— Tracy Matesz

Let's start out with some of the ergonomics of cutting. Okay, your the height of the surface makes a difference and for you know, the the average person right in this in the United States is probably somewhere around what five foot nine inches approximately and so things in houses, like counter Heights are generally made to accommodate that person. And so if you're significantly shorter or taller Then things don't fit so well, okay. So, you know, the the counter height is typically such that, you know, your your elbows are a little bit higher than the counter and your arms are going to come down at a bit of an angle. Not not too much. If you're if you're tall or have to make you know, or have to hunt over or not too flat or even angled up if you're shorter, okay? so if you find that you're on the on the shorter side of average and you know, your your arms are closer to the parallel, then you might want to figure out a way to stand on a platform to lift your body up so that you can get in a more comfortable. position when you're holding your blade, okay, because first of all Your wrists elbows shoulders neck back hips knees and ankles are affected by your activities in the kitchen and certainly in a professional setting or you're doing a lot of volume in a lot of repetitive motion. Those things can permanently damage the body. So please be aware of that at home for most people most the time. It's probably not a major concern, but certainly for some people it can be and so please be aware of that as you're setting up for your kitchen work. Okay, so the kitchen surface or you you know relative to that kitchen service is going to be important. Okay, and Try to grip the knife. In this manner, okay, and then pull your hand around the handle. It's going to give you it's going to move your hand up. A little bit onto the blade and it's going to give you more drive driving force and control and a little bit less stress on the forearm. Okay, so that is considered important. Okay in terms of using the knife and You know, the other thing is if you've got small hands and your slicing something that's large or tall you need to make adjustments and it might mean cutting that item down a little bit further. So it's not as tall or not as wide. So that you can hold it more comfortably and safely equally safely and as you cut that item, okay, and then the rest of it is gonna be practice. It's gonna be about finding a place that's comfortable. We're often going to rotate the body. Yeah to so it's an angle our shoulders and angle to the the countertop and I'm I'm right handed so I'm rotating in this fashion. As I use my knife on The Cutting Board, okay, or you might find you know, some other way of of your knife versus your food moving across the cutting board, but so much of it is practice and it's finding what's comfortable for you if something so as you're learning a new activity and holding your body in a different position and doing something new you should expect some aches right that's reasonable to expect for for new activities. But if things start to hurt then that's not good. Okay, and so very often just a small pivot rotation different height, you know that creates different angles can be much more comfortable and therefore safe in the long run. But again in terms of the the rest of the cutting it's all about practice cutting. Is and developing knife skills, you know more precise knife skills is one of the most challenging tasks in the kitchen. And even in most restaurants prep cooks and line Cooks have some pretty shoddy knife skills in my opinion. It's a but it's just it's a it's a difficult activity that takes a lot of practice. So the more you cook and the more you are mindful about your knife practice the faster you're going to move down that path of improvement. All right, so give those things a try. Thank you.