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Left Hand Problem

posted
Total Posts
12
AkaiShiro
8 posts
Joined April 2013
Topic Starter
AkaiShiro
I'll be short and straight to the point. I recently have a lot of trouble trying to lift my fingers and controlling them. I feel stiffness and powerless when I ALTERNATE, ESPECIALLY for the 1/2 notes and my index would always try to curl up when I alternate. Surprisingly, I don't have any problems when I single tap the 1/2 notes with both index and middle finger. Now I struggle with 130bpm songs and above when I alternate. Never had this problem before. Strangely, my hand feels completely NORMAL, no pain or numbness, I also don't lack strength when I squeeze things between my fingers, only in osu that my fingers feels weak. I just wanna ask if anybody else might have this problem.

Edit: Even though I said I didn't having any trouble single tapping, that doesn't I would like to. So please don't tell to switch to single tapping.
Last edited by AkaiShiro , edited 1 time in total.
Vuelo Eluko
5,484 posts
Joined October 2013
Vuelo Eluko
so singletap
RaneFire
1,181 posts
Joined May 2011
RaneFire
Yes, but at a higher speed. In your case, it's probably just practice-related and you just need to play more. I have trouble believing anyone can actually get "stuck" alternating at 130 BPM.

Lifting my fingers has always been a problem. 195 BPM, exactly, has been my breaking point for 2 years, when this starts to happen. Anything under that is perfectly fine.

Long version
I've always practiced a good technique where I can for this reason and focused on streaming accuracy, because I know that when I stream for a sustained period, while not even getting tired, my fingers seem to be unable to lift themselves up in time, limiting my range of movement. It takes an enormous amount of concentration to stop this from happening. I attribute it to a lack of strength in the extensor muscles of my left hand responsible for lifting my fingers, causing a speed limit. I've been training them with other exercises, while also noticing a much more limited range of independent index finger movement from my middle finger, compared to my right hand (dominant), because of a tendon which squashes itself against my middle-finger's tendon as I lift it, limiting movement. This doesn't happen with my right hand, and it's really strange.

It's a neuromuscular issue. I am quite sure that it can be solved through practice. I've researched the topic extensively, even reading published research papers. The only solutions I can come up with all involve a method of practice. I just need to see them pay off... in time. There's no alternative to practice. I just need to find a method most effective for developing both speed and strength of the extensor muscles, since according to research, seeing gains in both areas are almost mutually exclusive. The tendon's weird behaviour is probably related to a strength imbalance between the two. If that's so then training the extensor's properly to avoid that could solve all my problems.
TL;DR: If anyone knows how to practice and analyze things, it's me, yet I still can't solve this easily. I could ignore ALL of what I've been researching and still see roughly the same rate of improvement, but it's interesting to me to know why it's taking so long.
xasuma
The First Completionist
1,011 posts
Joined August 2013
xasuma
Play more
AkaiShiro
8 posts
Joined April 2013
Topic Starter
AkaiShiro

RaneFire wrote:

Yes, but at a higher speed. In your case, it's probably just practice-related and you just need to play more. I have trouble believing anyone can actually get "stuck" alternating at 130 BPM.
To be more specific 130bpm is the limit of which I can still get a decent accuracy but I just have trouble lifting my fingers and playing in general. I've noticed that my finger gets stuck on the keyboard more often when I hold down a slider, and I start to stiffen up and losing control of my fingers and strength when I play continuous 1/2 notes. I've try to fix this problem by practicing 5 hours a day for an entire 2 weeks but still struggling with this problem. I've tried all types of techniques like relaxing my hand when I play, playing on a different elevations, playing with multiple positions but none of it seems to work. It would always end up stiffening up and stuck on the keyboard.

Before this problem has occurred, I was able to barely stream 200bpm and 220bpm 1/2 notes with ease. All of a sudden, I started getting this problem and that had frustrated enough that I broke my CM QRF blue cherry keyboard and my door._.

