Where grip shows up on the pitch
Think about the rugby actions that run through your hands: carrying into contact, holding on through the tackle, offloading to a support runner, binding on a jersey in the scrum, gripping your jumper in the lineout, wrapping a ball carrier in the tackle, holding your position over the ball at the ruck. When the grip goes, the ball comes loose, the bind slips, or the carrier steps out of your tackle.
What grip does for your ball carry
- Ball security. A stronger grip keeps the ball locked against your body through contact.
- One-handed carries. Carrying in one hand so you can fend with the other asks a lot of your hand and forearm.
- Offloading. Controlling the ball and releasing it accurately while being tackled is a hand and finger job.
- Wet days. A slippery ball punishes a weak grip hardest.
Stronger hands get picked
Grip strength has shown up in real selection decisions. When 184 Portuguese club players around eighteen years old were assessed for the national under-19 squad, the backs who were recruited averaged 52 kg on the right hand against 47 kg for the backs who were not, and a stronger right hand was one of only two test results linked with being selected at all. At an English Premiership academy trial of 74 under-15 players, the boys taken into the academy averaged 38 kg on their strongest hand against 34 kg for those who were not. Both are youth cohorts, and selection weighs many things at once, so a strong grip on its own gets nobody picked, but the pattern was the same in both groups: the stronger hands sat on the selected side of the line.
How to test your grip and what measured groups squeeze
The standard test is a hand dynamometer. Sit with your elbow bent to a right angle at your side and your wrist straight, squeeze as hard as you can for about five seconds, and rest between efforts. The Australian population study behind the adult values below took the mean of three squeezes per hand; the academy study used the best of three on the strongest hand. Either rule works, but pick one and keep it, same device, same position, same rule, or the comparison with your last test means nothing. The values below are cohort averages rounded to the whole kilogram, measured on different devices in different settings, so read them as reference points rather than targets.
| Measured group | Average grip |
|---|---|
| Men 20 to 29, Australian general population | 47 kg right, 45 kg left |
| Women 20 to 29, Australian general population | 30 kg right, 28 kg left |
| Portuguese club players around 18, U19 squad trial | 48 kg right, 46 kg left |
| Backs recruited to that U19 national squad | 52 kg right, 50 kg left |
| U15 academy trialists, selected | 38 kg, strongest hand |
| U15 academy trialists, not selected | 34 kg, strongest hand |
Training grip inside your normal sessions
Grip does not need its own session. Bolt one or two of these onto the gym work you already do and it gets trained several times a week without costing you anything.
- Farmer's walks. Carry heavy dumbbells or kettlebells by your sides for distance or time.
- Dead hangs. Hang from a pull-up bar for time, and progress by adding weight or draping a towel over the bar.
- Thick grip work. Wrap a towel around the bar or use fat grip sleeves on rows and pulls so your hands work harder at the same weight.
- Plate pinches. Pinch two plates together, smooth sides out, and hold for time to work the thumb and fingers.
- Towel pull-ups. Drape a towel over the bar and pull up gripping the ends.