Joe Rogan | The Importance of Sports Psychology w/Rico Verhoeven

What about psychology? Do you have a mental trainer or anybody who's like a sports psychologist? Well, that's the fun thing. I started off with the guy I was telling you about, Ovi Erlema. He's also kickboxing world champion in different weight divisions. And I was training with him and he took me with his training. Took me to his training and I was working with him in his prime. And without him knowing, he was teaching me so much about mental training because I was training with him and he was never giving up. And the moment that I just showed something like, he gave even extra, even more gas. So when you started slowing down. Yeah. And he was even pushing the pace even more. And that's what I was seeing in his fights and I was just studying him. And from that I learned so much and I respect him. I'm still so thankful for that. So he's still my mental coach with that. So he's in my corner. And every time when he says something, I just think about, I don't want to disappoint this man because he knows what's how important this is. And I think from the start of last year or something, I was really a little bit skeptical about talking to people like a psychologist or something. And I was like, I don't know. Talk about personal stuff that's pretty deep with somebody you don't know. It's, I don't know, maybe in my mind just doesn't add up. It doesn't feel good. But still, I got into the situation that I had to. Or yeah, I just had to and I went there and it actually felt pretty good. So from that moment on, I just kept on doing it. Just talk about stuff. You like no other know what, how many things happen, of what everything that happens in your life. And you just got to process all that stuff. But sometimes you just, so many things happen in your life that you just can't process. And you put them away and they're fucking with you in the back of your head. Exactly. And then when you just have the time or take the time to talk about this stuff, you just, it just feels a lot better. It feels like a bag of bricks on your back. You just fall off. It feels good. So I think of it the same way you were talking about physical therapy. That like if you have little injuries, nagging injuries, you get it massaged out and everything loosens up. I think of it the same way. If you're not taking a good account of what's going on in your mind, you can develop like little mental injuries. Yeah, exactly. But for me, and maybe a lot of people have, maybe not nowadays, but like from back in the days, people said like, when you're talking to a psychology, you're crazy. Right, right, right. Yeah, that's what, that's how people in Holland like, approached it. Well, for here, for a long time here for fighters, it was the same thing. Like most fighters didn't need a psychologist. That's not for winners. Winners know how to win. You just don't be a pussy, you go out there and fucking fight. Yeah. But that's nonsense. Like you, there's no pussies in professional fighting. No. You know, but there is edge. You can get an edge. You can get an advantage. Whether you get that advantage from getting massage or cryotherapy, or from a sports psychologist, there's advantages to be had. Yeah. But I think that's what I got from my dad is just being tough. Being tough and being hard on yourself in whatever situation you're in. Just be tough on yourself and just, because that's what he was. He was tough on himself. So that's what I got from him. But now I just think like, okay, just do, tweak everything up and just get mentally in balance. And especially when he passed away like almost two years ago, it's just, yeah, it was tough. With stuff, especially when the relationship we had wasn't like, was like on and off, on and off. And when it was on, it was like a lot of discussion and it just hurts. And then things happen in your life and you just try to process everything and give it a certain spot. But it's just hard sometimes. And you just need somebody outside of your comfort zone to talk about that. Right. And yeah, that really worked and helped for me. So I'm very thankful for that. And just, you know, I think always how I approach things is everything in life happens for a reason, whatever, positive or negative. And sometimes you know what happens and why it happened. And sometimes you probably know it after like a few years and maybe you never know it. But in my opinion, everything in life, positive or negative happens for a reason. And you just, yeah, it's on you. Well, whether you close that or doesn't, if you decide that it does, that it happens for a reason and you can find benefit in good or bad things, then it does happen for a reason. But you make that distinction that it's going to be for your benefit. It can help you in the long run. That's the difference between a person who takes things that happen, adversity in life, and decides that the world is against them. Oh, I can't catch a break. The world's fucking me over. Those people wind up becoming losers versus someone who says, you know what? We're going to be fine. This is going to make me better. It's going to make me stronger. This is going to make me understand. I'm even though I'm more vulnerable right now, this is going to make me understand myself better. It's going to ultimately make me better at everything I do. If you decide that, then things do happen for a reason. Exactly. And that's one of the reasons I love watching your podcast because that's what you bring. Especially what I think for people that maybe sometimes struggle with certain things or like just explain in a situation where you think like, fuck, what the fuck did I do to life that constantly ever bring just backfires on me? It's I always think like you are responsible for the choices that you make in your life and nobody else. You're also responsible for how you accept or how you focus on your life. Exactly. How you think about things and how you process it. You're responsible for it. Yeah. So and those are things like are so important to me. And that's what I mean with I try to surround myself with people that boost my flame and just look at my phone and just like go through it. Like who did I text or who did I call? Like, you know, those people need to boost my flame. They need to be important in one way or the other. That doesn't mean that they have to be important in business or in work or it can be in every in love or in family or whatever. It needs to be important in some kind of way. I just need to have positivity around me because I've seen so many negative things from my family side that it's like it doesn't work. Drains you. It drains you. And I believe like it's like karma. If you you're negative, you will attract more negative things. If you're positive, all positive things will come your way. 100%. I believe that as well. Do you have a visualization plan when you go into a fight? Like say like this rematch with Badar Hari. Do you you're going to sit down and visualize certain scenarios? Do you train your your thought process to go over scenarios or to have a game plan in your mind the way execute the fight the way you would like to imagine it? Of course. Of course. Think every fighter does. And before you go. Is this something you set aside like do you meditate and set aside time to do that or you just do that all the time? No, it just just happens. You're just doing it all the time. Yeah, you're in the car. Yeah, it just happens when you're on the treadmill or whatever. It just it just happens when you you think about what's gonna what's going to happen in the upcoming months. You just know that okay, this is going to be next level. Okay, but how are we going to approach this fight? What is going to happen? What might happen if he does this? I do that. Okay, but this could happen and that could happen. And in my mind before going into the fight, I fought it already like a thousand times. Maybe even more because you're thinking about this. This person and this fight for so long and for like three or four months. That's that's a long time. So that happens. What and we're always feel like what's fun to people to to realize is that my confident level during a period of like three four months into a fight goes like up and down up and down. People like, how is that possible? You are the fucking best at what you do. You smack in the shit everybody in the in the in training and in camp. And how does does it has I don't know, but that is what happens. I think that happens to everybody. So you just accept the process. You just accept the process, but it's such it's such a fucking frustrating process that when you're when you're here, just try to get back up there again. But you know, that is part of the process because I've been doing this my whole life. So I know it's part of the process, but still it's frustrating. So and that's what, for example, such a mental coach and a psychologist can help you with. cope with that at that moment so that you don't stay here. You do climb back up again, but it's it's and then you say, where does that come from? Can come from anywhere, you know, from your body being tired like, hey, why can I cope with this training or why is this training getting to me or during sparring? Why did I get get hit five times with the right hand and didn't block or react or whatever so it can come from anywhere and then the monotony of training as well, right? Yeah. Yeah.