Noticed a huge difference in my knife skills after switching my grip 3 months ago

I stopped choking up on the blade and moved my hand back to the bolster, and my dicing speed went up by about 30% once I got used to it - has anyone else noticed a big change from a simple grip adjustment?

3 comments

3 Comments

simon71723d ago

Yeah that bit about moving your hand back to the bolster really clicked for me. I used to choke up way too high, almost like I was gripping a pencil, and it killed my control on anything with a curve. Once I slid my hand back, I felt way more stable on the rock chop motion, and my finger knuckles stopped getting banged up against the cutting board. It took me like a week to stop instinctively moving my hand forward again, but now it feels totally natural. Also noticed my wrist gets less tired after a long prep session, which is a nice bonus I didn't expect.

sullivan.finley23d ago

Wait, your knuckles used to hit the cutting board? Like, literally scrape against it while you were chopping? That's wild man, I've been cooking for like 15 years and I've never once had that happen. How hard were you choking up on the blade, were you basically holding the knife by the tip or something? I'm genuinely curious because that sounds super painful and honestly kind of dangerous too. I can see how moving your hand back would fix that though, my grip is pretty standard right at the bolster and I've never had that issue. Glad you figured it out before you cut yourself bad though.

lunakim23d ago

Funny you mention the pencil grip, that's exactly what I was doing. Moving back to the bolster fixed my knuckle scraping overnight but I still catch myself creeping forward when I get tired during long prep sessions.