Let’s say we start at 80BPM. I want you to play four bars of single stroke first followed by double stroke and finish with parradiddle. So we have 12 bars of playing before we go back to the start and do this again and again etc. Yes some of you will have trouble doing this but you will just have to work at it and get to this level first before you start the stamina training.

Next grab a clock, one you can see so you can time yourselves through out the session. Now start at the low tempo lets say 80BPM, play the 12 bar pattern for 9 minutes exactly, once you hit 9 minutes stop and rest your hands. Drop the sticks and get your hands loose and relaxed.

Keep your eye on the clock because you are only going to break for one minute. As the minute is coming to an end turn up the tempo 10 BPM more and start the 12 bar pattern again exactly as the miniyute ends and do for another 9 minutes. Continue to do this exercise for an hour, meaning five sets of 9 minute sessions and five sets of 1 minute breaks.

Don’t stop for more than 1 minute rest intervals, keep going and concentrate on good technique and relaxed execution. As you get into the exercise and into the last couple of sessions you will feel the strain of the repition. You must be the judge as to whether or not to continue or whether the discomfort is at a level you can deal with.

This exercise will give you a massive amount of repetition work on these three rudiments that you won’t believe how good your hands will feel after even just a small amount of time.

You will need to modify it to suit your own situation as not everyone can go straight in and do this amount of time. What is more important than the time mentioned is the fact that you will do some serious repetition work here regardless.

When I was doing this exercise I did 100 BPM to 200BPM and jumped up 20BPM each time and did it for an hour twice a day. I can tell you my hands got very sore sometimes but other times they were great.