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This is a fascinating subject - my research and practice has led me to these conclusions: The key to the Gladstone technique is that the hand propels the stick down very quickly (even if you are playing very slowly); and you must relax your grip (whatever grip you use) so that the stick rebounds without any motion on your part. Therefore, you make only one motion - down stick. Dom Famularo's book "It's your move" is the best resource for explaining this. Jim Chapin calls it "stop at the top"; Joe Morello calls it the "full stroke" or the "free stroke" It's all about getting the stick to rebound back by itself. That's why you have to "throw" the stick down very fast. The faster you throw it, the more energy it will have and the greater the rebound force. Now the "Gladstone" technique also implies two other concepts: upstrokes/downstrokes (control strokes) and stick height. Again, check Dom Famularo's book or Joe Morello's DVD for this.

So what is the Moeller technique: the whiping motion. Juim Chapin's video gives the best lessons on it.

The biggest and most important technique that you need to incorporate into BOTH the Moeller and Gladstone methods concerns the fingers.

The most important thing that I discovered was that you have to use all of these techniques together with the fingers in order to make them really work.

I found that the fingers really help you get much more rebound when you throw the stick down.

So what is the finger technique (which all these other techniques are strangely silent about)? I only found 1 book that covers this subject in any depth: "Technique Petters" by Gary Chaffee.

Now what about the grip or hold. Don't get hung up on it. You can use differnt types of grips and fulcrums and different fingers. The key is to relax your hand, and work on techniques that give you a good bounce. I am oversimplying it, but if you keep in mind the key points: throwing down with speed and power to get rebounding force, and always trying to relax the hands and minimize tension, you can teach yourself alot as you work through basic snare drum exercises, rudiments, etc. Get a copy of George Stone's "Stick Control" and just start working through the simple exercises while you incorpoate these techniques: I.e. Gladstone "free stroke", Moeller "whipping" and the "fingers"

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rbergsohn

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