help for not leaving arc strikes tig

I have been tig welding for 3 years now only using the foot pedal. the last few weeks i’ve been practicing with the hand control that you push up and down with your thumb. I wear extra small women’s welding gloves. i’m not able to hold the torch in a good position while also having my thumb able to reach the on off switch. I can reach the switch but the slide from on to off is out of my range of motion. during practice I just pull the torch away. i’m currently practicing for my 6g combo test using a smaller setup with a pedal. i’ve gotten used to practicing with the thumb control on larger pipe and flats but there is no way for me to weld the 6g properly with my hand able to access the slide thing. it’s schedule 10 2” and the few seconds it takes to reach the slide control are going to mess with my root pass. my hands are really small and no matter how I hold the torch my thumb doesn’t have the range of motion to slide it from the highest position to the off position while welding. i’m wondering if there is a way for me to have the thumb slide all the way open but still do stops and starts without leaving arc marks. not sure if I can run the arc up the filler rod as I am pulling away? I would like to take my test without the foot pedal because it does limit my range of motion but the thumb control limits my hands even more unless there is a work around for ending a pass without fiddling with the controls.