Theme of the Week: Creativity

Creativity is one of the cornerstones of our art.

I first felt the power of creativity back when I was a green sash and I was grappling with a fellow student who had a deep wrestling background. He tapped me out with an arm lock that I had never seen before.

“What was that?”
“I dunno. I just made it up.”

My mind was blown. To me there was an armbar (executed only from one of two positions and done in a very precise sequence), a guillotine and some sort of shoulder lock that I couldn’t remember the name of (Kimura). The idea that someone could “make up” a submission was impossible.

How did he do it? He practiced a lot. He gained an understanding of how the joints of the body worked. He wrestled a lot. He practiced the standard submissions a lot and then… he started experimenting.

What does all this have to do with the stick drills in the video above? Basics are part of the soil that creativity flourishes in. They are a beginning. They are a way of establishing a vocabulary. Know your basics and then create from there.