Most of you will probably just respond with "practice more". But believe me...I've practiced...A lot. It just seems that no matter what I do can fix this problem so now I'm really suspecting that it could be a hand injury. I'm hoping that some of you with medical knowledge could help me out with this problem.

Thanks to RaneFire for his informative response :) and I would like some more information from the community in regards to my problem.
GoldenWolf
2,983 posts
Joined May 2012
GoldenWolf

RaneFire wrote:

Yes, but at a higher speed. In your case, it's probably just practice-related and you just need to play more. I have trouble believing anyone can actually get "stuck" alternating at 130 BPM.

Lifting my fingers has always been a problem. 195 BPM, exactly, has been my breaking point for 2 years, when this starts to happen. Anything under that is perfectly fine.

Long version
I've always practiced a good technique where I can for this reason and focused on streaming accuracy, because I know that when I stream for a sustained period, while not even getting tired, my fingers seem to be unable to lift themselves up in time, limiting my range of movement. It takes an enormous amount of concentration to stop this from happening. I attribute it to a lack of strength in the extensor muscles of my left hand responsible for lifting my fingers, causing a speed limit. I've been training them with other exercises, while also noticing a much more limited range of independent index finger movement from my middle finger, compared to my right hand (dominant), because of a tendon which squashes itself against my middle-finger's tendon as I lift it, limiting movement. This doesn't happen with my right hand, and it's really strange.

It's a neuromuscular issue. I am quite sure that it can be solved through practice. I've researched the topic extensively, even reading published research papers. The only solutions I can come up with all involve a method of practice. I just need to see them pay off... in time. There's no alternative to practice. I just need to find a method most effective for developing both speed and strength of the extensor muscles, since according to research, seeing gains in both areas are almost mutually exclusive. The tendon's weird behaviour is probably related to a strength imbalance between the two. If that's so then training the extensor's properly to avoid that could solve all my problems.
TL;DR: If anyone knows how to practice and analyze things, it's me, yet I still can't solve this easily. I could ignore ALL of what I've been researching and still see roughly the same rate of improvement, but it's interesting to me to know why it's taking so long.
Woah how you do even find all this stuff wtf
aizhid
67 posts
Joined April 2013
aizhid
I been playing keyboard with my right hand forever and has the same problem. I play a lot everyday for a long time now and haven't seen any improvement. it hurts :c

About 4 hours a day for 2-3month now and still have same problem as you. look at my 0 progress on my profile and you'll see I'm in the same boat.

nothing I know can help you but here's a hug <3
RaneFire
1,181 posts
Joined May 2011
RaneFire

GoldenWolf wrote:

Woah how you do even find all this stuff wtf
A few boring days at work.
B1rd
2,974 posts
Joined December 2013
B1rd
what keyboard do you have? get blacks and they lift your fingers for you.
Dexus
982 posts
Joined July 2009
Dexus
play slower stuff and lift your fingers up really high (more so than you normally do).
Do stretches.
Don't tense up.
Yuuribo
104 posts
Joined April 2014
Yuuribo
What I did to get used to alternating fingers during game play is I started playing Easy/Beginner maps,mostly those TV Size beatmaps in order not to strain myself too much.
There's no use in trying to practice alternating fingers with Hard maps,from what I have experienced.
As time passes by,you'll get used to playing while alternating you fingers automatically.

Though I can't help you with your finger-lifting problem.
AkaiShiro
8 posts
Joined April 2013
Topic Starter
AkaiShiro

Yuuribo wrote:

What I did to get used to alternating fingers during game play is I started playing Easy/Beginner maps,mostly those TV Size beatmaps in order not to strain myself too much.
There's no use in trying to practice alternating fingers with Hard maps,from what I have experienced.
As time passes by,you'll get used to playing while alternating you fingers automatically.

Though I can't help you with your finger-lifting problem.
alternating was completely natural until I randomly got this finger lifting problem. I was playing song's like scarlett rose and with a dance number completely fine until this random issue occurs and got me really frustrated.
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