Joe Rogan on Why He Started Doing Martial Arts

Maybe help other people being more okay with yourself like what what bothers you about yourself? I Just wish I just felt more comfortable in my own skin a lot of times You know because I feel like I would be able to be more effective as a person if I could just They kind of get a not toil in some own You know if small self-worth issues or like lack of confidence at times, you know I wish I could trust my instincts and I wish my instincts were like better calibrated so that I knew when I was what if I was doing like okay and good stuff and My insides like told me you're being okay. You don't have to worry, you know, there's a lot of things going on there, right? One of them the big one is almost always from your childhood almost feelings of Lack of worth and self-worth come from that feeling as you're developing as you're growing up. Yeah, you feel like You're not loved or you're not appreciated or you're you're criticized too much. You feel like you're a loser It really because psychologically To be very hard to shake and even as people get older sometimes they still they still cling to this thought that they're they're a piece Of shit because they're a piece of shit in someone's eyes when they were eight. Yeah, there were ten That's a real problem with people man And that's one of the reasons why when someone gets bullied when they're young It can be so devastating because it's happening when you're in high school or junior high school and it becomes a defining moment for you Yeah Yeah, it's do I was scared as one kid really also about this one kid One of the reasons why I got into wrestling this kid Like we had this confrontation in a locker room. Mm-hmm, and I didn't think we were gonna fight like I was just totally bluffing I don't know what What I said or what he said, I don't remember but I do remember him getting me in a headlock throwing me on the ground and Then leaning like he was gonna punch me in the face but deciding not to and I didn't know what to do I had no no Martial arts skills know nothing right? I have I'd never wrestled anybody before I didn't know anything So there's nothing in you that is like a reaction panicked and no idea what to do and I think I've thought shit I didn't think he was gonna do that and now here I am on my back. I'm trapped like god damn it I gotta learn how to wrestle. I gotta learn some martial arts or something so then I started taking karate and then I started taking wrestling like right after that but I Was I avoided that kid every time I saw him? Well, I see him on the other side of school. I'd like see him through the breezeway and I'm always new around I gotta go around. Hey, I don't want to see that guy that threw me on the ground and could have punched me in the face It was almost like more humiliating that he did could have punched me in the face But he didn't but that bullying and that guy doing that to me that fear of like being Just helpless. Mm-hmm made me get into martial arts. I was like fuck this like I gotta figure out how to fight I don't want this to happen to me anymore. So there's a that's it. Do you see there's the benefit? It was a lucky Situation to like he didn't beat me up. It could have been way worse It was not that big a deal was an easy school to go to like my school wasn't hard Even though there was some criminals that were in that school like some kids that get shipped into There was some bad kids and one of them got charged with murder like right after graduating We're like, whoa our friend Kevin. We knew this dude and he killed somebody more like whoa Yeah, everybody was like whoa that guy killed somebody. I think he was one year older than me Yeah, he murdered somebody like right after high school. Yeah, this is a kid we knew he was on the football team We like knew him and then you ever think he would murder somebody He was a tough guy, yeah scary guy for sure like a powerhouse of a person like a tank Um, I didn't know him well though, but I you know, I'd say hi to him But it's one of those things where when something like that happens to you and for me again, it was very minor Yeah, I was just scared of this guy and I he didn't do anything to me horrible just threw me on the ground So in high somebody could have beat your brains I mean if someone could hold you down like that I could do could have beat my face and I wouldn't have been able To shit. Are you grateful in a weird way that he didn't or not great? Yeah, looking sure for sure. It was enough He just let me know I was you know, I don't know what I said. I made a said something stupid He might have said something stupid and wanted me to back down and I didn't so he just grabbed me and threw me on the ground But the fact that he that he did it and could do it Led me to make one of the biggest decisions on my whole life is getting involved in martial arts I just didn't want that feeling anymore Like if someone talked like gives me a hard time Mm-hmm, I want to be the one who can decide whether or not this gets violent or who gets hurt I don't want to leave that into some strangers hands might be a fucking psychopath. Yeah, if it's in my hands No one's getting hurt. We're gonna be finally there's a video of Matt Sarah from yesterday Matt Sarah There was a drunken altercation with some fucking dude in a food court Matt Sarah who's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt like what at one point time when he was competing He's one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu artists in the world then on top of that he fought an MMA knocked out George St. Pierre won the welterweight title and he's got some dude on the ground and he's just saying calm down Calm down the guys like I'm gonna fuck you up. I'm gonna fuck but it's hilarious to watch like look at this Look good play good and play the volume He's like I'm gonna break your fucking face Oh, yeah, he's holding his wrist. I love how he has a shirt on the guy's face. He's like calm down calm down It's like he's putting a crying baby to sleep. And so the security guard comes over and says let him go He goes, okay, you gonna control them Are you gonna control them is it like you're gonna control them Are you ready to control them like he's not he's standing up and he's fat And let me tell you something Matt Sarah is one of the nicest fucking guys on the planet earth if he has to do this To you in a restaurant if he's a restaurant, he's got full mount on you. You fucked up You fucked up dude, but see you're way better off with Matt Sarah in that position then that drunk dude on some guy who doesn't know how to fight It could be that too that drunk dude could just be a real mean violent person who wants to beat someone up if he gets him down so if there's guys like you know who aren't into that kind of so you found getting in a martial arts it really kind of Led you in like a way where you felt more Confident in case things got into an uncomfortable situation that you would be okay. Yeah. Well, look you're always You're always gonna be nervous in life when something's important whether it's going on stage or something difficult life You know difficult things make you nervous. It's like there's an anticipation there's an understanding of The difficulty of something you're about to pursue and whether or not you're gonna fall short or whether or not you're gonna succeed That shit makes people nervous, but the physical confrontation nervousness is a bad one That's a that's a like that is a paralyzing fear Yeah, you're a bully to feel being hurt and you can't do anything about that devastates people that puts them in a deep deep depression Yeah, so it's really important to learn I think I think every young man should learn how to fight I think there would be way less fights because of it and I don't think you have to be a mean person to learn martial arts I think it's a skill and I think you learn it and then once you start getting good at it It started actually starts actually becoming fun and the people who you practice it with you you become close with yeah You don't you don't hate the people that you're practicing fighting with they become some of your closest friends Yeah, and I think it's just a big it's a giant confidence boost to know that you can do something difficult and get better At it. That's I think just that alone. It has massive benefits for people Yeah, you know I can sense that man I remember watching a video a couple years ago Actually, if you like getting a belt or something they gave you a some dojo or I'm not sure what the correct terminology is It might have been a BJJ you probably watching when I got my black belt. Yeah, maybe that was it Anyway, yeah, like all the there was a lot of guys around it just and I know that Coco does it Joey does it Oh, he loves it. You should do it. Why don't you do it? You're a strapping man. I talked to Eddie I thought he'd rob about going to do it one day Do it so he said uh, he said yeah come he said come down one day and he'll you know Get me into like one of the beginners classes. I think I need to do it. Fuck. Yeah, it made me feel a bit more Yeah, like you said sometimes I just uh, I don't know some and especially like if people get bullied And then they don't have like a brother or they don't have a friend or they don't even have somebody to go Like talk to like oh man, and then their buddy be like, oh, it's okay You know like that's he that's that can make you know, then that person gets stuck inside themselves Just feeling like you know, like they're not gonna be okay. You know, no, it's