Are you talking about forming a better "C" when you look at the grip?

Dominator

Yes.

I think with a flattened 3-finger grip while you may have the fingers "straighter" across the face of the dice there is no way to control the amount of finger (pad) actually in contact with the dice. With the exaggerated "C" your making contact with the tips of your finger and not the pads. Less contact on the dice gives you less time for the dice to "Play" across the fingers when leaving and that means less time for one to drag more or less which means less Lag as you put it.

I can feel the dice as they leave my grip but not rolling up my fingers. Leaving is good, rolling is bad.

I’m going to keep playing with both in practice. I’ll see which one works better for me.

For me, too, gripping with the pads seems to give me more control and comfort,
and the dice stay together more frequently.
But then the "7" shows up too often.

The "C" grip feels more flimsy and sometimes the dice slip out of my fingers.
I have a harder time keeping the dice together.

Anyone finds the same?

just remember that the more contact that you have with the dice the more that can go wrong.

It feels more flimsy to me to but I guess it just takes some time to get used to.

Ron, Alligator Rose and I actually use both—the three finger grip and we always make a "C" with out grip. When we pick up the dice the fingers may appear a little flat (but not much ) then we gently roll the dice onto our finger tips making a very good "C" or claw as we sometimes call it. It is also importang to keep the "C" through out the throw–even a few seconds after release.

It takes a little practice but it can be done.

Also try Dice Pilo’ts trick of placing a small piece of a flat toothpick between your knuckles and this will help in not flicking your fingers at release.

Hope this helps.

Doc

I also believe that if you do not have the centering of the thumb down in your griping of the dice, you will even struple more with the conversion of going from the pads to the tips.

The less the fingers are on the dice the more control the thumb has over the release, therfore the slightest bit of off enter by the thumb will create a lag casusing the dice to not rotate togather even though they look as though they are doing it, hence the perfect looking seven.

"Stephen C" wrote: I can feel the dice as they leave my grip but not rolling up my fingers. Leaving is good, rolling is bad.

But several posts describe the feeling of the dice rolling off the fingers giving the dice a nice amount of backspin.

Since my change at the refresher from the flattened C pad grip to the pronounced C tip grip, my results are anything but going in the wrong direction. I seem to be staying at about the mid 40% with on axis results, as I was before. But the 3/4, 5/2 are showing up big time. Per 36 throws, I am having upward of 8 or 9, 7’s, and am not having any long rolls(20 to 30). Even teens are scarce.

Installed my mirror today and oh boy do I have work to do. I thought I was swinging outside (Raf – I know) but am still coming inside. At release dice are not quite level.

The only good point is the dice are generally staying in the center of the table after bouncing and hitting the back wall.

So, thinking, analyzing and practice are the name of the game at the moment!

Just hope I can get ready in time for the Great Race! I have a plan scoped out for 15 check points that can be relatively easily done from my house!

try squeezing a little tighter just a little.

Cousin, the less finger contact you have on the dice, the smoother the dice will come off your fingers. This grip will take time for you because you are a big man with big fingers.

There is no question that using the pads of your fingers will feel easier to control the dice. The reason is that the dice will stay on your fingers longer and you are grabbing more of the dice.

I want to say that it is good for you to practice both methods, but I wouldn’t go back and forth with the different grips on the same day. Actually IMHO, I would practice one for a week. Your muscle memory can’t be built by going back and forth. It will be very easy for you after a week of practice with the "C" grip to go back to the pads.

Again I just hesitate having you stay with the "C" grip because of the size of your fingers, although I know of many big men students that have accomplished this grip and have tremendous results.

Let us know the results of your practice

Dominator

I’ve been gripping pretty high on the dice with my pads for years so I am just going to make the switch to tips and see how it works out. I’ll give it some time(no rush). After a while I can see for myself which is better for me.

Ron,

The gripper can help you to get the right feel. It guarantees the fingers are straight across and you can look at the C in your hand while the fingers are still straight.

In the beginning it may feel awkward and you may think you need to grip tighter than necessary at first. But once you get used to the different feel you should be able to loosen it up.

What do you, Frank, and Dom use? Pads or tips?

I use the tips.

I use pads.

That’s big. Stick has arguably the best shot in the game and he’s going for pads.

I originally learned using the pads and it works for me. For others, tips work better. One of the advantages of using tips is there is typically less skin on the dice than with pads and therefore less friction. I hold the dice on the top edges with my pads, so I have very little skin on the dice.

I use my tips

Dominator

They are slipping out of my hands a lot using my tips but I’ll get it.

Cousin,

if they are slipping to much, give it up. Just try to position your pads higher up n the dice as Stick does so you have less contact.

Dominator

If I have the 4’s facing out, with my pads I exactly cover the top pips. With my tips, there is a little bit of the top pips still showing. To the best of my knowledge, that’s not too much contact, right?

Have you tried to slow down your arm swing?

I’ll play around with it. A little more pressure, slow down the arm swing. I’ll see what I can do.