I, as well as others, have a history of strained wrists when splitting wood with a traditional axe. Clicking through to their website they recommend a loose grip when the head is about to strike, allowing for the rotation to take place. This makes sense because before you'd need a strong grip to hold onto your axe to make sure it doesn't slip out of your hands when giving a swing strong enough to split. Since you are swinging much more gently, this may actually work! At the very least I am glad that I don't need to split wood these days otherwise I'd give this a try in a second.