Ok so I have been playing for 7 years now, and a recurring problem of mine which I have not been able to fix is rotating my left hand. For most players it is easy to be in set position then rotate to vertical stick heights with their left hand. Unfortunately, my left hand does not want to do that. I can comfortably, without sacrificing technique in anyway rotate my stick to 9 inches and that is it .

Any suggestions from the guys who have been around for a while and have seen a lot of stuff, on how to possibly fix this problem?

Snarescience put a post about this on his website. Basically what he told me to do is once or twice a day move your hand as far as you can without any arm. Then stretch a little bit farther. Keep it there for about 1-3 minutes then play some slow Eights at that height. Don't forget to shake your arm out a little once you're done. Burning muscles and stretching is good, but pain isn't stop if that occurs. I started this about two months ago and I went from a max of 6 to somewhere between 9-11. Even once you get to vertical I suggest you keep doing this cause sometimes you'll have bad days where you can't turn your wrist quite as far. good luck, it's a slow process, but it's worth the wait

thanks for the suggestion i will definitely try it out

just a little update, ive done this for about three months, I started out with a limit of 6ish, but when I played today I can play 12 or 15 or whatever you want to call vertical

nice there is hope for me yet! haha

I have had this problem too. Try this maybe, try simply playing eights at these heights building from low to high in inches. 1, 3,6,9,12,15,+,. Then play singles & doubles the same way going as high as you can without damaging your arms or wrists. If you feel pain stop. You might want to switch to matched. You can get a huge stroke out of matched easily & somewhat more power I think. Of course it doesn't look as cool. I had a lot of success just pushing eights as high as I could matched & traditional. Good luck & best wishes. I think the Blue Devils are masters of pushing the left hand high, I would contact one of those guys if possible on the internet.

yeah as far as switching to matched...unfortunately all of the lines that are even remotely close in driving distance that I can audition for play traditional, so that isnt really an option but i will definitely try your warm up and maybe get a hold of a blue devils guy

I had buddies that marched Bluecoats under Dan DeLong, they were always stretching their left hands to be able to rotate back farther, it seemed to work for them. Just like stretching anything else, turn it until it's uncomfortable, then back off a little bit and hold it there for a while. It helps to hold the stick in traditional grip and push on the bead of the stick with your right hand. If you do that on a regular basis you should be fine. Once your left arm is flexible enough to rotate back freely, just work on incorporating that into your playing.

Like dredpir8roberts said, stretching helps a lot. Note that stretching isn't limited to wrists; stretch your arms and forearms too. For my arms, I usually stretch across my chest or move them back as far as possible without helping it ie. move your right arm back without pushing with the left, etc. For some good wrist stretches search the internet, I have seen a few drum-related sites that have some good wrist stretches on them.

The angle you hold your hand at rest can contribute to the problem, too. If you hold your hand too flat ("ashtray hand"), your forearm is already rotated back somewhat and you won't be able to rotate far enough for those 9"+ heights.