Sled Pull — Pull Rate (Hand-Over-Hand)

Why this matters

Hand-over-hand pulling draws the sled in with alternating grips while the athlete stays braced — feet planted or in a shallow stance, torso square. Here the limiter is rarely the legs and almost always grip and rhythm: the rope keeps moving only as fast as the hands can cycle and hold. Pull rate is the read on that alternating cadence, and like the squat-row variant it's informational — load and rope thickness set the ceiling, so the number describes pacing rather than grading it.

The most useful signal is decay. Hand-over-hand rate that holds means grip is keeping up; a rate that sags mid-pull is grip fatigue announcing itself before the athlete feels they have to stop. A high rate is fine only if the torso stays square — when the rate climbs and the trunk starts rotating to "throw" each pull, power is leaking sideways instead of into the rope.

How it's measured here — and the slow-motion trap

This is a windowed count. Scrub to the start of a clean pull to open the window, scrub to the same point of a later pull to close it, count the alternating pulls between. Rate = pulls ÷ window-seconds × 60.

If the clip is phone slow-motion (120/240 fps captured, 30 fps timestamps), an uncorrected rate reads several times too low. Set Capture FPS in the Clip Inspector to the true capture rate so the tool rescales to real time.

What good looks like

A steady alternating rhythm that keeps the rope moving without stalls, the torso staying square to the sled and the hands cycling smoothly. Stable rate across the pull beats a fast start that fades.

Common faults

• Slow (low rate) — usually grip- or rhythm-limited rather than leg-limited; a low or falling rate is a grip-fatigue flag. Manage grip across the pull rather than gripping maximally early.
• Fast (high rate) — fine if the torso stays square; watch for rotational leak where the athlete twists to fling each pull, which spends energy sideways instead of into the rope.

Coaching cues

• "Square chest, quiet torso." Keeps the power going straight into the rope at higher rates.
• "Relax the grip between pulls." Spreads grip endurance over the full distance.

Related measurements

• Sled Pull — Pull Rate (Squat-Row) — the squat-driven variant, which is leg- rather than grip-limited.