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did you not get a reply taht helped you?

i played snare last year and i found that you just need to stand straight and get used to it. you'll have a nice back by the time you finish your marching season

I went from an 18inch bass drum to frickin tenor drums, it sucks but you get use to the weight. Whatever you do don't lean back, a couple years ago one of our tenor drummer cracked a vertebrae, he had to were a back brace all the time for a year and during practice for another year

lmao i went from a 24" bass to tenor drums.
24" is kinda heavy but i adjusted to it by the first day of camp that year.
tenors on the other hand ...it took me like the first week.

just stand as straight as possible, and again don't lean back when in pain.

make sure your harness is adjusted to you, you should be able to stand up straight and "fill up" your harness. Just remember 3 points of contact: back, hips, and chest. also, when you have the time in between reps, bend over forward and stretch your lower back.

Thanks a lot, these are really good answers.

I've heard of the 3 points of contact before, but how do you get the snare carrier to touch in 3 places, mine only will do shoulders and hips and I can't think of a way to adjust it to fix that. It could be a thing that varies from carrier to carrier and just isn't possible on our style of carrier (I don't think any of my line has them set that way).

P.S. Our carriers are old, white Yamahas (not carbon fibre) if that helps.

With some people and some harnesses, you won't get contact at the chest. (Skinny guys just don't fill up some harnesses like some vests and Dynasty v-bars.) Just fill up the space between your body and the carrier as best you can. Stand up straight with your shoulders square and your chest full. Don't bend your back trying to push your chest forward to make contact.

putting your weight foreward will help you not to lean back get used to your weight being in the balls of your feet and you wont lean back, thus not hurting you spine