Psalm 18:32, Ezekiel 22:14 and Jewish Marksmanship

"He trains my hands for war so that a copper bow is bent by my arms." - Psalm 18:32

"Will your heart endure, or will your hands remain strong in the days that I will deal with you?" - Ezekiel 22:14

Strong hands are a major asset in the shooting sports. A firm grip helps to stabilize the firearm, absorb and recover from recoil, and arguably allows the trigger finger to better function independently of the other fingers (crucial for clean shot releases). And they give you a firm handshake! But even more important, many shooters forget that shooting is a repetitive activity and shooters are prone to repetitive stress injuries in the elbows, shoulders and wrists. Keeping these areas strong and muscularly balanced will help avoid injury which spoils the fun. "Shooters elbow" is a possibility, which could require downtime and in extreme cases surgery.

For training my grip I use the Captains of Crush grippers. I had an opportunity to talk briefly with a member of the Team USA pistol team, and he swore by them. The grippers are numbered by difficulty, right now I can close #1 about 5 times with my strong hand and mostly use the weaker #T for 20-30 reps. The Team USA shooter can close the #2 several times, which probably means his grip is four or five times stronger than mine....grip matters! (There are no absolutes in shooting, there are shooters who grip very lightly with excellent results. You have to figure out what works for you. For me, the firmer the better!)

I also like the Dyna-Flex and the old-fashioned wrist-roller.

Unfortunately, while I was focused on rifle the past year I let my grip strength go, but with 3-days a week training it's starting to come back to me.