bouncymat i'm betting that ure not a small guy? it is easier for a big guy to close a coc than a smaller guy, generally speaking of course. i think they do have their uses, if ure climbing a lot they're not needed but if not then they're a good tool. hastons got a few, thats good enough for me
aye i consider myself quite weak on pinches comparatively speaking and for me i believe this is at least partially related to relatively small hands,(probably also accounts for my sloper strength being poor also (surface area and that))this was reemphasized yesterday when a friend of mine came a lot closer to closing my CoC no1 than i can without a warmup. and he considers himself similar to me tends to crimp everything and weaker grips being pinches and slopers. i reckon working this grip should help me a lot although im willing to admit i dont expect performance gains on the CoC to be 100% transferable but I expect it to make some translation to pinches, after all there are lots of differing pinch grips and many centre around the finger tips and the thumb being in contact with the rock, whereas the CoC is mostly trained using the strongest method which is the handles against the middles of the fingers and the palm of the hand.CheersTim
What weight are you? Up here in the burgh, we found most peeps could close the coc that was closest to their weight. eg I had no issues with the No1, but couldn't close the 1.5, but a couple of bigger guys who climb at a similar level easily closed the 1.5, but were shut down on the No2
blah blah blah - he'd know a thing or two about pinch strength. Alas ...