As of now i rotate between a couple different exercises to increase my max foot speed; I was hoping some of you drummer-folk could share some of yours. I'm only specifically looking for single stroke exercises right now, although yes, i am aware of the possibilities with doubles.

DO A BARREL ROLL

that steve, does NOT help.

come on drummers, you got something for me? Even if you think it's not that "different" an exercise, i still wanna try it. ok? ok.

If you play heels up practice rudiments heels down to develope those other calf muscles.

I wish shows you in person, yo.

not so much of a speed exercise as a power exercise but they compliment each other;
place your foot squarely flat on the pedal as if your shoe was glued to it, now play as fast and as hard as you can while maintaining an even beat, using ONLY your ankle and calf muscles. do this until your calves burn like hot fire, rest, eat chicken, repeat

play flattening of emotions a bunch

yeah, that

would doing rudiments help at all?

the exercise i do is pretty simple and can be done anywhere. wherever i'm sitting i raise my toes up so only my heels are grounded. I keep my feet up this way for as long as i can until its gets tiring. its a simple, easy way to increase the strength and flexibility of your lower leg muscles.

^^never heard that last one, nice! And yes, rudiments help quite a bit, any of the more complicated patterns that require more balance can really benefit from them.

PARA DIDDLE DIDDLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

paraflamadiddlediddle

jimbo if you're looking to get speed up, play with your heavy beaters for a while (no triggers) and tighten up your springs a tiny bit. i'm sure you've probably already done this. but that combined with straight single stroke exercises in 3/4, 4/4, etc. at the max speed you can possibly play singles, just go nuts. i've noticed the past few months playing strictly on the plastic side of my heavy gibraltar beaters gives me a nice fat sound at really fast speeds and i can still throw some accents in.

Jon- funny you mention that, cause i only use the heavy beaters now (the hard rubber side of my DW beaters). I was unhappy with the axis beater, i just couldn't feel the bass drum while playing; so now i use the heavy beaters with the triggers too, it sounds awesome. It's a little more tiring, but i'm pretty used to it now.

i love the weight of them, i don't know how i ever played with lighter ones. i had a problem with wearing light felt beaters (like my iron cobras and the felt side of my gibraltars) down to the plastic. the heavy beaters with the triggers too? you wicked man.

i think you're gonna dig it man, the live sound is so much better now. I don't know why i didn't do it before.

Throw two drums and a cymbal off a cliff...

bum bum tsh!

Work on your single-foot blasts.

Best way is the following (from the Derek Roddy video): do 2 minutes that is just right hand right foot, 2 more right hand left foot, 2 more left hand right foot, 2 more left hand left foot. 8 minutes altogether. hand leads (i.e. on the down beat) every time. Make sure to start at a low enough tempo on the metronome that you can play it super clean the whole 2 minutes and push it up 5 bpm when you master the tempo (my first time was like 140 or something - it gets real tough around 170, 175...)

do this 5+ times a week and it'll make a huge difference in just a few months. In a year or two you'll have a solid 1-footer (indispensable) and sick double chops. Also good for cleaning up your singles on the hands and general syncopation.

ps good luck getting far with cobras on this.....ouch! at least go to 5000s or something.

i don't use cobras, i use the axis pedal. I had cobras when i started, then i used the DW9000, then last year i bought the Axis Al2 (longboard); and I just recently switched out the beaters for the heavy DW beater for a better sound.

the way you explain the exercise (bareloh) is the same way i do my speed exercises now (only playing as fast as you can do really clean) and i do them in sets as well. Usually i do 5 min sets, and i do 6 sets of each exercise to total 30 min. I'm gonna give your single foot blast exercise a try right now.

axis = ftw. I also use the dw beaters (backwards!) on them.
more speed and response than the 9000s although the dw wins on precision, methinks. Still, both are terrific pedals.

hope the exercise works for you, I swear by it.

You think the 9000 has more precision than the Axis? I think response equals precision, so i feel like it's way better, but it's obviously personal preference. The backwards DW beaters do sound wonderful though. I play a tama starclassic bubinga kit, and the bass drum is extremely deep and round with those beaters. (as long as you don't bury them)

Play a bunch of discordance axis songs.

Giant red wooden beaters FTW