I was replying to a post on FB in a drumming group and related how I view the process of developing one's playing.

This is how I see the learning curve: If you listen to little babies try to talk they all babble and say nonsensical little murmurs. The same should be with the drums; yes, definitely spend time quantizing to Quarters, Eights, Sixteenths, etc....but also set aside a little "exploration time" in that your hands just wander and do stuff that they may want to do; some of my favorite chops came out of those sorts of moments!

In time, the baby (drummer) learns words and while the meaning of those words are not fully understood, still the ability to "say the word" appears ("Ex-tem-por-ane-ous") and eventually, one learns to use that word in a context. It's merely the principle of learning to speak a language. Drumming is no different.