So every day I practice on my tenor pad, but just yesterday I started to notice that my left wrist began to feel weak and every time I tried to play diddles my left hand always crushed them. It doesn't really hurt, it just feels locked-up. Does anyone know why this is and/or how I can treat it? Should I just take a break from playing for a few days?

Sounds like you may need to stretch before you play.


Tan

Stretch and a proper warm up should solve your problem. I have students of mine go right into tough music when practicing and neglect the warm up. They experience the same problems. In my opinion, warm up is probably the most important part of any practice routine.

If you're warming up properly and stretching, there may be something else at work here.

Thanks for the info! By the way, I usually do a very brief warm up of 8's, a double beat exercise, and sometimes a sixteenth note/triplet roll exercise. How long should I warm up for prior to practice?

I would say, that's enough warm up. I usually recommend that my students spend about 10 to 15 minutes going through the warm up book I provide for drumline rehearsal. If you're doing that and stretching, you may have another underlying issue. Possibly a technique issue or tendon/ muscle issue. If it doesn't hurt, it's most likely not an injury. I'd recommend making sure everything you're doing with the right hand is mirrored on the left.

Hope I've been at least mildly helpful. Best of luck.

Just a thought...

Pay attention to anything you might be doing outside of percussion that affects your hands. I find that when I spend a little too much time on the computer it can mess with my wrists and fingers. Conducting can hurt my wrists too.

Strech your muscles out with a couple stock warm ups, and literally strech the muscles as well. Little hand shakes, wrist flexes, and stuff like that. Also try maybe improving your circulation by wearing a wrist band.

Also be mindful about your hands. dgaking made a good point about paying attention outside of drumming, and pay the same amount of attention while your playing. You could be tensing up for left hand, over working, ext. Carpel Tunnel can happen if you don't take care of your hands (what I've been told. If I'm wrong please correct me.) and you DO NOT want that. So just take care of them, breath, and warm up properly before you start tearing up some choppy notes.

I have a Xymox tenor pad as well (the new ones with the rims and quint/sextet configuration). I'm using the tenor Hardimons because that's what my highschool line used last year and what my instructor recommended I buy for practice (personally I prefer vegas or other mallets with nylon tips). I have a feeling it might be a combination of the pad and the Hardimons, since I don't get much rebound when I play.

Also, you mean instead of making my left louder and higher, make my right softer and lower?

I would agree to bring the right down and even with the left.

Try using other sticks for the experiment like Hangman says use a stick that will give good rebound and balance things out. If you are right handed it will make sense. When you see it improving then try the Hardimon sticks. I suggest using other sticks now like you mentioned the Vegas and just work the tech and control and after again change to the Hardimons. When the control is better try bringing eveything up slightly.

I think it could be in the way I'm approaching diddles. I attempt to stroke them out at slower tempos and at faster tempos I let the stick rebound and the pad does most of the work. Is this correct double-stroke roll technique or should I be stroking out the diddles even at faster tempos as well?

Yes the faster the tempo the more rebound or bounce. If you hold the stick tight it will not rebound and you choke the diddle as you mentioned before. They are even strokes as in 16th, 24th or 32nd notes. That is what is called controlled rebound.

I also have a pair of regular snare Hardimons that seem to offer slightly more rebound, but are longer in length than the tenor ones. Should I use these instead then?

Use any stick you want to get the right action/rebound plus you are playing on the Xymox pad. I use the DC 10`s which SCV was using back in the 1978-79 seasons when they won DCI High Drums. They are listed as a fast stick and are shorter with no beads(beeds) at the end but work good on quads.

So use any stick you want the technique is what you are working for. When you have it with one stick try another to get it to work also. I have some True Line 3S that work on tenors and I have used the Tom Floats as well.