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Thread: Heel down bass drum questions

  1. #1

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    Default Heel down bass drum questions

    For pretty much my whole playing life I have played heel up. A few years ago I sustained a pretty nasty lower back injury. I have since pretty much fully recovered, but I still get some nasty low back pain at times (not while drumming but in daily life). Because of this I have thought about maybe switching over from heal up to heal down. When I say that I have always played heal up I mean primarily using my whole leg to stomp on the pedal.

    The thing is that sometimes I get pain in my right Achilles tendon just in daily life, not while playing heal up on the drums. But, at times when I have experimented with heel down playing it seems to activate the Achilles tendon pain a bit in my right foot. So this is a concern when playing heel down.

    As I get older I have to wonder if I would be better served in trying to focus more on heel down because I don't know if playing heal up will eventually make my back really start to hurt more. But then there's also the potential of making the pain in my right Achilles tendon worse by playing heel down. So I'm trying to weigh which one would be best to pursue considering the risk of pain with my back and my Achilles tendon.

    All of this applies to single as well as double bass. As a drummer that plays primarily metal, double bass is a pretty big factor in what I do. I primarily play double bass by running on the pedals from my legs. To where if I were to switch primarily to heels down I would be using my ankles and not my legs.

    So I have a bit of a dilemma here that I'm trying to work through. Do I keep running on the pedals from my legs for my double bass playing (and using full leg stopping motion for single bass as well) and risk making my back worse over time, or do I switch to heels down for my single and double bass playing and risk making my right Achilles tendon worse overtime? Ultimately I'm trying to figure out which pain would be more debilitating if it were to get worse, my back or right Achilles tendon?

    Do you all have any thoughts that you think would help me make the best decision in this situation?
    Last edited by Midnightmadness; 01-21-2016 at 08:36 AM.

  2. #2

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    Default Re: Heel down bass drum questions

    I would research yoga and stretching..I injured my calf going whole hog a good while back playing 16th notes/16note triplets on the bass drum crap like that.
    I'm an older guy dealing with arthritis in my hands and I'm having to really take care of myself as well like watching what I eat,lots of water.. I have to ease into things and not just jump into doing stuff at full speed from a cold standstill.

    But yeah since that happen like 6 months ago I learned about calf stretches and other stuff, And how I learned about all this is from a young death metal drummer that I know of and he describe his little yoga routine to me because of all the extreme stuff that he does. And it makes a world of difference too! Be smart about it.

  3. #3

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    Default Re: Heel down bass drum questions

    I've been a heel down guy my whole life................but I would recommend using both techniques if you can............to avoid any "overuse" type injuries.

  4. #4

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    Default Re: Heel down bass drum questions

    Quote Originally Posted by wired View Post
    I would research yoga and stretching..I injured my calf going whole hog a good while back playing 16th notes/16note triplets on the bass drum crap like that.
    I'm an older guy dealing with arthritis in my hands and I'm having to really take care of myself as well like watching what I eat,lots of water.. I have to ease into things and not just jump into doing stuff at full speed from a cold standstill.

    But yeah since that happen like 6 months ago I learned about calf stretches and other stuff, And how I learned about all this is from a young death metal drummer that I know of and he describe his little yoga routine to me because of all the extreme stuff that he does. And it makes a world of difference too! Be smart about it.
    I do back physical therapy excerises (although not consistently enough to be honest). I also do stretching as well.

  5. #5

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    Default Re: Heel down bass drum questions

    Quote Originally Posted by longgun View Post
    I've been a heel down guy my whole life................but I would recommend using both techniques if you can............to avoid any "overuse" type injuries.
    My thought was do heel up for everything but double bass and single bass requiring more than two strokes in a row. That approach could work for me. I would have to spend some time with it to see.

  6. #6

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    Default Re: Heel down bass drum questions

    I've played heel down for almost 60 years without any problems at all.

    If you are going to try heel down, raise your throne a inch or 2, change the angle of you legs to where the feels like there isn't any weight on them at all.

    That has worked for me for 6 decades.

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