3 Ways Athletes Can Be Creative In These Times

Summary

• Participating in sports can be a creative outlet. However, sometimes we MUST be creative in order to build athletic abilities. We may not have a choice. Our sports might be put on hold or our training facilities are shut down.
• Creativity comes in handy in all sports. Yet, there is a saying “the way you do one thing is the way you do all things.” Therefore, we must be creative in more than our competition or training. We must be creative in all things.
• Creativity can provide possibilities when some of our options are taken away. Make it a habit to think outside the box, and we will never run out of options.
• It can start with language. Increase your athletic vocabulary. Learn more information about your sport and ways to condition your body. This gives us options to be creative.
• Be willing to change/adapt. It is hard to do creative things if we aren’t willing to change. It can be uncomfortable, unfamiliar, or scary.
• Be aware of your creativity. Look at all things and ask “what can I do differently?” Think creatively.

Full Transcript

In sports, we get to be very creative. Think about a basketball player, right? They get to be creative with their moves, their passes, their shots, and with their teams. But it's not just with the sport, you can be very creative with your training, with the way you work out, right? If you're doing leg exercises, you're not just doing squats. You get to be creative with the exercises you choose and how you put them together. So it's great to be creative with your sport, but sometimes we have to be creative, and in these times that we're living in, you may have to be very creative. Either you can't get to the gym or you can't get to the field or with your teammates, or things are shut down that shouldn't hold you back. We just need to be creative.

This video isn't necessarily on how to be creative with sports, but overall, because there is a saying, the way you do one thing is the way you do all things. So if we could just get into the habit of being creative, then it's going to be easier for us to find that creativity and to adjust when we need to. So there are three things that I think that every athlete should be doing to be creative.

Hey, David Sabi here with Kid to Athlete, helping parents raise athletes. So there are three ways that I think that we can be very creative. First one is language, and I'm not talking about foul language. That's not how you be creative with language. But when I say language, what I mean is your vocabulary, right? Increase your vocabulary, increase the words that are available because that'll give you options. Now, if you look at our leg exercises or leg routine, what you'll see is if all I know is the word squat, then when I bring up a leg exercise or routine, then I'm just going to use squats, which is not very creative, one, and it's kind of boring. So we're trying to increase our vocabulary, increase our knowledge, and if you start looking at your options from there, you can build a great creative routine that helps your legs.

Now, I also like to think of it as an artist. When you ask an artist, what color is that? They'll say not blue, but aquamarine blue. Or you ask them what color is that it's not just yellow. It's canary yellow with a hint of burnt sienna, right? They have expanded their colors from blue, red, yellow to a whole number of colors. So they get a lot of options, which is why they can develop masterpieces, right? That's all we're doing. We're trying to learn as much as we can, get as many options as we can so we can develop our masterpiece. When things are shut down or we have access to our normal routines, that's fine, because we can be creative because what we've done is we've expanded our options so that we can continue to build our masterpiece. So starts with language, start working on that vocabulary and expand it.

Number two is change. Now can't be creative and do creative things if you're not willing to change and get out of your normal, right? Get out of that rut that you've been doing. So let's go back to those leg exercises. If the only routine for your legs is squats and all you do is squats, you're not really going to benefit and continue on with your development if you don't be creative and change directions and do those creative things. So be creative, make the change, right? Don't be afraid to change. I know it's uncomfortable. It could be unfamiliar territory, something new, but I promise you, it can be very beneficial.

I train people in the weight room, I train people at home and we do a lot of leg exercises. What I find funny is when people come back from a snowboarding trip and they're like, "I'm so sore." That soreness is because you've changed the leg exercise. I know snowboarding may not seem like a leg exercise, but if you've gone snowboarding and your legs are sore, that's the leg exercise. What you find is because of that, you've just changed it up and you got a different workout. That's what I think creativity is. When you are creative and you've willing to change things up, then you're going to benefit from that. So change is one of those things.

Number three is awareness. Now awareness is basically knowing that you can be creative anytime. We've been talking about leg exercises, yes, you can be creative with your squats. Literally just your squats, right? You can do goblet squats. You can do front squats. You can do Jefferson squat. There are so many different squats out there. You can be creative with that. But if you take that concept, the way you do one thing is the way you do all things, then start looking at all things creatively, right? You're not just going to describe your car as if it's blue, right? You can be creative with that. So think and be aware of how you can be creative and think of how you can be more creative in certain things that you're already doing.

Look at what other people are doing. How can they do that differently? You'll just get into the habit of not only being aware of your creativity but how you can just see things and give yourselves more options so that when things are shut down and you can't get to the gym or you can't get to the field or court, you have that option and you have that creativity as a habit so that you can move on, right? Like that artist, you can build your masterpiece because you've got so many different options, and that's what creativity is really about, is giving you those options and opening the door to more than one way to developing as an athlete, as a person and building your masterpiece. So I hope this video helps. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button, and I will see you on the next one. Thanks for watching.