Bent RH wrist - wrist pain... any help?

[MattC]

I've been playing flamenco for about a year and a half now, and for the
first 6 months I struggled with the *correct* posture my teachers
showed me, which was to have my right arm resting on the arch of the
guitar, and my right hand/fingers positioned at a right angle to the
strings (mainly for picado and apreggios).
After a while of slowly working my way into this posture, I had no pain
or problems whatsoever in this process, however, when I became
completely comfortable with my 'roughly' correct position, I made the
fatal mistake of further bending my RH wrist (to the right), with the
aim of achieving the perfect right angle position. But after a few
weeks of practicing and performing in this position I began to get
fairly strong pain in my wrist (RH) which stopped me from playing some
days. Since then I've realised my mistake and have stopped forcing it
into that position and instead use a relaxed position but I still get
that pain when playing or practising for over 20 mins or more.

Now in the last few weeks I've stopped playing to rest my wrist and
allow it to heal, which has been quite succesful. I've also thoroughly
analysed my posture and realized that even when quite relaxed, my wrist
will always be bent to some degree (to be able to play flamenco), and
so I have been looking at many guitarist's positions and notice that in
general, people play with their wrist pretty much straight, so what I'm
curious about is whether I have a different body type which causes this
difference in technique (I'm reasonably tall and skinny), how other
people with this problem have managed or not managed, and any other
comments or suggestions would be much appreciated.

P.S. One interesting thing that I've noticed is that Sabicas tended to
bend his wrist a huge amount, sometimes to a degree that looks
dangerous.. but how did he get away with it?

Cheers,
Matt

[p***@ntaprinters.co.uk]

Matt,

I've got a similar problem, I'm over 6ft and I guess flamenco guitars
were designed for shorter people. Try watching Vicente Amigo
(youtube.com) he doesn't hold his fingers at 90 degrees if resting his
arm on the guitar. He also lifts his arm/elbow to play picado. The best
advice really is be as comfortable as possible. Good luck!

[David Raleigh Arnold]

Post by MattC
I've been playing flamenco for about a year and a half now, and for the
first 6 months I struggled with the *correct* posture my teachers showed
me, which was to have my right arm resting on the arch of the guitar, and
my right hand/fingers positioned at a right angle to the strings (mainly
for picado and apreggios).

Short people can get away with that. Stick with it and you could put
yourself out of the guitar playing business for good. Use a "classical"
position. daveA

[Antony]

Always keep the wrist straight - see how Paco de Lucia plays - always with a
straight wrist.
When you play rasgeado or pulgar (thumb work) bisep muscle rests on the top
but when you play picado lift arm up to release the wrist.

Post by David Raleigh Arnold

Post by MattC
I've been playing flamenco for about a year and a half now, and for the
first 6 months I struggled with the *correct* posture my teachers showed
me, which was to have my right arm resting on the arch of the guitar, and
my right hand/fingers positioned at a right angle to the strings (mainly
for picado and apreggios).

Short people can get away with that. Stick with it and you could put
yourself out of the guitar playing business for good. Use a "classical"
position. daveA
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