Two ways to win the same match
The top roll and the hook solve the same problem by opposite routes. Worth knowing which one is yours before you sit down at the table.
Top roll: open the hand
The top roll depends little on raw strength. You apply back pressure while twisting your wrist and forearm toward the opponent's fingers, moving from a neutral palm to a position facing away from you.
The goal is to open their hand and bend their wrist backwards into deadwrist: a position from which they cannot generate force. If you also walk your fingers higher into their hand, you gain leverage as they lose it.
It is the technique of the athlete with a strong hand and wrist.
Hook: trap from the inside
The hook is an inside move. It relies on wrist flexion, supination and the biceps. You cup your hand and pull the opponent's wrist inward and back to break their position.
Where the top roll opens, the hook curls. It is a closer, more strength-driven game, usually decided by who holds the position longer.
Press: pure power
The press is the purest power move. You use it confident you have superior upper-body power, especially chest and triceps. It is not a rescue technique: without the power behind it, it leaves you exposed.
How to choose
Start where you are already strong, but learn all three. An athlete who knows only one technique is predictable, and at this table predictability is a loss waiting to happen.