How careful should a pianist be about his/her hands?

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Boxing and handball, bad.  Go for racketball or squash instead of handball.  

Boxing isn't that bad.  I'm a boxer and my hands are just fine.  I think Ansel Wallenfang was an amateur boxer but I could be wrong.

Anyways I think it's good to do some hard on your hand exercises because it conditions them to be strong and makes them less susceptible to injury.  Let's say you're out at a bar and someone smacks your girl in the butt and you need to stick him in the jaw.  You're more likely to hurt your hand if you avoid doing anything in fear of hurting your hands for piano as oppose to if you're used to doing exercises that may be hard on your hands like lifting, skateboarding, volleyball, boxing etc...

[outin]

I see you're giving up on my hands and wanna take his now huh???

Oh no, I'm still waiting for them to be delivered and worry every day if they will get damaged 

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Oh no, I'm still waiting for them to be delivered and worry every day if they will get damaged 

They're all callused now

[pencilart3]

Conclusion of Rach_forever's triple post:

Skateboarding, boxing, and rough activities are good for piano because they make your hands all rough and calloused (which is very, very good for piano) so when you need to smack a guy in the face at a bar, you won't damage your hand.

Wow. That logic!

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Conclusion of Rach_forever's triple post:

Skateboarding, boxing, and rough activities are good for piano because they make your hands all rough and calloused (which is very, very good for piano) so when you need to smack a guy in the face at a bar, you won't damage your hand.

Wow. That logic!

READ before you make another stupid comment.

The point I was trying to make was that you should shouldn't avoid activities that can/will put strain on your hands as long as you know what you're doing.  

What do I mean by this?  If you box, don't be an idiot and hit the bag without gloves, and don't not put on hand wrap.  If you skate or play football, learn how to fall properly.  If you play basketball, don't dive for a loose ball hands first.

It WILL make your hands stronger and less susceptible to injury if an accident happens like falling off your bike, getting in a fight, or getting in a car crash.

I do all sorts of things that people consider "bad" for my hands but I can play just fine.  And that's not because I'm lucky, that's because I know what I'm doing.

[outin]

They're all callused now

I don't mind, as long as they still work...

[visitor]

as long as your careful. like was said. like this.

[pencilart3]

He cannot be a pianist.

[schumaniac]

I'm sure different people will tell you different things.

To avoid sports altogether is pretty stupid though. If people tell you that, then they probably are just conjecturing. You can certainly play sports in a way that won't damage you. Perhaps if your wrists are flimsy or you're not the most coordinated, tennis doesn't work, but it's a lot better than most other sports (I played a lot of tennis- granted, JV-level tennis, but still tennis). In basketball, after jamming 3-4-5 on both hands, I figured out how to play less aggressively and how to make good judgements

Sports that don't require your hands also exist; think cross-country, track and swimming... and those are also fun, challenging, generally awesome sports- some people say "yeah, in cross country, you just run" but there's more to running than you think...

[pencilart3]

Lol yeah my best friend is in CC and he loves it.