Strength and Stamina

As I was rummaging through the Internet's drawers, looking for something to help me build speed and strength in my wrists and fingers when I am not near a drumkit. I did manage to find a couple of gems in the clutter of websites, but I also recalled that I used a couple of exercises that were developed out of necessity last year. The exercises used a 2 litre plastic pop bottle filled with water (and in our case powdered goat milk). Once a year for several weeks we bottle raise baby goats (for serious farm reasons, not because we think its fun or cute) and we need to make milk 4 times a day. Its that time of year again which is how I remembered the exercises.

Part of the reason for my quest was an inspiring blog I read when searching for info on Gil Sharone (Stolen Babies). http://drummingasart.tumblr.com/  describes Gil's work with great use of visually creative language and really increased my desire to improve everyday. This blog is a must-read for anyone. I can only hope to be written about on this blog (good or bad), but since the odds of living to 150 years is against me, I don't see it happening.

Gil Sharone himself is a great source of inspiration and material to use for practice. I have owned Wicked Beats  (his instructional DVD) for a few months and seem to watch it every couple of weeks. His hi-hat work with his right hand is truly outstanding and is a great foundation for many styles of music.

I know there's no practice like actually playing, but I find myself sitting in my car for hours at a time or at my desk, wasting good practice time. I keep a drumstick in the car and when stuck in traffic I bounce it on my leg or car seat. A couple more tricks I found in my searches include:
1. Practice rolls on a pillow-top matress or car seat. The less bounce the better, make your wrists do the work.
2. Hold stick near the tip and slap the body of the stick against your wrist using pinky, third and middle fingers.

The pop bottle exercise I developed goes like this:
Hold a 2 litre plastic pop bottle (full of water, not pop) in one hand sideways (palm up) shoulder high, and twist back and forth for 2 minutes. Take the same bottle in both hands stomach high and throw the wrists down like playing drums, then raise it and do it over for 5 minutes. The main purpose of the actions are to mix the powder into the water, so shake vigorously. I found that it improves strength AND endurance. Do this 4 times a day for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, wait one year and start over. Well, that's my regimen, you can set your own schedule.