Dice Pilot – 05:15pm Jun 7, 2011 PT
GTC Assistant Instructor, WCC Team Champions 09, Dream Team Captain

A good friend and GTC advanced student asked me for some assistance with a throwing issue with the follow through and ending of the pendulum swing. His fingers splay or open up towards the end of the throw. I struggled with the same problem over the last three years of keeping my fingers together and ending the throw with the perfect C grip.

When our fingers come apart, there is a good chance that it happening half way through the throw which means that the dice are leaving the fingertips at different times causing them to separate either in the vertical or horizontal plane.

In the past, I would tape or use a rubber band to lock my three fingers together to get the proper feel for the locked position. The only problem is that it is difficult to set the dice with fingers taped up.

I came up with a unique solution to force our brain to think about keeping tension on the grip laterally while keeping a loose grip on the dice at our fingertips.

1) Take a flat toothpick and cut off two pieces 1/2 to 5/8 inches in length with a pair of scissors.

2) Go to your practice table and go through your entire routine of setting the dice perfectly with your three fingers evenly spaced across. Use your GTC mirror for checking even alignment.

3) With your other hand, insert the two toothpick pieces near your knuckles between your index/middle and middle/ring fingers. http://i56.tinypic.com/xmqqtj.jpg

4) Now focus on the pendulum swing while keeping tension on the toothpicks. Your throw should end with the toothpicks still in place. If they fall from your hand, you are allowing your fingers to open up during the throw. Here is a picture of the end of the proper throw with the toothpicks in place. http://i54.tinypic.com/nnw7ra.jpg

5) This method will help you establish the proper muscle memory of how the grip and follow throw should end. It has helped my throw tremendously this last month and I hope it helps yours. It only takes 10-15 throws with the toothpicks to force your brain to think about how the grip should feel.

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