Rock ring connected to dumbbell by carabiner

The Three-Finger pocket in use

Pictured here is Adam Baxley, a freshman catcher at Frostburg U.  What we did with him was a 4 hold drop set – he started with the most difficult grip (3 finger shallow pocket) then when he couldn’t hold anymore, picked the weights back up with the next easiest grip, ending with the big sloper hold.  This way we were able to get his hands under tension longer, which resulted in a really tough grip exercise (he’ll attest to that).

Hand and finger strength is really under-appreciated and under-trained in the baseball community.  This blows my mind, as the last thing a thrown ball is in contact with is the (drumroll please) fingertips!  Sure, doing wrist curls, holding heavy things, etc. etc. develops grip and forearm strength, but it’s just not the exact type of strength I see as most important- fingertip strength.  If you haven’t been to your local rock climbing wall recently, you’ll realize how lacking your finger strength is – even if you have monster forearms and a great closed hand grip.

I’m hitting the rock climbing gym 2-3 times a week right now.  Do I expect it to help me throw harder?  Yes.  I do.  Can’t imagine how it wouldn’t.

The only thing I really dislike about chin-ups (aside from everyone in the gym doing them half-assed) is that they feel stressful on the elbow, due in part because of the way the arm articulates as the body ascends.  The hands tend to want to pronate on the ascent, which is rendered impossible by holding a straight bar.  Is this catastrophic? No, but I prefer individual, free holds for each arm to allow my joints to move comfortably in whatever path they choose.

The Rock Ring

These are made for climbers to functionally train for their sport.  What do climbers have that everyone else does not?  Crazy strong backs, forearms and fingers.  We could all use a little more of that…

These hanging holds have 4 features(descending from the top, increasing in difficulty):

-a sloper (type of open palm hold)

-4 finger deep edge

-4 finger shallow edge

-3 finger 3/4 inch pocket (very, very tough to do chins with)

Metolius Rock Ring

The first thing you’ll notice about using these is that you can’t do very many of them.  Join the club.  I can bang out 10 perfect, dead hang chins on a bar, but only about 8 of these on the deep edge or sloper.  I can do 6 right now on the medium edge, and about 4 on the 3 finger edge.  All about the fingers…

Gripping the "sloper" hold

Gripping the 3-finger pocket

Yeah, try pulling up your bodyweight on the tips of only 6 fingers.  Not easy and not for beginners, or people with current injuries.

But Rock Rings are a really great training tool if you’re healthy and into grip strength. My forearms get blasted from doing 4 sets of these, and it makes regular chins a breeze in comparison.  It’s a nice little grip drop set to go to failure on the rock rings, then jump up to the straight bar and finish out until your lats are done.

Finger strength is one of those things that is crucially important to a pitcher and there just aren’t that many ways of building it.  I’ve gotten into climbing for the finger strength (and fun). But if you don’t climb, try to swing the 30 bucks for a set – I love and definitely recommend them.  Check out the video for some more possible uses…