WFD Talk

Hey fellow WFDers!!

One day you are practicing and you hit 950, you get frustrated because the previous two days you've hit 1000+ and you begin to get upset about it. Happened to you guys?? I'm sure the guns Smith, Rice, Grosset, Mangini, Rabb and all the WFD Competitors have experienced this. I have too... A LOT!!!! Don't be worried if this happenes to you, because all its really telling you is to rest a day or two for your arm muscles to develop. I recently was hitting 1000 and the next day struggled to hit 970.. I gave it a good rest for a day then came back with a good warm up and hit 1,010... Thats a whopping 40 stroke improvement in 3 days, then the next day my scores dropped to below the 1000 again. DAMN IT!!!! I said. I hate that so much but only because I'm stupidly rushing myself to get a big score. Patience is the key, work with your arms, don't over do it and if you ignore the signs, you may never play again. With time and the correct methods you will reach your goal. Trust me on this, I trusted the champs when I was competing and earned my belt.

But with a good warm up routine and a rest day every two days really has helped push my scores up. Currently in the 1060's with a PB of
1071. It's important TO REST!! Give your arms a break, for mainly two reasons: 1. Development and 2. Avoid injury.

Good luck!!!!

This is an extremely wise and important post overall, and for me it couldn't be more timely. I'm not kidding you--I got on here to send Joey a FB message saying he's absolutely right that sometimes the best thing you can do is simply to rest (which he told me in a previous conversation), and I saw this post.

I kept a daily log of my scores in 2007, the summer I came down with carpal tunnel. I even made a note of the day I started feeling numbness. I'd done far too many runs each day for about an 8-10 day period. Who knows whether a day's rest here and there might have prevented it; I never gave it the chance, because I was constantly pushing myself to get faster.

I've overdone it slightly a couple times in the last few months (nothing too serious). My scores would drop each consecutive day that I kept exerting myself until I finally decided to rest for a sufficient period, sometimes for two or three days. So on those occasions, I essentially wasted about a week of practice time--the four or so days when I should have been resting rather than drumming, and the two or three days I spent recovering so I could start back from where I was. A day's rest after the initial warning sign would likely have reduced this "lost" period to two days.

Without fail, my hands feel better after I take a day off. I never feel as if the lack of practice puts me behind schedule. Quite the opposite--I always think to myself that resting was the most productive thing I could have done. I think it's a critical part of any upward trajectory.

So listen to Joey. Warm up well before giving it your all, and rest plenty afterwards. Resting isn't a waste of time. For me this daily schedule makes the most sense: 1) work exclusively on fundamentals and muscle memory, 2) warm up for about 30 minutes, then do some drumometer runs, 3) don't play a note. Repeat.

Thanks for the kind words, Daniel! I had you in mind when I was writing this because I seen what the strain and injury did to a could be record holder. I myself have had symptoms ( between my middle and ring fingers on my left hand) and I immediately had to take action and stop for a week or so then figure out how I was going I go about my training without causing this grief.

So we need to get the word out to those guys and girls rushing for the 1000. In reality it won't happen over night. It costs hours of work. We need to give experience to the inexperienced from our own mouths because Id hate to see them learn the hard way and never hold sticks again. So me, yourself Daniel, Matt, Tom, Eric ( if we all are at NAMM) will do little demo classes on this stuff and educate people about the pressures the arms endure.

Tha Thunda is roaring Boo!!

I noticed this too..and sometimes even after a break the scores don't come back for a few days. I've been stuck in a hole of low 900's scores for 16 days even after resting a few times. Haven't gotten worse, or improved at all.

Spencer, what is happening with you is that you have reached a peak in this point in time. Improvement will come along. Be patient.

What I suggest doing is, just play 16ths at a comfotable speed for 10-15 minutes a day for a few weeks to help with conditioning, muscle memory and technique. Avoid blasting in this time ( its hard for me haha). Stretching lightly helps too.

Also, log everything you do in the practice sessions, everything from warm Ups to scores to how your hands feel. This will help you pinpoint progress and may help you find where you're going wrong.


Good luck, let me know how you go .

Hey Joey, thanks for the advice. I ended up taking a few days off and then I went back to my old routine. My speed is coming back now and I hope it stays that way!

Back in the day 2000, Johnny Rabb and I ran into this same wall at around 970-1000 and man it took months for Johnny to break through that 1000 barrier. Some weeks yes he would actually go backwards, it was like muscle training similar to weight lifting, running, swimming etc......The muscles had to break down, then rest in order to rebuild it seemed.

This is really a good topic and should be explored more for the finding will help drummers for years to come. Please continue with this discussion.......

Oh, and I forgot to mention, when I got stuck, my hands also felt they had "forgotten" how to play the way they did before, and even small tasks like playing for 10 second bursts seemed to take all my energy. I think it's attributed to badly injuring your muscles by overdoing your practice many times in succession.