OH and pinky turning hurting

[Morgoth890]

Hello,

I used to solve one-handed with my index and ring finger and i got times of about 1 minute, and i recently switched to the "Japanese turning style" to turn with my pinky instead (for L and L', as i'm holding it in my right hand).

However, after two days trying to get used to it, turning and fingertricking, i noticed that the skin near my pinky's nail is really hurting and is quite red, i can't really practice anymore for now.

Do you know if this is normal and only because i practiced too much, or if i'm doing it wrong?

I'm really interested in trying to improve one-handed as i never really spent much time on it before, and i wanted to do it for a WCA event end of this month. But if i can not practice more than a few minutes without hurting myself i might as well go back to my old slower ring-finger style.

If this is not normal i could eventually see if i can upload a video of how i am doing it if that can help, but it looks pretty much like the tutorial videos i followed, so maybe practice (without over-practicing) would make my finger's back skin stronger.

What do you guys think? Have you experienced this when you first started?

 

[kunparekh18]

This isn't supposed to happen, either change your grip or change to a smaller sized cube. The Japanese style does take some time to get used to. But it shouldn't hurt.

 

[Morgoth890]

Thank you for you answer.

Ok i will try to change my grip.

I think it happened because sometimes the cube layers are not correctly aligned and so i have to push harder with my finger to turn the face and cut the corner. My cube cuts corners pretty well (Dayan Zhanchi) but still, when it's at the limit of cutting i sometimes push too hard on the back of my finger to force the cut.

 

[Weston]

Meh, If its just your skin it doesn't seem like anything is wrong. That will go away as you develop a callus. I'm not saying that pain in OH is okay, if its your joints or your muscles that are hurting, then you're doing it wrong. But if its its just your skin then its not that big of a deal. Ive had my pinky bleed before partially from OHing too much lol.

 

[brian724080]

It's fine if its your skin, as Weston said. You might also want to get a smaller cube (55 mm or smaller) so you don't stress your pinky.

 

[cubeninjaIV]

the same thing happened to me a few moths ago when i switched over. Just take a break and practice again later.
I practiced until my pinky started bleeding but it goes away after a while

 

[Morgoth890]

Ok thanks all of you.

Fortunately i stopped before bleeding, that should allow me to get back to it a bit sooner

 

[Chree]

When I started doing OH about 6 or 7 months ago and the same thing happened to me. It went away after a couple weeks. I also switched to a smaller cube (50mm zhanchi).