Living Water - Dissertations - Bass Ringer's Notebook - Braces

Braces

If you're injury-prone, or if you've been injured before, you might consider wearing wrist or elbow braces/supports. Of course, there's no substitute for infinite strength and perfect technique, but sometimes we need to compensate for the fact that we've gotten sloppy or have overdone it at times. Even the best bell players can go through a round of tendinitis (just ask them!).

So if you're hurt or fragile, it's okay to wear a brace. The idea is to keep weak muscles and joints from being injured, and to keep existing injuries from getting worse. If that's what it takes, then by all means go ahead and do it.

While you're using a brace, however, check your technique. Look for habits or tendencies which create or aggravate injuries, learn better ways to play (especially lifting bass bells), and just plain get smarter so you have a better chance at staying healthy.

Also, I recommend planning to work back up to the point where you don't need the brace any longer. Sometimes this isn't possible, but it's a good idea to try, because you want it to be an aid without becoming a crutch.

Historical note: In 1994, I seriously overdid it laying flagstones in our back yard (we like having a low-maintenance garden, so we practice natural selection rigorously: anything that survives not being watered is a candidate for being kept). I was okay until I grabbed those last two bricks - and pulled the big muscles in both forearms. The next two or three years of ringing bass bells were pretty difficult! Eventually, with braces and care, everything's working properly again, but I've been trying to be very careful about how I do things since then.