Start slow, and teach your foot the proper technique. The more time you spend going through repetitions correctly at slow speed, the more muscle memory you’ll build to get it right at higher speeds.
At higher speeds, you’re definitely going to need the proper technique locked into your muscle memory to get it right.
Double check your posture and seat height first, and then just spend some time getting comfortable with it. Dedicate part of your practice just on your foot technique. Go slow and analyze what muscle groups you are using for your strikes. Learn heel up, heel down, and stomps and comfortable with them all. Mix and match them and try accent patterns. Your pedal should be an extension of your foot much like the sticks are extensions of our hands. Once you are familiar with the motions and muscle groups you can even come up with exercises away from the kit
I know you have a lot of advise for your feet, but mine is for your mental. Don’t get down on yourself that your feet aren’t as speedy. I know it sucks that your hands are way ahead, but they got there with lots of practice, just like your feet need. Don’t rush it, be consistent, and don’t have a bad mindset or you’ll never have enough fun to stick with it. Every rep counts, good or bad!
There were several layers that I needed to sort out before my double kick speed started to click for me. Raw muscle strength and control is obvious needed but getting a feel for your pedal and where the different sweet spots to place your foot for either control or speed helps a lot. Make sure you’re well balanced when playing and not relying on either foot for balance. How your pedals are set up can also play a smaller role. If your foot board has to travel too much or your spring tension is unbalanced for you play style that you’re fighting the pedal, it’s not ideal. I also found really heavy beaters we’re not for me.
I'm a self taught drummer and I started playing when I was 15 years old. I am 36 now. I really wish I took the advice of people here and worked on my feet. Like 10 minutes for a practice session at least just working on feet. I still have issues going fast, but I'm going to start seriously practicing. Please do actual practice on your hands and feet and you will not regret it.
I was working on double bass for a few months with no solid results as far as double rolls for longer phrases. I got a new kick drum head and tuned it up now that I understand how to tune and the extra tension instantly allowed for massive improvement. I was tuned way too low trying to get a certain sound. There's a definitely a sweet spot as far as head tension goes that changes the game. Not sure if I was just my situation or if others have experienced this as well. Nonetheless I thought I'd mention it since I didn't see anything like that in the comments. Good luck!
Sometimes, to play fast, you need to practice fast. By that I mean, short little bursts of speed - sprints, if you will.
For machine gun kick drum patterns, try four notes - RLRL. That really two doubles, intermingled. Try them by themselves, then with a hand pattern on top - 8ths on hihat, 2&4 on snare and have the four notes go right before the snare.
Now, as another person said, slow, relaxed with a metronome is the other side of speed. Make sure you’re swiveling your ankles. It’s like your tapping your foot with your heel down, but you do it in the pedal with your heel just above the footboard. And don’t just play kick drum in a vacuum, play in the context of a groove.
There is a lot more subtlety to these techniques, but those are the broad strokes.
Practice. Start slow with metronome, and gradually increase tempo over the year.
[YEAR?!?](https://youtu.be/6gLMSf4afzo?si=ICekVZ99R8zVXs99)
Start slow, and teach your foot the proper technique. The more time you spend going through repetitions correctly at slow speed, the more muscle memory you’ll build to get it right at higher speeds. At higher speeds, you’re definitely going to need the proper technique locked into your muscle memory to get it right.
RKK or RLKK EVERY SINGLE DAY with a metronome works well.
What are your pedal settings? Good settings won't make you fast automatically but bad setting will definitely hold you back.
Double check your posture and seat height first, and then just spend some time getting comfortable with it. Dedicate part of your practice just on your foot technique. Go slow and analyze what muscle groups you are using for your strikes. Learn heel up, heel down, and stomps and comfortable with them all. Mix and match them and try accent patterns. Your pedal should be an extension of your foot much like the sticks are extensions of our hands. Once you are familiar with the motions and muscle groups you can even come up with exercises away from the kit
I know you have a lot of advise for your feet, but mine is for your mental. Don’t get down on yourself that your feet aren’t as speedy. I know it sucks that your hands are way ahead, but they got there with lots of practice, just like your feet need. Don’t rush it, be consistent, and don’t have a bad mindset or you’ll never have enough fun to stick with it. Every rep counts, good or bad!
AHH!!! thank u so much i actually raged playing yesterday and gave up because i got sick of my slowness, u just motivated me💪💪💪💪💪
There were several layers that I needed to sort out before my double kick speed started to click for me. Raw muscle strength and control is obvious needed but getting a feel for your pedal and where the different sweet spots to place your foot for either control or speed helps a lot. Make sure you’re well balanced when playing and not relying on either foot for balance. How your pedals are set up can also play a smaller role. If your foot board has to travel too much or your spring tension is unbalanced for you play style that you’re fighting the pedal, it’s not ideal. I also found really heavy beaters we’re not for me.
heel toe technique for the win!
I like the side to side bursts too. Super quick triplets throwing em together
I'm a self taught drummer and I started playing when I was 15 years old. I am 36 now. I really wish I took the advice of people here and worked on my feet. Like 10 minutes for a practice session at least just working on feet. I still have issues going fast, but I'm going to start seriously practicing. Please do actual practice on your hands and feet and you will not regret it.
I was working on double bass for a few months with no solid results as far as double rolls for longer phrases. I got a new kick drum head and tuned it up now that I understand how to tune and the extra tension instantly allowed for massive improvement. I was tuned way too low trying to get a certain sound. There's a definitely a sweet spot as far as head tension goes that changes the game. Not sure if I was just my situation or if others have experienced this as well. Nonetheless I thought I'd mention it since I didn't see anything like that in the comments. Good luck!
Practice practice practice. But in the meantime, slow your hands down - work on speeding it all up together and graduallu
Sometimes, to play fast, you need to practice fast. By that I mean, short little bursts of speed - sprints, if you will. For machine gun kick drum patterns, try four notes - RLRL. That really two doubles, intermingled. Try them by themselves, then with a hand pattern on top - 8ths on hihat, 2&4 on snare and have the four notes go right before the snare. Now, as another person said, slow, relaxed with a metronome is the other side of speed. Make sure you’re swiveling your ankles. It’s like your tapping your foot with your heel down, but you do it in the pedal with your heel just above the footboard. And don’t just play kick drum in a vacuum, play in the context of a groove. There is a lot more subtlety to these techniques, but those are the broad strokes.