Growing Hands with Myofascial Therapy

quarterback-1639986

Picture CC0 Public Domain

 

The size of one’s hand appears to one of many important criteria set by the US National Football League (NFL) teams for selecting their next player. The minimum benchmark hand size for a quarterback is 9 inches (or 23 cm) measured from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger with fingers spread apart. A larger hand can supposedly make a player easier to handle the ball and have a better grip on the ball in rainy weather.

Brandon Allen, a quarterback from the University of Arkansas, entered the NFL draft or selection process early in 2016, came up short of NFL standards with hand size of 8½ inches. It is commonly accepted that adult’s hand size could not be increased. This means Brandon’s place in the NFL draft would not be realised. However, Brandon wouldn’t accept that. At the XPE training facility in Boca Raton, Florida, he met George Kousaleos (Read about the XPE training with George Kousaleos here). George had an idea, in 2015 he used his signature CORE myofascial therapy to increase the foot and ankle mobility of Jameis Winston, Florida State University’s star quarterback and also the first player selected in the 2015 NFL draft.

George Kousaleos, utilised myofascial spreading techniques, worked on hands muscles and joints, was able to increase Brandon Allen’s hand size to 8 7/8 inches, an increase of three-eighths of an inch (or 9.5 mm) in about a month.

This raised eyebrows in the media, with news headline such as “Size matters? QB Brandon Allen trying to make his hands bigger”, “Arkansas QB Brandon Allen actually grew his hands for the NFL Draft Combine”,  “Brandon Allen using therapy to increase hand measurement”.

Brandon Allen explained his “hand growing treatment” in an article in Sports Illustrated: “Basically, all these muscles in my hand are very tight, the massage therapist told me,” Allen said. “So he’s working out these muscles so that my hand kind of opens up a little more when I stretch it.” And because he is dedicated to this cause, Allen has also done plenty of solo work. “A lot on my own just stretching it out and working it,” he said.

With continued hand exercises given by George , Brandon achieved the 9 inches mark. He was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 6th round of the NFL Draft.

It is known that hand, which is enormously represented in the brain’s somatosensory cortex is highly plastic. According Til Luchau, hand’s representation in brain can grows and shrinks relatively quickly, according to demands of motor and sensory activity. Violin players, for instance, have a much bigger area of brain representation for their left hand than the right; not playing violin for two weeks causes these representations to equalize bilaterally; after resuming playing again, it takes about two weeks until the previous proportions are regained. Growing hands could increased dexterity and coordination, which shows simultaneous physical and neurological effects.

Read an article in Washington Post on George’s work for growing hands https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/02/28/bigger-is-better-so-some-nfl-prospects-try-increase-their-hand-size/?utm_term=.f2f809150d40