iBDW reveals severe hand pain from using claw grip while playing Super Smash Bros. Melee
Top-tier Super Smash Bros. Melee player Cody “iBDW” Schwab may be dealing with permanent damage to his hand after using a claw grip too long.
There are two popular ways to hold a GameCube controller while playing a fast-paced fighting game like Melee. One of those grips is known as the claw grip, characterized by the right index finger permanently covering the Y button of the controller and the thumb moving between the A, B, and C stick. The middle finger of the right hand will be on the right bumper. While effective for Melee and Ultimate, it looks like the claw grip may have hurt iBDW’s hand.
iBDW is one of the best Fox players in the world right now, known for his passion for modded controllers and fast-paced gameplay. But he was forced to slow down a few days ago when he started feeling some pain in his thumb. On August 5, iBDW tweeted that he may have “minorly sprained” his thumb and was going to take a few days off from Melee to play shooters instead.
“Hopefully no big deal long term,” he said at the time.
think i minorly sprained my thumb from trying to get the eggs world record nonstop for like 4 hours
…
whoops
gonna play shooters/watch wavedash for the rest of the weekend and try again monday
hopefully no big deal long term, dont think it will be
— Cody Schwab (@iBDWSSBM) August 5, 2022
The often overthinking Melee player came back soon after to declare that the pain may be something more serious. He questioned if it was some type of tendonitis that was possibly even “pretty severe.” He decided to go to urgent care to have his hand looked at, worrying that he may be taking off a month or more from playing the game.
so it's kinda probable i have some type of tendinitis in my hand thats pretty severe
im being told to wait until im pain free for 4-5 days to resume playing, but that almost for sure means no ssc
will reevaluate tomorrow after going to urgent care, but might be gone for a month
— Cody Schwab (@iBDWSSBM) August 6, 2022
Meanwhile, iBDW felt he knew the possible cause of the damage.
“Gonna look into this more but I might just completely have to abandon my old grip for long term and learn a new one. I knew claw was bad for your hands but shit man that’s painful,” iBDW wrote.
After looking at his hand, iBDW added that doing the claw grip with his right hand “straight up caused it.”
dude…
i just held a controller to try to recreate the pain on my right hand
i think clawing on my right side actually just straight up caused it, no problem with analog sticks, no problem with my thumb, but the second i tried to claw the intersection of index+thumb jolted
— Cody Schwab (@iBDWSSBM) August 6, 2022
While many sent well wishes to iBDW, worried for the state of his hand with so many super majors coming up, others noted that claw grip has been ridiculed for this exact reason for years. Some even claimed they had told Codey about claw grip themselves during chat only to be shut down. Others added that they also had hand issues from playing Smash and figured it would only get worse with time.
For now, fans are waiting to hear iBDW’s official diagnosis. It’s unclear if he will be attending any upcoming Smash tournaments due to his troubling hand issues.
