[Carnage]

Too much of the following post is going to open season for jokes so instead of 'balls', I'm going to call these things 'spheres'. 

I have pretty woeful pinch strength and with limited access to any kind of systems training facilities, I thought I'd have a look at some of the training spheres available.

Has anyone used these hanging spheres for a decent amount of time and seen good results? Just wondering if I'm going to be wasting my time and there's a better way of doing this?

I've got a pair of these to try out:

Cheers

[fried]

There are a couple of these hanging in the corner of my climbing gym, I just assumed they were some kind of wind-chime. There doesn't appear to be any chalk on them.

[rodma]

I have a couple of softballs swinging around from the pullup bar gathering dust , but they don't appear to be improving my grip strength

I also have a beast maker above the door which similarly is doing nothing for me.

I'm pretty sure that if you use the balls without cheating the way you grip them you'll get better at holding things within a similar size and shape range

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[Eth]

I've had a couple of these orbs up for 18 months now (they were a birthday present).
If you just hold them in the easiest way they do very little but if you try not to cheat as Rodma says, and try different hand positions I actually have found them quite beneficial in developing a stronger grip. There's a video knocking about on the web somewhere of a young(er) Alex Megos training at a gym in Germany. Although the commentary is in German various rights and wrongs of using them are shown. If you've got the space I rate them as an additional training toy 

[Eth]

 Yes, that's the fella. I just use the orbs and a beastmaker and it seems to work well for me.

[Paul B]

(Failing actual experience, any random conjecture on the topic would also be of interest.)

I think they'd look good hanging next to your fluoro rings, does that help?

[Oldmanmatt]

I've been using them for the past year. Except we use a combination of different size and shape pinches and blocks in a pinch workout.

Start with the 2.5"  spheres.

Move to the 3.5" spheres.

We have 3.5" hemispheres fixed on the Campus board at the same intervals as the rungs. ( actually 3/4-spheres rather than 1/2).

On to a 4" tapered block for a few asymmetric pulls/hangs.

And a couple sets of repeaters on the BM 45's.

Then finish on the "tufa" pinch hold...

And some guys use the various sized pinch blocks and free weights, we've made up for the purpose.

If you're an animal, there are 3.5" spherical pegs for the peg board, but that just fucking hurts.


And it definitely helps improve your ability to hang a Sloper or a pinch.

The 3.5's are damn difficult to hold properly. Most people start by holding them with the palm partway up the side (almost as if it were a vertical pole) and work up to the full, base of sphere in palm, hang.
If you're holding the spheres with the chain/hanger between the front two or between front and back two, it's a waste of time.

We have a workshop upstairs at the Bunker and the boys spend far too much time shaping bits of wood, very scientifically, into something that "feels" right...