forearm mobility (dire need of help)

[Matt Brown 217068]

Hi. Might sound like an odd question, but here is what I need to be able to do.
With my left hand facing my left eye, elbow bent at 90 degrees, wrist straight, I need to be able to rotate my forearm 90 degrees such that my left palm now faces outward, with my thumb pointing forward.

If this proves unrealistic, I at least need to be able to rotate as far in this direction as possible. Right now, if my thumb is pointing at 9:00 o`clock when my palm is facing me, and 12 o`clock would be the position with my thumb pointing straight ahead, I can only get to about 10:00 o`clock.

I either need to figure this out, or give up the violin. Violin forums don't help, so this seemed like a better place./

Thanks
Matt Brown

[Alessandro Mainente]

I did not understand too much, please post a pic or a video.

And why you need this mobility?

[Coach Sommer]

Hi Matt,

Very interesting question.  Please post a videos or pictures demonstrating the desired mobility.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Matthew Hanham]

Maybe the part you're missing is that you need to externally rotate your upper arm, so that the elbow is not pointing straight down. The triangle formed by  your upper and lower arm and the neck of the violin is not perpendicular to the floor but sloping with the point (at your elbow) towards your right foot (if you are sitting).  This will bring your fingers over the finger board more, especially at higher finger positions.  (I played violin and viola to a reasonably high amateur standard in my teens.)

 

[Matt Brown 217068]

Hi guys. Thank you very much for your responses. Foster kids have kept me extremely busy, so I haven't had a chance to look for videos that demonstrate my issue, but here is a good example. I am trying to accomplish what this guy is working on in the first half of the video (but his yoga stretching isn't really doing it for me). I have been struggling with this issue for a very long time, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. 1:00 to 1:50 pretty much covers it.

Thanks
Matt Brown

 

[Alessandro Mainente]

With his elbow flexed he is trying to involve the pronator/supinator of the wrists. these exercises should be don both passively both actively (grabbing the edge of a wood bar with bent elbow and trying to lift the other edge with wrist rotation) in order to restore balance.