occasionally a student will ask if they can "make up their own" combination on the pads
the answer is of course you fucking can't
you don't make up your own stick drills, NRG drills, lox, kempo sets, and you don't make up "your own" pad combinations
you do the STMA sets for focus pads and thai pads coz they teach you what you need to know to spar kb and use it as part of your training
once you have learnt all the sets you can apply the re-arrangement concept of kempo to change the order, and this will of course come out in your freeplay and sparring
you can do the kali concept of chaining the ABCs together and that in itself creates "new" sets
you can use the karate kata concept of doing them one after the other, in their proper order, changing directions, to simulate multiple opponents
but no you do not try to invent "your own" combinations or drills
unless you think you know better than The Guvnor of course
