Pain in wrist...is there anything wrong with my technique?

scatteratter

Junior Member
I've been drumming for 12 years and this is the first time that I've had pain while drumming, I didn't think there was anything wrong with my technique but I want to be sure. Can you tell me if anything stands out in this video? Aside from the poorly tuned snare

https://vimeo.com/290252737

I'm having pain in my right hand, I've seen a physio and they say it's RSI and I shouldn't play drums for a month or even more, which of course doesn't really suit me or my band. The pain occurs in my wrist as well as around my thumb and index finger and sometimes runs up my arm too. I noticed a few months ago that my hand was a little swollen around my thumb and index finger after rehearsal and over the next few weeks I started to get pains about an hour into rehearsal, then last week I couldn't even play for 5 minutes without the pain coming back.
 
It looks like you might be a little tense at the point of impact. It's often a subtle thing and won't always show up right away.

Good technique is a relative term. It dependa on how tired and focused we are and outside circumstances like climate etc..

These are such minute things that one really just got to get a bit of rest and then investigate where the tension is or gets transferred. Loose in front might still mean something is going on further back in the hand. Just a little check on how things ar right at the point of impact and what happens afterwards.

Now, we can still overexert ourselves with seemingly good technique. Traveling, playing or praticing a lot focusing on the main task, playing music well. When we're tired we tend to get more sloppy.

What you feel now is probably not due to what you've done today. You just haven't recovered.
 
Try sleeping with a compression bandage or a scarf tied around your wrist. See if the wrist feels better when you wake up. I find that the swelling, and the pain, can be reduced by compression. But don't stress the wrist. Something has to heal up in there. Maybe you worked the wrist too hard, or maybe you are just getting older.
 
Did you strain it some other way and it manifests itself Drumming. Play the gigs, don’t practice. Ice for swelling.
 
What else do you do? Like Grunt said, it could be something else that is causing the problem, drumming just exacerbates it. Typing, using a mouse, video games, using tools can all cause hand pain.
 
What you're doing there looks pretty low impact. The main potential problem I see is that your back fingers appear to be off the stick most of the time, meaning they're not contributing to moving it where your hand is trying to put it, so you may be compensating by squeezing more up front, with the thumb and index finger.

What are your rehearsals like? How loud and fast, and what kind of sticks are you using?
 
What you're doing there looks pretty low impact. The main potential problem I see is that your back fingers appear to be off the stick most of the time, meaning they're not contributing to moving it where your hand is trying to put it, so you may be compensating by squeezing more up front, with the thumb and index finger.

What are your rehearsals like? How loud and fast, and what kind of sticks are you using?

X2. ^^^

More total hand and finger control/involvement will help . Heat and ice on and off and Motrin/anti inflammatories ( with rest) can help in recovery
 
IMO, your fingers aren't acting as shock absorbers. You are holding the stick against your palm at the point of impact, transferring the shock. You should have a gap between the stick and your palm. Your "new" pain may be from years of shock.
 
I see nothing wrong with your technique.

Joints swelling up after minimal effort makes me think you might have some sort of autoimmune problem.

Sometimes these things just happen for no apparent reason.

About 10 or 15 years ago I developed something called frozen shoulder.
They don't know what causes it.
There is no cure ,but it goes away after a year.
 
Ok, thanks for the input everyone...makes me feel better about my technique!
I think you guys are on to something about needing to use my fingers more.

The rehearsals I usually do are around 3-4 hours long and there are some 5-10minute breaks in between playing where we are just discussing stuff. It's not crazy fast or heavy stuff, but I used to use these Peter Erskine ride sticks and then when I started playing with this band I found that I was breaking too many of the Peter Erskine jazz sticks. I like playing 5As but I'm still trying to find a brand/make that I like.

I am starting to think that the swelling may not have been initially caused by drumming. I think it's been about 2 weeks since it got really bad. My hand is definitely more mobile now but I'm scared of making it worse. I've been doing very short (5min) bursts of rudiments a few times a day just to test the waters. All was going well, I even sat at the kit and played through a song yesterday and then today I jumped on the kit to try another song and my right hand started hurting- around the back of the palm- and I could see it was starting to swell a little so I just stopped and put ice on my hand.

