This past month at 10th Planet Van Nuys Coach Alder Hampel has been encouraging everyone to tape their fingers before class starts and before rolling. According to Coach Alder, taping your fingers is a good way to prevent and help with finger injuries. The tape adds an extra layer of support and provides material to help brace the joints against the wear and tear of rolling. In addition to helping with injuries, taping your fingers is supposed to help with your grip. The tape again adds an extra layer on top of the skin that can be used to prevent the slipping and sliding of sweaty skin on sweaty skin.

Over the past two weeks I have been taping the fingers on my right hand and have noticed a few pros and cons to taping.

Pros:

Improved stability in joints. My fingers feel a lot stronger when they are taped up. Perfect from framing.

I have seen some improvements in grip. So far nothing to make me want to tape up all the time but there have been minor improvements. I plan on playing around with it a little more before making a decision if I want to pursue taping all the time or just some of the time.

Cons:

Time! It has been taking me about ten minutes or so to tape up both of my hands. Ten minutes isn’t a lot of time, taping does require you to get to class earlier than you are used to.

In the video below Jiu Jitsu Black Belt and Rockstar Kur Osiander gives a brief tutorial on how to tape your fingers for BJJ. If you have any interest in all at trying out taping your fingers I suggest watching the video FYI If you’re not familiar with Kurt Osiander just a heads up that the video has a few NSFW moments.