Rudy Richman Sabian Newsbeat story – How to prevent injuries

(Drummers from left to right: Jojo Mayer, Terreon Gully, Tomas Haake, Mike Portnoy, Daniel Adair)

Unfortunately I don't know exactly what year or issue of Sabian Newsbeat this story was in. The particular issue is probably somewhere in one of those boxes you never get around to unpacking after having moved yet another time. It has to be either '90 , '91 or '92. The story may be a little off here and there as I'm trying to remember this.

The Rudy Richman story

Rudy Richman said he used to get attacks of sharp pains in his wrists while touring and couldn't help think this had to be something really major.

He feared this could end his career as a drummer. So he went to a doctor explaining his wrist pain. Upon hearing this the doctor asked him what he did for a living.

When Rudy told the doctor he was a rock drummer performing at high energy levels night after night, the doctor advised him to eat a small bag of potato chips each night before the gig.

Because of all the sweating Rudy did each night his potasium levels plumeted and the joints started to hurt because of it.

To his own surprise when he started to eat a small bag of potato chips each night, the sharp pains stayed away and the solution was indeed as simple as this.

Sharing is caring

This is a story I've shared with students and colleagues literally dozens of times. Because it's such an obvious example of how much nutrition matters.

If our body starts to miss vital ingredients it will give us signs. Small signs of fatigue in the beginning. This could be a little soreness, or having trouble getting to our normal tempos or stamina.

But when ignored these signs will manifest themselves as pain somewhere in the body.

Most of the time this won't be anything of a long term injury if taken seriously. For example, if you woke up having a ringing in your ear, because you played without earplugs last night, or went to loud concert without them, it's probably gonna go away. It probably will the first number of times you experience this.

But..

You HAVE TO quickly CHANGE  the circumstances which cause you to experience the ringing.

If you don't, your ears will ultimately have no resilliance left to overcome this ringing. From then on it's goodbye good hearing, and hello hearing loss. This is also known as tinnitus, a permanent ringing in the hear and the loss of certain frequencies.

So please, PLEASE listen to your body at all times. And take care of it, because we need all of it to perform at all times at a high level.

This is also part of "How to play drums" section. Much overlooked, our habits, biorhythm and nutrition have a tremendous effect on our ability to perform, both physically and mentally.

Want to learn more?

This is a crucial, but much overlooked part of the "How to play drums" section. Our habits, biorhythm and nutrition have a tremendous effect on our ability to perform, both physically and mentally.

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