I'm really keen to get back into playing but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it is...I've got some gigs lined up that are only a few weeks away and I don't even know if I can play :O
 
Update:
I've taken a break from drumming since I posted and have been seeing a physio. The pain got so bad to the point where I couldn't carry out day-to-day tasks. I still get pain when I have to do anything that requires too much pressure or motion with my hands.
I saw a hand specialist and after doing some tests they believe the cause of the pain is constriction in my veins/arteries near my collar bone when I move my arms into certain positions.
Anyone else dealt with something like this before? It's pretty miserable not being able to drum. I still play other musical instruments but nothing gives me that same 'high' that I get from drumming.
 
So they think it's a thoracic outlet syndrome? Neurogenic I gather. I doubt technique is the issue then but a repetitive injury or you had some injury in past. My technique sucks and all my injuries have been non-drum related-just impacts my playing. I recently discovered I had broken my collar bone from such injury in the past flipping a three wheeler. So you wreck anything lately? It could be an odd anatomical occurrence (you find lots of variations in human cadavers in anatomy lab).
 
So they think it's a thoracic outlet syndrome? Neurogenic I gather. I doubt technique is the issue then but a repetitive injury or you had some injury in past. My technique sucks and all my injuries have been non-drum related-just impacts my playing. I recently discovered I had broken my collar bone from such injury in the past flipping a three wheeler. So you wreck anything lately? It could be an odd anatomical occurrence (you find lots of variations in human cadavers in anatomy lab).

Wow Art, how does one not realize they have broken their collar bone? It had to have been brutally painful one would think. You must be built out of concrete and rebar!
 
Wow Art, how does one not realize they have broken their collar bone? It had to have been brutally painful one would think. You must be built out of concrete and rebar!

ROFL I wish. No I was in terrible pain-just everywhere. It flipped me into a big pine tree. When I came to I couldn't breathe-I thought I was a gonna for sure. After what seemed hours I was able to get up and stumble back home. My Dad told me-"Well you didn't break any limbs or your neck so count yourself lucky." He was a physician but for everyone but family-he had little patience for us (always amazed me my friends would tell me what a great caring physician he was and I'm like who you talking about). He poked me a bit and told me I broke a bunch of ribs-and at cartilage which he stated at my age wouldn't likely heal. They didn't and they get out whack and I have to pop it out. I can still get on an elevator and pop my back and ribs like an accordion-flips people out like next my head will roll off next LOL. One of my daughters noted my asymmetry in shoulder collar bones as we were swimming-I never noticed it-my physicians examined me and said 'Well Art looks like you broke it in past-remember when?". So I'm like well lets see-so I assume it was this "wreck" that broke it, but who knows I've been prone to disaster.
 
I have dealt with wrist issues from the past on multiple occasions. I have a TFCC injury from a punching bag years back and can only say this.

Listen to physio. Take the month off.

Once in a while mine will flair up if I over practice. Lets say for a two weeks straight of a 3-4 hours a day. If I keep playing it will get worse. If I take a few days off It will reset... I have learnt to just not practice full bore and to work on other things as well that don't require hard fast hitting drums. Touch, technique, independence etc.

Try hitting lighter. lighter sticks, whatever you need to do, but any injury I have had time has always helped. And perhaps like me you tend to hit harder at jam. Have the guys turn down a bit. All these things combined I have not had an issue in a long time.
 
First of all, I have had two dislocations when sporting in my right arm, took 3 different specialists and 3 fysios before they could find what it was. I was falsly diagnosed carpal tunnel, RSI and tendinitis, they even wanted to operate me!!
I was told I would not drum again in my life.
Turns out, my dislocations started affecting my whole arm, making my muscles "fatigued" and started having all kind of weird symptoms after that. I was healed in a year by a different fysio, all in total 4 years without drums. So much pain I would not sleep at night, couldn't write nor eat with my right arm, etc.
I feel your pain. I hope you will heal soon!

