im really having trouble playing 3's with my left hand and our line has started practicing 3's and i suck. its always slow and stuff, but when i play with both hands together, its fine. any tips or suggestions on what i could do to get my 3's good on my left hand?

Play fours.

Seriously, with all my students we practice any multiple stroke at a tap height with an accented last note.

This has helped them all tremendously with both timing and sound quality.

Too many players have an unsupported approach that results in them running out of gas before completing the stroke.

practice 1e&..2e&..3e&..4e&
rrr rrr rrr rrr
lll lll lll lll

a lot, then try them in 6-let form with no space

practice playing high to get all 3 notes : 9,12, inches off pad

alright thanks. i'll try those out. my 3's are decent when im playing them fast, but slow, it sucks.

start slow at like 90 with the triplet on and just play them hand to hand rrr lll rrr lll ect and bump it up 5 clicks every minute or so

Snare Paint had a great way to work on it plus that will help with inverted rudiments as well.

You say you can play them fast but not slow? that's awkward most likely you are throwing the stick to the head to get threes out and they aren't very consistent.

Starting slow and building speed is important. Something that Bill Bachman has said that stuck with me tremendously is "practice the fast technique slow" What I mean by that is when you play something fast you have to use a different technique than when it is played slow. so even though using the fast technique at slow tempos will in most cases look ridiculous it will make gaining speed and playing it correctly much easier.

i can play them fast cause i use drop catch, but slowly, i use finger which my left ones aren't good at.
yeah, in our line, we practice triplet diddles with arms rather than wrists slowly to help us get the motion correct. its a great way, and ima try that for the 3's then.

thanks for the tips guys. they're really helpful.

Hold on, triples with your arm? Your doing something wrong, its all about your wrist unless your using a visual. When you do it slowly you should use the entire stroke, aka, get your stick as high as you can, while still keeping clean. That will help you stretch out/warm up/get the technique, and just overall help you once you get faster.

As for the entire left hand thing, I can awnser that simply, your left hand is not up to par. You are lacking technique or chops, maybe a mixture of both, that's a problem with everyone. Just do it, keep going from a slow tempo. Practice lets say, 2 minutes of triples on your right hand, then on your left hand at 88 BPM. Then, turn the metronome up to 92 BPM and do the same. Go until you reach your breaking point, when your technique falls, and you can't keep up with the metronome.

That's what I did, And still do, to help me out with my hands.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's probably referring to the style some teams use where with faster rolls, the use of arm is to maintain the check while the wrist and fingers still initiate and support the stroke.

I'm going to go with snare paint with this one and say they did that while learning to play "triplet diddles" not triple stroke rolls. To keep the check so they understand what happens with the arm once they speed things up.