Worship Musician February 2018 | Page 39

DRUMS [ STRETCHING FOR BETTER PLAYING AND BETTER HEALTH | Daniel Hadaway ] Remembering to warm up or stretch before injury during stretching is to only use our own 3. Imagine that there is a wall on either side drumming has always been a struggle for me. bodies in the process- and even then, to avoid of you, and you are using your palms to As I’ve grown older, I realize the need to protect doing things like using one hand to pull or push push out against them. Use your entire my body against injury. Even gentle and quiet on other parts of the body. arm to push out away from your body, drumming can cause all kinds of repetitive remembering to keep your palms as strain injuries, and ultimately hamper our ability For example, we shouldn’t push our hands perpendicular to the floor as possible. Do to lead worship with our church. Also, it’s just against a wall with our wrists flexed. It is this for 10-20 seconds. good stewardship to take care of our bodies! extremely easy to over-exert when we use outside objects. The same is true for doing 4. Keeping your arms extended, relax your I’d like to share a simple stretch with you in this things like using our left hand to pull on our right wrists and move immediately to bending article. This is a stretch that I try to do every elbow towards our body. your wrists downward. time I play drums, and is quick, effective, and doesn’t require any special equipment. But, I know I might be overdoing it with playing it 5. Pretend that you are trying to touch your please keep this mind: I’m not a medical safe- but when it comes to physical fitness, I’d elbow with your fingers (while keeping professional. You should always seek the rather be safe than sorry. your arms outstretched). Slowly relax advice of a qualified professional to find a and then flex your wrists and fingers stretching routine that will work for you! downward and inward toward your Before I share the stretch, here are a couple of Early on I was elbow. Do this for 10-20 seconds. things to avoid in any stretching routine: taught that the AVOID VIOLENT MOVEMENTS easiest way to Stretching is intended to “loosen” up our muscles and other essential parts of our bodies. The process of stretching should always be slow and gentle. Hurrying the process is a surefire way to injure ourselves! Many times, it can be tempting to hurry-up the process of stretching by doing things like gripping a pair of sticks in the middle and quickly rotating our wrists quickly back and forth. 6. Go back to step 2 and repeat this process five or six more times. This routine is very effective for me to prepare avoid injury my upper body for drumming. An added bonus is that I look kind of silly when I do it, which gives during stretching the others in the worship band an opportunity is to only use our to laugh with me, or even join in! Incidentally, own bodies in the musicians (well, as long as the instrument this is a stretch that can benefit virtually all requires the use of your hands!) process... Again, I know this may not be the right stretch This can put a lot of strain on our wrists, for everyone- but I do believe that stretching forearms, hands, elbows… virtually every part of is  always  essential before playing drums. So, the upper body! I personally know 2 drummers OK. So now that we’ve covered a few safety even if you can’t implement the stretch covered who have seriously injured themselves like this. tips, let’s go over the stretch. Here are the in this article, find a stretch that you can use! It’s best to avoid sharp, violent movements steps: Let’s take care of the body we’ve been given, when stretching. and remain faithful stewards of the abilities and 1. Stand upright with your arms AVOID USING OUTSIDE OBJECTS outstretched to either side, with your Another way that many drummers injure palms facing downward. themselves is by using outside objects like walls, drum sticks, and even other people. Early on I was taught that the easiest way to avoid 2. Bend your wrists up so that your palms are facing outward. February 2018 gifts we’ve been given! Daniel Hadaway The Drum Coach. Professional drummer with All Sons & Daughters. Daniel provides resources for drummers, including a daily podcast DanielHadaway.com WorshipMusician.com 39