If you think your hands are not as strong as they could be you need to start working on them now. Having stronger hands will really benefit you no matter what martial arts you participate in.

Martial Arts Grip Strength
by Tim Archbold

Those in the martial arts community should know that grip and hand strength are a very important aspect of their fighting abilities. Whether it's on the offense when you need to use your hands for punching, where your hand needs to be tough to prevent injury to yourself and to inflect more damage to the opponent. Or when on the defense when you need to be able break from the grip of your opponent and apply your own crushing hold.

You should do the common exercises for grip training such as the hand grippers, pinch grip and wrist curls but due to the nature of fighting your wrists are going to twist at different angles and giving them extra attention will really help. For the wrist, hold a weight plate with your fingers on the flat side and your thumb on top. With your palm facing up place your wrist on your knee or better yet on the edge of a table. Rotate your wrist so you move the plate in a circle, rotating in both directions. You may have to find a weight that suits you but don't make it easy.

For leverage, try something heavy like a sledge hammer. Hold your arm at your side and just rotate the hammer upwards then lower back down using only your wrist. You can move your grip up and down the handle to make it harder or easier. If you don't have a sledge hammer you can substitute for something else, like a long 2 x 4 or broom. For a variation hold your arm out in front of you and rotate the weight in circles using only your wrist.

For most people the wrist is the weaker link of the arm, if you can strengthen this you will be way ahead of the competition. Having a stronger wrist will really present it's benefit when you start to do twisting motions and you are still able to hang on.

Go to Grip Strength to discover more info on how to really improve your grip strength.