Expertise-related differences in wrist muscle co-contraction in drummers

Background and Aim: Drumming requires excellent motor control and temporal coordination. Deploying specific muscle activation patterns may help achieve these requirements. Muscle activation patterns that involve reciprocal contraction of antagonist muscles are particularly favorable as they enable a high level of muscular economy while maintaining performance. In contrast, simultaneous contraction of antagonist muscles is an inefficient muscle activation pattern. In drumming, co-contraction can lead to increased movement variability and greater fatigue over time. In this study we examine how muscle activation patterns develop with increased drumming expertise. Methods: Eleven expert drummers (ED) and eleven amateur drummers (AD) were recorded using 3D motion capture while performing five different uni-manual and bi-manual repetitive drumming tasks across different tempi. Electromyography was used to record muscle activation of wrist flexor and extensor muscles. Results: Findings indicate that reduced co-contraction resulted in more even drumming performance. Co-contraction also increased in extremely slow and very high tempi. Furthermore, regardless of task or tempo, muscle co-contraction was decreased in participants with higher levels of expertise. In addition to anti-phasic activity of wrist flexor and extensor muscles, expert drummers exhibited a flexor dominance, suggesting more efficient usage of rebound. Conclusion: Taken together, we found that higher levels of drumming expertise go hand in hand with specific muscle activation patterns that can be linked to more precise and efficient drumming performance.