If you spend most of your day around a computer, be it for work or for play, it is very important that you know how to hold a mouse properly. Repetitive movements or holding your mouse in the same position for too long increases the risk of developing repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome.
Mice come in different sizes and weights, which affect how you would hold the mouse. Make sure to pick one that fits your hands the best, and one that you can move around effortlessly.
There are many different mouse grip styles, each unique to the other. How you hold the mouse is dependent upon several factors. Today, we are going to look at different mouse gripping styles, to help you narrow down the style that suits you best.
How to Use a Gaming Mouse Properly?
Generally, we need to be aware of a select few points in order to use a mouse correctly:
- Always keep your elbow at a 90-degree angle. You do not want to reach out too far. This helps you maintain the mouse in a comfortable position relative to your body.
- Maintain a comfortable grip. Be sure not to grip too tightly. Gripping too tightly will result in pain and injury later down the line.
- Do not use your wrist to use the mouse around. Use your arm instead.
- Elbows should always be on the table. This is to avoid making any unnecessary movements, thus improving control. It is helpful when it comes to nailing those flick shots.
- Set the DPI settings for your mouse to your preference. It matters a lot while playing games, but it also plays a significant part in comfort.
- Use a single finger for clicking (two fingers max). Do not use multiple fingers to click.
- Long gaming sessions are the way to go, but your performance drops significantly after an hour or two of play, resulting in you missing that sure headshot. Fatigue from moving the mouse around is one of the culprits.
Of course, there are many ways to hold a mouse comfortably whilst gaming. Players adapt accordingly to the skills and the level of precision required. However, when the argument for comfortably holding a mouse arises, it is very easy to differentiate between what is the right way to hold a gaming mouse, and what is not.
Surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of these techniques and styles are wrong. Gamers, well non-gamers as well, make up their own individual techniques to hold mice, which in the end do not even suit them, thus resulting in pain, fatigue, and injury. A mouse should be held such that it causes neither of the above whilst using.
Mouse Grip Styles
Whether it’s a laser or optical type mouse, we have rounded up the best ways to grip your gaming mouse. Professional e-Sports players approve of these, and thus, it is safe to say that you, dear reader, will find these useful.
There are three ways to grip your gaming mouse. These are:
- Palm grip
- Claw grip
- Fingertip grip
Palm Grip
This is the most basic and the most comfortable way to hold a mouse. There are no two ways about it. This method is by non-gamers and gamers, professionals and casuals alike. And this method is ideal because it can be adapted quite easily to your desk and to a change in the environment, such as a coffee shop.
Moreover, this is more of a restive approach to gripping. Gripping in this position does not tire your hand. You do not have to force additional weight on the mouse, either. You can move the mouse about easily whilst keeping your hands more or less flat on the mouse. This makes for long gaming sessions without tiring quickly.
However, you may face issues if you have small hands. A typical gaming mouse is larger in size in comparison to a regular mouse. Size does come into play here. Smaller hands will have trouble reaching the ends of the buttons for the most accurate actuation, resulting in discomfort.
Therefore, we recommend this method for both normal and large hands.
Claw Grip
As the name suggests, this particular grip makes your hand resemble a claw. Contrary to popular belief, this position does not exert any extra pressure on your hand at all. Your fingers are positioned directly on top of the buttons. The palm rests at the rear of the mouse against the sloping end.
Your fingers form an arch, leading the tips of your index and middle fingers directly on the mouse buttons. It is an ideal position, but it does have its demerits. You would not be able to hold this position for long, probably 2-3 hours max. If you ask us, that is about as long as you should be playing at a stretch anyways.
Gaming mice traditionally come with more buttons than a typical mouse. This method allows us to utilize those additional buttons with ease. Therefore, we highly recommend this method for MMO games, where it is imperative that we make use of those graciously provided extra buttons.
This method can also be adapted to play FPS games. The claw pattern provides flexibility and ease of mobility. More mobility equals faster response time, just what you need to shoot your way out of a dicey situation. Note that the claw grip enhances the horizontal mouse movement.
Fingertip Grip
In this style, the palm of your hand is in maximum contact with the mouse, keeping your fingers free to control movement. This method is ideal for explosive bursts of short-distance movements and for steady, mono-directional drags. Meaning you retain high levels of accuracy in micro-movements.
This is especially useful when playing e-sports titles, where accurate movement is key. Explosive bursts of movement mean you can engage in close-quarter combats without breaking a sweat, nailing those sweet no-scope kills.
If you are dealing with high-recoil weapons, it won’t be a problem. This grip allows you to drag down the mouse in a controlled manner, canceling out any vertical recoil from your in-game weapon.
Having micro-movements when aiming down sights? Knowing how to change mouse sensitivity in different OS, this method allows superior control when zeroing in, regardless of your scope sensitivity.
So What Is the Best Grip for Gaming?
Great question. However, the answer is a mixed bag. If you already know how to draw on a computer with a mouse, then you are aware that the grip depends on the intended use mainly.
All of the above styles have their pros and cons. No single grip is perfect for gaming. Adding the different sized hands to the mixture raises compatibility issues, which are easily addressed by switching grip styles.
Palm grips for maximum comfort, claw, and finger grips for fast-paced games, overall different games have different demands when it comes to mouse movements, and therefore, it is necessary that you change how you hold your mouse accordingly.
Most players utilize a mix of differently holding styles to promote ease of play when switching between games. Palm grips for casual story-based games and fingertip grips for high response FPS games.
Mouse Size and Comfort
Generally speaking, when it comes to gaming mice, there is no “one-size-fits-all”. You have to sort that out according to the size of your hands. There is no point in attempting to punch above your league and getting a mouse bigger than what is comfortable to your hands.
Some gamers prefer silence whilst gaming. They prefer the buttons on their mice to make little-to-no noise. And they are not a fan of the tactile noise that emanates from their mice during use. Silence, therefore, to them, is a criterion for comfort. Thus, the best silent mouse for gaming is something for consideration.
Now, other than software compatibility issues, gaming mice across all platforms are equal when it comes to size, shape, and usage. A gaming mouse for Mac OS is not different from a gaming mouse for Windows. Thus, they create no difference in how you would hold your gaming mouse.
Final Words
That concludes today’s adventure. We hope that one of these methods will prove to be useful to you or other gamers you know, all the while avoiding any mice related injuries.
Try out all the gripping styles we mentioned in this article. Make sure you are mimicking them right, else you retain the risk of wrist and hand-related injuries. Choose a particular one or work out a combination of all, whichever allows you to enjoy a comfortable and uninterrupted gaming session.
Also, keep in mind that sometimes the problem may arise from a dirty and uneven mousepad or faulty mouse. Thus, never skip on washing the mousepad and checking the mouse from time to time.
Moreover, whichever grip you end up using at the end, it is important to get up and take breaks from time to time, so that your hand gets some respite from the mouse. Talking a walk gives your body a well-earned rest, but switching to keyboard-only tasks work too.