A piece of training eqipment

[dunbarj01]

Just saw a device from the supplier advertising on this forum called an Eagle Catcher. It is supposed to strengthen your fingers. I was just wondering if anyone has tried one and are they a gimmick or do they genuinely work?

Cheers

[Wong Ying Home]

Waste of money, they do not target the corect area of the fingers to develop finger tip gripping power which is what you need in eagle claw etc

[IronFist]

It's dumb. Don't buy one.

Iron

[Silumkid]

Eagle Catchers might be OK if you are beginning a forearm strengthening program but once you are able to do it with ease, it's useless due to lack of adjustability in the tension.

Amitabha!

We are trained in wushu; we must protect the Temple!

[dunbarj01]

Thanks guys! Just wanted to sort that one out.

[honorisc]

"...they do not target the corect area of the fingers to develop finger tip gripping power..."

Please note that individual fingertips don't grip. The hand grips, using the fingers. Which is what this device seems to do.

This is good for improving grabbing strength of the hand, for Chin-Na. "which is what you need in eagle claw etc " Eagle claw the Jing Jow Pai kind (can't speak about something else just named after an eagle~ doesn't seem to use the fingertips. but the fingers squeezed closely as this devuice would develop,

As for tension, put you fingers further through the rings to increase the tension. It can develop you only so much. And you should consider your hand size before buying. But if you want development it should be a good thing if you are not adready squeeying tennisballsin at five minutes at a time.~

Very some such, perhaps might have been, likely say some, some not.

[Julian Dale]

They do not develope good power for eagle claw, they cannot develop compressive power through the whole finger to the tip.
If put the ring at any joint juncture you are not developing power through the whole length of the finger, it is only to that one point, the joint which unless used correctly is mechanically weak.

Power should be transmitted to the tips of the fingers and not related to just the hand. It has never been the case in eagle claw that the pads of the finers are used when gripping. It has always been the case that power is transmitted to the tips, by using both a squeezing action in the whole hand and along the length of the finger with compressive power at the tip to sink into the muscle, bone, joint etc. Agreeaby using the muscle and tendon across the back and front of the hands, but also by being able to generate compresion of the joint spacing of the bones in the hand. This is advance skill mind.

If you only develope to the pad when grabbing you will be pressing back against the joints at the end of the finger, weak very weak, this is poor eagle claw skill

This spring loaded eagle catcher is not worth the money, there are better tools out there. From recollection, there is something caled the eagle grabber, comes in three level of hardeness, is made from a compound rubber with black being teh hardest. It has many more ways of usage, imagine a inch think rubber disk about the size of a dinner plate, with holes cut into at different places so you can match hand and finger length. You can not only practice one type of exercise with it, you can do different movements with fingers in different places. Much better than the spring loaded one.

Another method, is to get a Y shaped branch of new wood from a Yew tree. Each leg of the of the Y should be index finger thickness, with teh main body of the branch being at least thumbs thickness. Stretch you hand out as wide as you can, measure the distance between tip of the middle finger and mid pad of the thumb , This is the width of the Y at it's widest point. Then You can grab and squeeze to as to closing the Y point together as poss. This is an old eagle training tool

To improve china na ability you need to also develop wrist and forearm power the hand cannot apply a lock unless the opposing joint is positioned.

The palm should also not be flat it should cup very slightly when applying good Jing Jow

[This message was edited by Wong Ying on 08-22-01 at 07:25 AM.]

[Julian Dale]

Excerpt from The Black Taoist Ba Gua Practioner in an interview with Master Lo Shir Su of China

For the fingers, he has this one gadget thats made of rubber and is shaped like a donut, which you have to compress with the very tips of your fingers not the flats. Its used to develop Chin Na and Grappling skills.

suports my point reagrding power to the tip !