teeny-tiny hands in a too-large gym

[birdi_gurlie]

I am currently a highschool girl training to become a better polevaulter. [Yes, POLE VAULT. You heard right.] I am one of those who the coach immediately crossed it out because, well, I look like a distance runner...tall[ish...sorta...kinda...in theory] and skinny. 5'3" 100-ish lb [little less...never more]. I did convince my coach to let me vault but that was because I'm only average/below-average in the other areas. After a LOT of work, I've gotten half-decent...gotten over 6 feet 3 times. I asked my coach what to do to help my vaulting and both he and the weight-training-advisor [a vaulter at our school] looked at me and said, at the same time, "eat meat." I do! I eat plenty of protein and meat.

Anyways, now I'm getting to my point. I have teeny-tiny hands. I just measured them and from the tip of my middle finger to the middle of my palm, it reaches to 6.25 inches. No, I'm not joking...they're that tiny. I now go to the gym with my dad 2-3 times a week. Unfortunately though, his gym is built for big-large-marine-guys, not teeny-high-school-girls. And they're gym went semi-high tech and they have no straight pull up bars...just the weird ones where they have a handle, either horizontal or diagonal and stuff. And they're built for big marine guys and are SPACED for big marine guys. And the bars are sized for large marine-guy hands. They're padded, but they are really annoying fore someone with my size hands because its too wide circumference. When I went to a polevault camp this summer, we used a U-shaped PVC pipe thing for one of our drills-to work on inversion. I had a TERRIBLE time holding on. One of the vault counselors sympathized and said that she too had small hands...but when we compared hand size, mine were smaller.

I can use my school's gym, and the bars are the right size there, but I would have to use it after practice and most people leave directly after practice, leaving few people to spot for certain drills. If we do them at my dad's gym, he can spot me. [We figured out how to do one {http://www.wonderhowto.com/ho w-to/video/how-to-do-the-bubkas-on-the-high-bar-239739/} essentially...there's a Smith machine at my dad's gym that has an almost-small-enough bar, so its not TOO bad, and we lower the bar so that its about 2.5-3 feet off the ground and I start with my legs against hte bar, minus the swinging.] Also, the pull-up bars are attached to the squat machine, and they're all on top of wood, not a pad of some sort. {And you really don't want to fall down from that...I've flipped backwards a few times, doing the exercise from the video above, and I luckily landed on my feet, but you really don't want to flip backwards, if your hands are already barely able to hold on, because you kinda slip off...}

However, I can't do some of the exercises otherwise. I don't really want to use gloves because I NEED the grip [I'm going to be high in the air, holding onto a pole, for dear life, until over a mat....you need good grip] but I'm getting terrible callouses...when I hold onto the bar it pinches them and hurts and I can't stay on the bar long due to that. Also, I think gloves would make it worse because there's ANOTHER layer of something between my hand and the bar....so....any ideas?






[Also, if anyone has any ideas for any exercises that may help work lower-abs for vaulting, besides the leg-lift things while holding onto a handle...looks like a weird "U" with a back rest and vertical hand holds....because those work my shoulders and I don't get a SINGLE bit of a workout from those, but I really really need to...you need lower abs in order to invert.]

Oh, and if any one needs more description of things, especially certain machines, just ask, because I can try to re-explain a little better.



Oh, and just to show that a little weight room DOES and has helped...I am now as strong as my brother was 6 months ago {he's my age...twins} And with the amount of time he spends in the gym, in a little while, I'll be stronger....ooo...but then I might be forced to mow the lawn...thats not good...oh well. And I've had some REALLY good practices because I actually have a little upper-body strength! haha.

[Aoife]

Well, my whole hand from base of palm to extended middle finger tip is just over 6 inches. I suppose I have small hands, but I've found that increasing grip strength (there's a few ways) greatly increases what I can grasp and hold, and it does translate to larger diameter things. In fact, people train with larger diameter things to get better grip strength.

So mainly, I think it's a matter of working on your grip strength. You can't help the crap where arm placement is too wide for your frame, and that sucks, I've had that issue a few times, but at least when it comes to your grip that can be improved. Calluses are gonna happen, most of the time, and they stop/get better when your hands toughen up enough from extended use.

Welcome. There are people here who do train youth, and hopefully someone will stop by and be able to help ya more.

[UConnJulie]

I agree ... my hands are tiny too (my husband refers to them as "Fisher Price" hands!). Things that have helped my grip (which I feel is strong) ... deadlifts and farmer walks. And using chalk to avoid slippage. If they don't allow regular chalk (like gymnasts use) at your Dad's gym, cheat by using sidewalk chalk (just hide it in your gym bag and rub it all over your hands before doing chins/pullups).

There's lots that would help with lower ab strength (really there's no "lower abs" but that's a different discussion) in the movement you want ... try hanging leg lifts, dragon flag, and slow leg lowering.

[birdi_gurlie]

Thanks!

haha..."fisher-price hands"...definitely describes mine...you should see my hands in comparison to some of my friends [I know at least 3 people who are 6'3", one who's 6'1"-6'2", and am related to people who are 6'4" and 6'8"...and my friend's dad is 6'8"...man I am TINY in comparison to them, especially my hands....hehe]

I know the grip strength will definitely help, unfortunately, it's making it hard to do drills and such in the meantime. VERY hard in some cases, because for one we swing [similar to this: http://www.polevaultpower.com/media/...s/leglifts.mov but we swing a little with our arms {starting so that our elbow are in front of us, then pulling out, kinda, if that makes sense} to get some momentum.] and if you get too much momentum and your hands can barely hold on as is...its pretty hard.

I forgot to mention: While I know someone who had the "muscle" problem when he was a freshman in highschool {wouldn't even let him vault!} and over came it {he later won states 3 times and is in the top 25 in his college division now, as a sophomore...ranked nationally close to that as a freshman in college}, he was tall. I'm not too terribly tall...I'm closer in heigh to Svetlana Feofanova, though I'm actually one inch shorter than her. {The shorter you are, the more your technique has to be on the dot.}




And yes, I know there aren't REALLY "lower abs" but that's the region I want to work MOST. I can't invert, or get close to it, without better lower abs.

[LisaS]

I think this has been mentioned, but do you think dragon flags would be a transferable skill to inverting?

[Frank.S]

you could always buy a pair of lifting straps for when you are in situations where you cannot grip properly. Not ideal as hand strength is very important (I imagine in pole vault, too).. but better then nothing.

[birdi_gurlie]

Yeah, the dragonflags would help.
We were told to do something like this:
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/480
but go up into it, go back down, and repeat.

Yeah, the lifting straps might work, if I understand what you're getting at.