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So I was watching some old Weckl (fierce, fiery young Dave) footage from the 80's recently and I noticed Weckl's left hand was choked WAY back at the on stick - at the very end actually. Carlock seems to employ this technique as well.

My question is: why are they playing this way? I can play traditional with quite a bit of facility and I can't fathom his (or Carlock's) reasons for playing this way. After trying it behind the kit, I found it to be fairly painful for certain kinds of power strokes, and utterly without a fulcrum for bounce - it seemed like more work for any kind of rebound. Weckl, of course, was killing it in this clip from 86 using this crazy grip, but I know he has since changed his hand technique completely. Carlock stills plays this way and it doesn't seem to slow him down whatsoever.

I know we have some serious trad grip technique monsters on this board (Steve himself being among them of course) who may be able to shed some light on this. Just curious.

I apologize if I'm revisiting a topic here.

So I can add old school Steve Smith to this list as well. Looks like he rocked the way back left hand trad grip during his journey days. I didn't realize that. Interesting.

I would guess for leverage in a backbeat situation. Although those guys did play that way with just about any style. I find myself doing it sometimes when I want to play louder or "fatter" type of backbeats. It is more of a feel thing.

Of course, I can't speak for those dudes

Ah ok. I guess I could see that. Like having a longer stick without that being the case I tried this grip for some really fat backbeats and I definitely felt the shock a lot more in the meat of my hand between thumb and forefinger. But maybe I need to employ a more relaxed grip. After working in my left hand with Moeller, Morello, Mayer in an attempts to maximize on rebound and minimize effort, this way back grip feels so, so strange. I'm going to have to study the footage more closely. I must be missing something. Carlock and Weckl are still ripping fluid, seemingly effortless double strokes with this grip somehow.

Thanks for the feedback!

Another drumming rocking this grip! Sean RIckman. Holy hell. It doesn't seem to slow him down at all. Crazy chops for days with this grip.

It's quite normal to get a backbeat and consistent rimshot, especially for the formal only no Moeller guys. Gruber changed all that.

Offcourse, with a slightly more front heavy stick you don't need to go quite as far back.

Far back for everything works, but it will be a bit of tension there and if you ask most probably are experiencing some type of issue.

Right, just from playing around with this grip I feel more tension and an increased level of shock absorption I guess you might say. I feel the increase in leverage, but the resulting impact doesn't work for my hand.

Seems like I have more reach with this way back grip, which I guess is this case of only by a couple of inches. I was wondering if playing a big kit with traditional grip had anything to do with why this grip was/is used.

Thanks for the insight guys.