Wednesday, April 24, 2002

McCusker describing how to hold chopsticks There's a way to hold chopsticks firmly without much in the way of muscular effort, so no cramping should occur. I studied how I did this one day when trying to tell my sons how to use the chopsticks they had in front of them one evening. One chopstick hardly moves. This is wedged in the crook between the thumb and the palm. The middle of that chopstick rests on the ring finger than has curled in halfway to the palm. The base of the thumb presses it down, and the ring finger holds it up. Thus it stays in one place, passively gripped by the base of the thumb and ring finger. Now look at the fingers you use for holding a pencil. The index finger, middle finger, and end of the thumb are free to move liberally without risk of dropping the fixed chopstick. So you grip the second chopstick like a pencil with index, middle finger, and thumb. And this tripod is used to pinch the end of the movable chopstick against the fixed one. Very little pressure is needed. But I know some folks also bear down much harder on pencils than is strictly necessary. The cramping might come from not isolating the minimum amount of control you need to get the fixed/movable business working. 10:04:24 AM    trackback []     Articulate []