Referee’s grip is the starting position in which the opponents are in the most equal conditions: the athletes’ shoulders are parallel to the table, the elbows are on the pillows in the same positions, the center and the front are flat. The referee closes the grip, given that wrists are also straight, not supinated, and the phalanges are open. There remains one “white spot” - a failed wrist or a stretched wrist, which depends on the length of the hands of the opponents.

Evgeny Prudnik declared this problem, indicating that during the referee’s grip Vitaliy Laletin’s arm was closed with a failed wrist, so Evgeny was set in the same position. The difference is that for Vitaly this situation is familiar, the fight with a failed wrist is quite suitable for him, and such a start is absolutely inconvenient for Evgeny.

“After the fight, Evgeny Prudnik said that he was put in an uncomfortable position in the referee’s grip, and if his wishes were taken into account, everything could have been different, - says PAL President Igor Mazurenko. - Perhaps so, but the rules are the rules. I’m afraid we’re unlikely to find a universal way to set the grip, but we can discuss and search, because there is no limit to perfection”.

In fact, this problem is not entirely private and concerns only Evgeny Prudnik. It applies to those athletes who are forced out to pull rivals whose arm is longer than their arm in the refs grip. For example, potential rivals of George Tautiev, who is fighting in a similar style with Vitaly Laletin.

What change can be introduced into the rules of referee’s grip to take into account all aspects and characteristics of the hands of athletes? Dear readers, what do you think about this?

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