Grip Strength and Sports Performance

Indianapolis, IN

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of sport type on grip strength for an athlete's dominant and non-dominant hands. In this study, 100 collegiate athletes completed three rounds of grip strength testing per hand. There were a total of ten athletes per sport. The independent variable was sport type, upper-body dominant, lower-body dominant, and hand-technique dominant. The dependent variable was grip strength score. It was hypothesized that upper-body dominant, lower-body dominant, and hand-technique dominant sports involving one hand(such as tennis and basketball) would show a higher grip strength score in the athletes' dominant writing hand than the non-dominant. It was also hypothesized that grip strength would be greater in the non-dominant hand and lower in the dominant hand for hand-technique dominant sports primarily involving both hands (such as lacrosse). Pilot data demonstrated that sport type had an impact on grip strength. Data is still being collected and compete data will be presented.