Can Sports Ruin My Piano Playing?

If you break a finger in sports, that can be fairly devastating. Concussions are nothing to celebrate either. Come to think of it, a compound fracture to the leg won’t make playing piano and those pedals much of a picnic. The bottom line is to be careful.

I love sports and did not hesitate to play them in school. I still do. However, I did not join the wrestling team in junior high. I wanted to, but finger and elbow injuries were common occurrences on the particular team that I wanted to be a part of.

I would caution pianists that basketball and volleyball should not be avoided, but play with alertness. Even simply jamming a finger is painful and can put a musician out of commission for a few days.

As for racket sports, some pianists like tennis and some complain that it makes their wrists stiff. My personal opinion is that if your wrists are strong to begin with, tennis is fine. The stiffness arises because a significant amount of strength is required to hold and execute shots with a tennis racket. You are, however, building muscle which is, in fact, good for your piano playing.

Sports require a common sense approach. Do I play tennis? Yes I do… quite often in fact. Would I play tennis intensely just a few hours before a concert? I probably would not as I’d want my forearms and wrists ready for action in a recital, not at the stage where they’re recovering from a tiring event.