So. Technique... I don't see much wrong. We could argue all the day about it, but honestly.... I'd say you to remember the laws of physics. The stick makes a force and the force also executes back (if you want to truly understand, check out Newton's laws and how energy works, an example of a bouncing ball or roller coaster will make this very clear).

I see a lot of wrist movement. Instead of only doing wrist work, try to make it an all-in-one movement, where even the shoulder is doing it's job. (not that you end up like a robot, it should be fluent and natural). When you are playing at quieter dynamics, try to come from the arm instead of the wrist. The wrist is kind of obvious because is a "small movement" but you would be amazed the control you get if you change that... a bit like with ghost notes control. Let those sticks do the work. It's not that you are "doing it wrong" really... you could try different things..I hope I made myself understandable...


Biggest advise I can give you here, go search a conservatory graduate teacher and take a lesson to see if there's anything else you could improve there. I did the same and my grip and fluidity took off.

By physics you will also understand that holding your stick with a gap, doesn't help (you are still holding the stick!), fingers can be handy and cool, but... once again, your whole arm get's the impact.

I'd say, see a couple of different specialists and DO LISTEN the advise to take rest. Believe me, the first half year of my injury I didn't stop and while I almost couldn't extend my arm (literally it would block), by drumming it got only worse. After half a year of the last rehab that finally worked, I started drumming again, I did experience pain and the remedy was to sport/make my muscles stronger, in order to regain what I had lost (surprise, not surprise). Don't forget that.

Right now you are the one that should be first. Your band, great, I get it. But it's YOUR health!
 
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I have had wrist pain about 3 times in my years of playing.. Every once in a while I'll go on a kick where I am OVER motivated before recording and want to be tight in the studio. Every time this has happened I was spending too much time on the pad, and drumming.. I'm talking like 2 hours a day on the pad, and 2+ hours on the kit.

The problem is I am working on singles, doubles and rudiments as fast as I can, blast beats, and playing pretty aggressive.. I think it just ended up being over use. I'd take a day off but it would linger.

I found taking a week off would usually fix it.. There have been a few times I have taken 2 weeks of too and let everything reset.

There are a ton of smart and experienced people here, but I find if someone says "what is wrong with my technique in this video" You will have people pick it apart LOOKING for something even if there is nothing really "wrong" with it. You look very relaxed. You are not straining, hitting to hard, reaching etc. I don't know if you practice like this all the time or play with your band this same way though. Do things get louder and you start hitting harder?

I have also had my elbow cause me very bad pain while drumming. The cause was being on my laptop on the couch too much and using the track pad in a weird position. So like other people say, sports, video games, turning a screwdriver. who knows but it could be multiple things contributing.


There are two things I can't suggest enough before drumming.

1 - STRETCH
Stretching will prevent injuries and is very important. I find a 5 minute stretch before a gig and I don't have that feeling like I'm in the zone by the 3rd song. Nothing too crazy, some leg stretches, back stretches, arms and hands. It gets the blood flowing to those spots and makes a huge difference.

2- WARM UP
Pad work is my usual. Start slow, singles, doubles, diddles, maybe a few other rudiments. gradually increase the bpm. Depending on how long I have dictates how long I stay at each bpm and the top speed. Don't hit too hard, don't push too hard.. Just get the blood flowing, focus on relaxing and letting the stick do most of the work. If I have more time I will go just until I get a bit of a burn while still not straining.


I watched it again, and noticed your fingers are off the sticks a bit, but with the velocity you're hitting at I don't see that causing extreme pain. Try going to lighter and heavier sticks, and moving your hands up and down on both. Is it better or worse. I found playing slow having heavier sticks allowed me to not hit as hard, and the sticks also stick to my fingers. playing fast i go to a light stick to not burn out my arms.

The key to all drumming is to just remain as relaxed as possible. don't over grip the sticks, don't tense up.

You have been playing long enough that it's not muscle pain from being new. I suggest taking 2 weeks off. going VERY easy on it, and seeing where you are at.. See physio, dr, etc and make sure something else isn't going on.
 
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