what do people think of mine? should i close the gap between the ring finher and the stick?

yes

Mike, yours looks pretty good but I would make your thumb convex instead of concave... Make it look like half of a smiley face, not half of a frown face. That probably didn't make any sense.

are you sure?? cavies use a very similar technique.........should i still close it?

i was taught two different ways. one was to have the thumb between the second and third knuckle and the other was to have to the tumb on the joint of your first finger that the nail is on. the second was taught to me by the snare instructor/ caption head at Revolution (DCI open class). i prefer the second way. it fells pretty comfortable and i feel like i have more contrl that way.

Simply a question about left handed technique. Well, It's not really about your hand. Its about your elbow

Where is the correct place for your arm to be. My elbow likes to stay maybe 2-3 inches from my body. Is this correct, or should your elbow be out like you are playing german matched.

Next part, My elbow likes to move with my strokes, Not to much, but it still moves back and forth, following my strokes. Do you want to have a stiff elbow (on both sides) and nothing but a rotating wrist, or is elbow movement correct.

There are so many different versions of traditional grip so not any one person could tell you what is the correct way to do it. As long as it is functional and everyone does the same thing, I believe that its perfectly ok. Same thing goes for the elbow thing 9volt. If it works for you/everyone in your section and you all do it the same, there is mothing wrong about it.

Alright - here's a Q.

I'm not sure why, but it seems like my left hand height is severely limited. I can get the stick higher opening the grip, but really want to train/stretch my arm to allow me to keep a proper grip while getting the height I need on accents.

Any ideas/tips on training for this?

stretch it daily......set urself at the attention position and extend the wrist as high as it can go.........and then grab the stick and pull it back slowly just like you would stretch any muscle.......do this daily and you will start to see results........play some slow legato 8's to cool it down....and then stretch it again.......u might wanna warm up with some legatos at various tempos before u do this so ur muscles can already be warm and "more stretchable"

Thanks....will try.