Reply To: beginner learning wrist flow

[Jim Guinn]

This is from a blog post I wrote back in July….

I found some good advice in an old, archived post in Fiddle Hangout from 2008.

How NOT to have a loose wrist: Hang your arm down by your side, then, by bending your elbow, hold your open flat right hand out in front of you, palm facing the floor and fingers outstretched. Now, moving the hand only from the wrist, wave your hand horizontally left and right, back and forth. Keep your arm still. See what that feels like and see how the motion is not relaxed and smooth.

How to have a loose wrist: Hold your flat hand out exactly as explained above, palm facing the floor. NOW, twist your hand counterclockwise so that your palm faces an imaginary wall to your right. The thumb will be closest to the ground and the pinkie will be closest to the sky. Your elbow will naturally move out some to the right. Now, moving only from the wrist, wave your hand left and right, back and forth. The movement will be much more relaxed and the movement much more free.

The wrist should always pull and never push the bow. The wrist leads the hand going up as well as down. With the palm facing the right wall, this move your wrist from the elbow to the left with the hand dragging behind it…wrist first and hand follows. Then change direction so the wrist moves to the right and the hand lags behind as if reluctant to move. Practice left and right…back and forth. The wrist and arm are briefly moving in opposite directions.

Read these last three paragraphs through again and again, because this is not so easy to do until you understand and practice it over and over.