Can you double your foot speed? That’s what John Crocken’s Speed-A-Beat sets out to answer. The patented module is built around a single mechanical idea: replace the friction between foot and footboard with a bed of free-spinning steel bearings and see what happens. John Crocken, known for his well-balanced hand-lathed drumsticks used over the years by iconic drummers such as Jim Chapin and Max Roach, built the Speed-A-Beat to find out for himself.  The concept isn’t new. Crocken’s idea was sparked by a self-contained roller pedal built by Sanford Moeller. The Speed-A-Beat carries that idea forward in a form that mounts to any modern bass drum pedal.  The Design   The unit is an aluminum block with nine embedded steel ball bearings. It fastens to the footboard using two hex-key set screws on each side. Because the bearings are omnidirectional, the foot is free to travel in any direction across them: forward and back, side to side, or with any of the swiveling motions drummers use to chase speed. The block slides […]

June 2026 Issue