I heard Dave Weckl changed his left grip to a loose french.

In a Weckl clinic Dave claims his left hand froze up on him and he saw a drummer that gave him the idea to change to a loose french grip. Can this kind of grip save your left hand from injury?

Actually what i think you are talking about is when he said his hand froze up because his BACK was messed up so that is why he carries a special pillow with him to sleep on. I don't think he said it was due to his grip. Really, though, any grip and is relaxed and doesn't involve any tension is a good grip.

I saw Dave in clinic a few months ago, and he said that a pinched nerve or something in his neck was causing his hand to freeze up. He said that having his ride cymbal "high and to the right" forced him to lean awkwardly, and that's what caused the pinched nerve. He mentioned that he brings his orthopaedic pillow with him everywhere, and that he sets up his drums so that he doesn't have too lean, emphasizing that the ride cymbal should be "lower."

I think he said changing over to matched grip and lowering the snare and auxillary percussion was just a temporary "workaround" so he could tolerate the pain. He said it happened "a couple of years ago," sort of indicating it happened AFTER he graduated from Freddie Gruber University. He said, "I thought it was all over," meaning he thought the pain would never go away and he would never be able to play again...what a scary thought!!!

I think the new perspective is better, but I still think the "old" look with the ride up high and that familiar lean to left looked pretty cool!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 22, 2002 10:36 PM: Message edited by: mja61 ]</font>

Ol' Davey needs to be more careful any more [not only 4 his own sake, but 4 the rest of us too!!]...he told me in Apr '00 that he had recently almost CUT OFF his 1st finger-R hand w/ a swiss army knife, also!! Suffered tendon/lig damage, of which he has since been recovering...my response to him was "DON'T YOU EVER !@#$%&* DO THAT!!!"...jus' like 'dat...right in his ear...his LEFT ear, to be exact...no, seriously...[he couldn't take a swipe @ me cuz his finger hurt]...
OK, OK - No, I really DID tell him that, but just not as loud as i made it sound...just, "don't do that!"...& he really didn't try to 'hogjaw' me, either...[that's 'waylay' fer u laymen out dere]... [img]wink.gif[/img]
You will all have to excuse me, please - i get a li'l 'giddy' 'round 'dis time a' year.... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 25, 2002 04:38 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

Who is the drummer Dave saw to change his grip to a loose French style. It was mentioned on the Billy Cobham forum "were talking jazz"?