
If you're hanging onto something, grip It with the whole palm, fingers AND opposable thumb in the opposite Direction. I have no idea why, but so many newcomer keep trying to hang from the trapeze as of It were the edge of a cliff.
(i want to cry, why do they think that Very slippery feeling thing Is Good?? How- how do you hold onto Anything???? I don't get It!!!.·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.)
That way you go grab a water bottle? Or a Stick? Or a rail? Or any vaguely cilindrical obgect you want a secured hold on? use It EVERYWHERE.
If it's not living, you don't need to push your Palm flat aginst It, and it's not too big to grab? That's the hold, full stop.
Yes, that goes for holding clubs, the rRod of spinning plates and the control rods for the Diablo, too. Only adaptation Is to keep the pointer finger slightly extended along the length (eheh) of the objects for finer control.
Now, of you're holding onto someone?
In general, Also pincer grip. Tho Little tweaks and an important exception.
For holding hand to hand with the intent to oppose a force pulling apart? Grab onto each other's wirst, medieval handshake style. Do NOT hold hands, It gets Very slippery far too easily to be stable. And NEVER interlock fingers. NEVER. Don't believe me? Find someone, ask them to interlock fingers with you and then they to have them hold your weight only from that. And suffer. The joints may "lock" together, but that's the problem. You're slipping, Need your hands loose to brake the fall? Too bad, they're stuck to your partner's. The weight Is pulling in the wrong Direction? Suck It up, your fingers aren't moving from there, Guess you'll Just have to either fall or suffer through bent fingers. I'd take the fall personally.
Only situation you ever interlock your fingers with anyone during acrobatic? You're doing It between YOUR OWN TWO HANDS to prop someone up. That's the only situation it's Safe to do so i can think of.
If you Really Need to hold someone by the Palm and not the wirst, then go for something hand shake like. That's both stable and has a Quick release option :)
Palms flat against each other, four fingers tight together and thumbs Opposing Is also the way to go for when the force Is pushing together rather than apart (arms straight and elbows locked for the most part). (This Is a confused mess but i don't have time or Energy to untangle this so Just nothing down everything that comes to Mind as It comes to Mind, ok? Sorry guys ^^')
For holds to someOne in places other than hands/wirsts, the grip rules for objects goes here too, with One Singular Very Important Exception.
If the pint of contact Is hand to front of shoulders, NO PINCERS. The thumb falls in line with the rest and makes a tiny Cup of the hand. That's because an extended thumb there would go to put pressure a bit too close to the throat to be safe. Just a Little slip and the partner Is half suffocating. So, no.
No pincer hands of death. Please. 🥺
Quick recap, full grip with Opposing Opposable thumb Is base, extend pointer finger for finer control, palms are slippery if the Palm Is Anything but perfectly perpendicular to the force applied, interlaced fingers Is exlusively allowed between you yourself and thy, not with others, ever, grabs between people are usually on the wirsts, and the opposable thumb Is dismissed only if It risks pushing onto the airways (or other similarly sensitive spots i guess, not that i can think of some rn).
Thank You for coming to my Ted talk! See ya~
