A Guide to Proper right-handed claw grip practices on a GCC.

Claw gripping is an extremely helpful method of holding the gamecube controller in order to minimize workload on individual digits and maximise the amount of buttons you have instant access to, however I often see it done improperly which has seemingly led to an impression that it is inherently detrimental to your hands. This isn’t true, and done properly a constant claw grip is likely less straining than a regular grip for the purposes of playing melee.

The two largest points of wear on the hand while playing melee (ignoring the tendon damage that results from gripping the controller too hard, which can happen with any grip) are the first thumb joint and the joints of the wrist, which with regular grip have significant movement. especially when moving the thumb to the Cstick and/or switching to claw temporarily for tech. Claw grip using the index finger for face buttons and the thumb only for C stick completely eliminates wrist movement by having the wrist held in a permanent set position relative to the controller and heavily reduces the movement of the thumb by lowering its workload.

However claw grip is not completely foolproof, a claw grip user must have some awareness about their hand posture in order to prevent other areas of hand strain.

Many claw grip users keep their hand at the same height up the handle when they make the switch from regular grip to claw, this results in the curled forefinger that gives claw grip its name, this creates two problems in the grip.

Firstly, it creates tension in the fingers as they are forced to maintain flexion, resulting in increased wear on the tendons similar to gripping your controller too hard.

Secondly, it forces the player to use a sideways force from the index finger to actuate buttons. This is quite stressful to the hand. As a demonstration push your index and middle fingers against each other and feel how much your entire hand tenses up from this. This is detrimental to both execution and your hand health.

In terms of non-ergonomic concerns it also makes it much more difficult to use face buttons other than Y with the index finger, limiting how fast you can perform inputs with it.

Bad claw grip

Pictures demonstrating poor claw grip, showing the hand positioned too high on the grip, which leads to constantly flexed fingers and the requiring the index finger to exert force perpendicular to its natural motion of flexion.

Proper claw grip has the hand positioned lower down on the handle of the controller, allowing the fingers to rest naturally without maintaining flexion, as well as a slightly rotated grip such that the index finger can flick the bottom edge of the Y button with its natural flexing motion. This eliminates the main sources of stress upon the hands and allows you to play melee for longer with less pain.

Good claw grip
Pictures demonstrating proper claw grip, showing the hand positioned lower on the controller handle, which allows the fingers to rest in a more natural position and the rotation allowing the index finger to actuate the Y button with its natural motion of flexion.