Thumbs Up

first of all, the inspiration from this post came from the state of extreme boredom i found myself in during a 7-hour restaurant-calling shift at my internship. i had a little downtime between calls, in a sort of a holding pattern until the next wave of restaurant managers were due in, so i was cruising through the l.a. times site. it was the front page picture that made me realize, politicians have terrible thumbs up form. take this shot of new orleans mayor ray nagin for example:








can you believe that? overextension, weak fist action, flimsy wrist. it's all so wrong. now look at these from our great leader:

















let's examine the first one. extreme overextension. loose fist clench. emotionless facial expression. no power. now let's take a look at the second. a little better in terms of extension, but the hand is still much too high in relation to the body. the facial expression inspires ridicule and defeats any sense of the victorious nature of a good thumbs up. now let's see some examples of well-executed thumbs up:

















we have great form in the first example. the kid's got a nice, tight arm position. the hand is situated next to the face, not too high, not too low. he's got the fist locked in like a pro, and the smirk ties the whole package together nicely. the next example, featuring tony the tiger, also displays excellent positioning. the hand is up and in, next to the face, and the other arm crossed over the chest expounds an even greater sense of accomplishment. take some notes, folks. this is how you execute a successful thumbs up.