Current way of measuring reach
 

I didn't find a thread on it, but do you think the current way of measuring reach is accurate? i.e. by measuring wingspan.

I don't know why it makes any sense to measure the person's chest along with the arms. This inflates reach unnecessarily. Some people have wider chests and may not have the reach advantage people boast about. Two people that come to mind are GSP and Lesnar who have pretty wide chests for their weight class. They probably each have a reach advantage but may be not to the magnitude mentioned in the tale of the tape.

Thoughts?

POST HERE, not the duplicate thread "measuring reach"

Really,they measure across the chest? Like in the middle of the breasts bone, or from finger tip to finger tip?

its from finger tip to finger tip i thought. i say they should measure from middle of the chest plate out to the finger tip since when throwing your gonna reach in so that takes into account. which isnt really accurate but shoulder to finger tip wouldnt be that accurate either.

finger tip to finger tip i got a 65" reach and my chest is 15"

having a wider chest is an advantage in reach seeing as how most effective striking includes torso movement and extension

The width of the torso affects reach. Not to the same proportion that arm length contributes to reach but it does increase it. Your torso is turning into the punch every time you throw and the angle connecting from your mid chest to shoulder increases the distance from the shoulders to the knuckles.

This does not mean that if your reach is 70" that you can actually reach out 35" on one of your arms. Try it yourself and extend your fist out as far as you can then imagine doing the same thing with your chest width only being a foot across instead, you would have far less rotation and therefor your reach would be less with a foot wide chest than a 3 foot wide chest like Brock has.

I have a 77inch reach then, Not bad I guess. But Jones is a freak at 85,lol. But is he really known for his striking? Its not like he uses a jab often. Maybe if he works on the double jap,it would be put to good use.

I think it is measured wrong. Why use finger tips. IMO it should be from the center of the chest to the end of a closed fist.

Plus, when you go across someone entire back and chest (like you said) it can easliy skew the results.

some people have wider chests, backs and shoulders that HAVE to be included into their reach, when you rotate your torso into your shots. Unless you want to use arm punches...

hahaha

we have had countless discussions on this with the people i watch the fights with.

yes, it is a joke the way they measure reach, they are really not measuring a true reach advantage