DRUMMER CAFE - Community Forum

A little background if i may, before i begin.  Ive been playing heel up for about 5 years now.  When i was younger, i was always fascinated with playing doubles, fast.  I began practicing and eventually achieved playing doubles at 120bpm.  As i got older and started going off trying new things and actually listening to what i was playing, i noticed holes.  I could play doubles at any bpm over 105 anywhere from 5-30 seconds and than all of a sudden there would be this BLOP.  The beater would hit the kick drum once but wasn't very powerful.

Since i have many questions that are all part of one, is there really any wrong way to play heel up?

I noticed if i arch my heel until i feel pressure in my calf, i have no problem playing straight quarter notes, but is this appropriate?  If i dont arch the heel, the quarter notes feel weak.   Sometimes when i dont arch,  the beater wobbles after hitting the kick drum, when trying to play louder it feels as if im almost late and/or doing something where it makes me feel off balanced after hitting the drum.(unarching my ankle).

When i try to play doubles consistently at fast paces, after 5-20 seconds(depending on how fast) all of a sudden the pedal seems to die on me.  Are all of these problems because of:

pedals tension being too little?
Bad technique when growing up
I dont have much control and muscle to play at those speeds?

Its just annoying and i need some outside input, since i seem to have hit a pretty hard wall, being hard to break through.  I mess around with the pedal all the time, when i get annoyed, when im upset with my playing.  I almost want to seek a teacher, but i dont have a reasonable school schedule to make appointments.

funny!! I never really payed attention to heel up or down until I read this thread, so I went home last night and began to play, I realized that I play heel down for the most part unless I'm doing triplets or quads, then I play heel up, and I slide my foot!  I do get a consistent hit on the drum, I remember when I did'nt, just kept working on it till I did, hope this helps.