Drumming - WHAT to practice and HOW to improve

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If you're a drummer, and you feel STUCK - let me help you:
In my experience, there's a consistent journey that most drummers go on. I've witnessed it in myself and in 99% of my students.
It goes something like this:
1. You play the drums for the first time and fall in love with the instrument
2. You experience an exciting phase in the beginning where drumming is simply fun. There's no agenda - drumming brings you joy and it fills your spare time.
3. You discover other drummers that impress you. You watch their performances, trying to figure out what they're playing and how they're playing it - and this begins to influence your own style.
Then something happens.
Time passes. Your technical skills improve by some measurable amount, but you begin to feel like you're not making big enough leaps forward.
This feeling compounds.
You feel like you're not where you ought to be as a drummer.
You run out of creative ideas and feel plateaued. You're playing the same ideas over and over.
Drumming is no longer the fun activity it used to be. It now serves to remind you that you're not good enough.
So you give up. Or resign to the fact that you won't ever be good enough.
I cannot tell you how many drummers I've spoken to who are stuck here.
Most of them.
Allow me to dispel this for you.
Firstly, you're listening to fiction. The story you're telling yourself about how little progress you're making is only in your head. This little voice loves to drag us down, telling us what we're not capable or worthy of.
It's 100% fiction.
How to stop this vicious cycle - create a diary to measure your progress - whether you're measuring a clean tempo increase (1 BPM is progress), comfort with a new pattern, being able to play a new song (or part of a song!)... write all of that stuff down next to 'week 1'.
Do the same next week. And the following week, and so on.
Now that you have a system to witness progress, do you still feel like you're not improving?
How about the feeling that you're not good enough?
Good enough for who? You ONLY need to please yourself and hold yourself to your own standards and goals.
Stop looking at other drummers as competition - there will always be another player out there with a set of different abilities to you, some of which are only achievable due to their unique genetics... If you don't believe this, ask yourself: with enough training on the track, could you beat Usain Bolt in a race? Or does he have a genetic advantage?
(Fact: he has a genetic advantage)
Instead of focusing on what others can do, and the idea that others are judging you for what you currently can't do - focus inward.
Learn to identify your next step as a drummer by looking at your own playing. Not by comparing your playing to the skills of others.
What does this do? Over time, it develops your unique sound. Your signature. Your personality as a player.
All of those well-known drummers that you look up to, whose playing is instantly recognizable... it develops THAT.
And if your goal is to make a living from drumming, or at least to stand out in the crowd so that you're chosen for the gig, this is the most crucial thing to practice.
If you're still feeling stuck after hearing this, then reach out to me. If I can help you, I will.