Thursday 8 March 2012

Mouse Grips and which mouse suits you


Generally most people do not pay attention to the way they hold their mouse, and when they get a new mouse they find that it really doesn't suit them and they never manage to figure out why. The basic reason is that each individual has a different style of holding a mouse, and each mouse has a different structure that makes it more suitable for a certain style. When a person purchases a mouse they must buy one that suits their style of grip, the size of their hand and suits their dominant hand of use. There are three different mouse grips one can use:-

1. The Palm Grip
- This is the most common method an individual uses a computer mouse. It involves the user placing his entire hand onto the top of the mouse, resting his palm and the pit of his hand on the rear of the mouse. The mouse is held and controlled by the user pinching his hand together to hold the mouse between his thumb, the heel of his palm and his ring or pinkie fingers. The index and middle fingers are usually placed fully on the left and right mouse buttons respectively.

A slight variation of the palm grip style is where the pinkie finger is used as the right side stabilizer to hold the mouse, with the index, middle and ring fingers placed on the left button, scroll wheel and right button respectively.

The palm grip is defined by the fact that the entire surface of the user’s fingers and palm make contact with the surface of the mouse and the contact points on the mouse are large and undefined.

2. The Claw Grip - The claw grip is another style of holding a mouse that requires the user to arch his/her hand and form a claw shape, pulling the mouse in so the rear end of the mouse is stabilized by barely touching the pit of the user’s hand.

The claw grip is characterized by the arching fingers required to hold the mouse and press each mouse button. The formation of the user’s fingers and the retracted stance of the hand over the mouse make this grip vaguely resemble the claw of a bird, which is where the style draws its moniker. The mouse is held and controlled by the tips of the user’s index and ring or pinkie fingers and stabilized by the pit of the user’s hand so the mouse does not sway when it is lifted.

The main difference between the claw grip and the palm grip is that in the claw grip, only the fingertips and the pit of the palm come into contact with the mouse whereas in the palm grip, the entire length of the fingers and the whole palm rests on the mouse surface.

3. The Fingertip Grip - The fingertip grip is considered to be a subset of the claw grip, where the user grips the mouse solely with the tips of his/her fingers. While this grip style strictly speaking falls within the claw grip subset, it is a popular grip, particularly amongst proponents of certain genres of games, thus elevating it to the status of a primary grip style for gameplay. Unlike the conventional claw grip, the base of the palm is moved away from the rear of the mouse as the user is not concerned with stabilizing the rear of the mouse in his hand and wants increased precision and control of the mouse on the mousing surface instead.

Good Mice for Each Grip:

Palm Grip – Razer Deathadder ($44.99), CM Storm Sentinel Z3RO-G, Logitech MX Revolution

Claw Grip – Steel Series Sensei ($79.99), Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T 7 ($78.99)

Fingertip Grip – Logitech G9X ($64.99), Razer Abyssus ($29.99)

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