hey
1.mallet wraps..
do they work? i mean i use rattan mallets, and playing long fast passage, the skin of my side of my thumbs is torn off and sometimes bleeding coz of the friction..so i cant continue practising...anyway can solve my problem?

2.my teacher told me about the Sean Hooper mallets from UK..are they good ? the design is very similiar to david morbeys

matt

i know little about these particular mallets... but it sounds to me like you are simply squeezing too tight. if you do not gently feel the natural vibration of the stick in your hand... you are without doubt, gripping the mallet with tension instead of total relaxation. no pain should ever result from playing correctly. do not hold the stick, simply guide the stick. relax, and then relax even more. shake out the tension every few minutes while you practice, and then do it again and again. the vibration of the stick will soothe your hand if you are relaxed enough... and one can never be relaxed enough... it is a life journey...

Hi matt,

I use the traditional grip as well as the stevens. I can asure you that this is only a phrase you're going through. When i got my callus from trad. grip, the skin on my index finger torn off and i just gave it some time to heal and tape it up occasionally. And I'm GLAD that i did that.

here's a few steps for you to help those callus develope:

1. let you hand heal completely before you play (should take a few days max)
2. then keep practicing at the same speed you're playing without tape (don't slow down because the point of practicing is to PRACTICE. especially in your case: to get things up to speed)
3. when your fingers starts to hurt like it did before, use tape on your fingers! and make sure you tape up all the area of skin that your sticks have contact with. I used 3 layers of medical tape (cuz they don't leave the sticky dirt on your fingers afterwards. and that dirt can sometimes pull your skin off) usually, depends on the tape you have.
4. take off tape immediately after practice to let it breathe. your skin grows faster the more it breaths.

I would strongly suggest you not to use tape on your mallets because tape makes the stick handle bigger and therefore... more contact area with the skin and therefore... more friction to tear your skin and slow down your interval changes. Rattan handles are bigger than birch handles already, so you wanna minimize the friction without conpensating anything. rattan handles are also slippery and some tape doesn't work on them.

thats about all i have to say about developing callus. trad grip callus shouldn't be too hard to develope (and you're using rattan too, so they're much easier on the hands). the steven grip calluses are real nasty bitches to form since the outter mallets scratches the weakest part on your finger and so on...

final advice: TAKE YOUR TIME!!! you'll be glad that you did when you get your beautiful calluses!!! women go crazy for them because calluses makes you look like a hard working man!

have fun!