How to Use a Hammer, Like Chopsticks

The more skilled you are at using chopsticks the further away from the tip do you hold them.  I am ignoring the class aspect of this tradition which was probably wiped away with China's cultural revolution.  Or maybe this is comparable to the method the hoity toity of society hold their cigarettes.  In any case it is harder to hold chopsticks from their ends because the weight of the cutlery, and what is being picked up, increases the leverage at the pivot point, which are the fingers.  The basics of this are applicable to hammers in that the further down the shaft you hold the tool, albeit easier to apply force it becomes harder to control that force.  The further up the shaft, the harder it is to apply force but the easier for a novice to pull back a blow if it skews.