UKC

I know that there are pros and cons for height of your body, but what about hand size?

Is smaller always better?

In reply to Lupine Lacuna: Smaller hands are likely to have correspondingly weedier pulleys and narrower tendons so the impact of climbing is spread over a smaller area, so possibly a higher risk of injury for big people with small hands. Small holds will feel bigger and you might be able to get more fingers in small pockets, but you won't be able to get your thumb round fat pinches and will have less potential surface area to apply to slopers. So, pros and cons again.

The question is of personal interest to me as I have very small hands and in particular short fingers.

I have met met anyone, man, woman or child, with a smaller little finger, for example.

Your comments are interesting, though, as I have a definate preference for crimps, then again so do most climbers.

In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

A mate I used to climb with had fingers like Cumberland sausages which weren't great in thin cracks; horizontal ones seemed to give the most problems.

In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

Hand size is massively important in certain climbing areas/styles. In say Indian Creek where you have cracks of uniform size for an entire pitch, for talented fit climbers it may be the biggest factor determining success on certain routes. This is a pretty extreme example though.

Look at this http://www.lackhead.org/jamming/

But smaller isn't always better. On wide cracks big hands are pretty useful.

In reply to TonyB: I have wide hands, which i find well suited to lots of cracks. Climbing at Stanage one day i climbed a route as a jamming crack that my friend had to do as offwidth because he is smaller than me. However, on thin cracks I struggle because of my hands. Depends on the type of climbing you want to do. Swings and roundabouts.

In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

God knows how good Ron would have been then, if he had normal sized hands!

In reply to 999thAndy:

Yeah. And Dave Birkett seems to do ok with shovel hands.

In reply to jonny2vests:
& 999thAndy

It's the combination of big hands & no talent that's a bummer.

In reply to jonny2vests:

Ed Drummond has massive hands.

Is it even true then that a crimp is easier with small hands?

In reply to Lupine Lacuna:
I'd assume it is, you'll have less of a leverage problem with smaller hands and you'll get a higher proportion of your fingers on the hold.

In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

My main climbing partner has big hands. His favourite type of hold? Well it's a crimp, but that's because he learnt to climb on limestone. However, of the few people I know who like slopers, none of them have small hands!
I think climbing is something where you can be good whatever size you are - even little kids with teeny hands are really good at lots of climbs, whereas I often wish I had massive hands when that 'jamming crack' turns out to require fist jams. Then again, when that two finger pocket fits three of mine I couldn't be happier!

I have really long fingers...
crimps aren't easy...

In reply to Lupine Lacuna: I'd say it depends on the climb. I climb on granite a lot and was out with a female friend the other day and suggested she try a fist jam for one particular move she was struggling with. I was told swiftly where to put my ideas until I realised that her hands were too small whilst my bear sized paws filled the crack up nicely. Swings and roundabouts really

In reply to @ndyM@rsh@ll:

I always felt the opposite: people with larger hands tend to weigh more, but their tendons and fingers arent necesssarily proportionally bigger, so there's more force on a smaller area. Ive often noticed how heavier ppl really burn through skin on their tips

As another consideration, grades tend to reflect the difficulty for the "average" sized hands. eg. indian creek utah where the grade is defined mainly by the size of the crack: if you have smaller hands then you'll certainly be doing smaller cracks, and therefore higher grades on the YDS.

Of course it's all relative, and these same ppl could well struggle on a "fist crack" which their hands dont fit into, even though it has a lower grade.

In reply to Lupine Lacuna: i think its the same as the short vs tall debate-there are advantages and disadvantages to each that pretty much cancel each other out

In reply to Lupine Lacuna: I have long spindly fingers (kindly described as stranglers hands by my mates) and am progressing faster on slopey holds than on crimps, where it feels like they're going to snap like twigs!

In reply to Fidmark:
watch it with long fingers - much more prone to injury (I too have long fingers) - read "one move too many".

In reply to beastofackworth:

wot he said