Khalil Rountree Gets Hypnotized Before His Fights!! | Joe Rogan

And a few other things I actually got. I got like hypnotized too before yeah. Who did? My friend Dominique, he has this like, I met him through one of the other UFC fighters like Julian Marquez. I met him through him and he's like, oh yeah I do like hypnotism all this stuff. I'm like, okay cool I've done it before. I did it in California. And so I think three weeks, two or three weeks prior to the fight, we had a few sessions a week where it just like helped me to really get that visualization clear. Because we have so many thoughts all the time right? And everything just like thoughts are constantly coming in and to stay focused and to really like, like get the outcome that we, you know, set our intention to. It's kind of hard with so many distractions so. When you go into his office and or wherever you do it and you guys talk about it, do you set a goal before you start the session? We do this thing called timeline therapy. So it's like I'm just kind of sitting there with my eyes closed and we kind of just do this. We'll pick a subject whether it's like, you know, pain, fear, you know, nervousness, something. We'll just pick a subject of feeling whatever is going on. It's kind of just like a visual timeline of like, where did this start? Where did it come from? What's the event? Whatever. And we kind of just talk about that for a while. And I just kind of dig to this place of where the nervousness is coming from or where the, you know, where the fear is coming from or whatever. I kind of just I find a place on my timeline and I dig from it, whether it's in the future or the past, whatever. And then we get things clear and then and then after that he kind of helps me guides me into this like hypnotism, which is really just like a really deep relaxation. If I wanted to open my eyes or something like that, I feel like I could, but I wanted to relax. I wanted this to help. You know, I wanted my vision to be clear. So I did my best to just like surrender to the process. And I'd say it's not something where I woke up and I was like, oh, yeah, my life has changed. But I can definitely remember the thoughts that I had so that I can stay more on like in that in that lane of what I wanted. And in my in my hypnotism, I actually visualized not winning the fight because I didn't want to strive too hard to win. Like it's just something that I've been kind of studying. It's like the outcome is not really like the winning or losing. I don't want to base too much on that. I just want to put on like a great performance. So I visualized after one thing hand like just having my hands in the air, seeing my brother smile, my coach's smile and then slapping hands with the crowd on the way out. And then I was also like and I want to see my win bonus and my show money. And these are the things that I wanted to see. These are the outcomes that I wanted. Not so much just I want to win the fight, but the things that I like how I wanted it to happen. Yeah. And having that vision clear, it helped me. And so like everything that I visualized before that, it happened. I was like, cool. Hands raised, slap hands with everybody on the crowd the way out, sign both my checks. And that was like that was the end of it for me until the next session until I want to get clear on something else. You know, it was cool. Wow. So had you did anything like that before any mental coaching? Yeah. Before they go against Occupy, I did something very, very similar. Yeah. With with another guy. Was that the first time you'd ever done it? First time doing hypnotism? Yeah, definitely. And yeah, my friend Matthias, he's here and he's really good too. And he was just like, take some notes. You kind of just have a conversation in the beginning. And everything comes from your unconscious mind. It's not somebody telling you something. I just dumped out whatever my unconscious mind was telling me. He was just helping me to like, relax, be at peace and just listen to like my unconscious mind just unfold all of these kind of like hidden answers that we all have, you know, that's it. Now, when you get hypnotized and you're thinking about a specific fight, do you think about specific things you're trying to accomplish, things that you think you'll do to him that you'll have an advantage at or strategy or like, how do you? So those were thoughts that were happening before my hypnotism. But then all of those thoughts were coming from the anxiety are coming from the nervousness. You get what I'm saying? Yes. So it's like, let's go back on the timeline to why you're feeling nervous. Like all these things are happening. They're gonna you're anticipating all these things happening. And it's making you feel nervous. So let's go back to the nervousness and revisit that why, you know, and then my subconscious my unconscious mind just like spewing things out. And then after the process of that mix with the hypnotism, I'm not even thinking about, oh, I'm gonna hit this arm drag or whatever. I just I'm thinking about having my conscious clear my mind clear and everything so that I can get the expectation that like, or the visualization that I created. Yeah. So have you tried different versions of that or different styles of hypnosis? No, not that I can I mean, I've done a lot of just like closed eye, like emotional intelligence type of like exercises, you know, like where I'm just like my eyes are closed in, I have someone helping me visualize internally, you know, like, just whether it's dreams or emotional pain or whatever it may be. Yeah, people just like guided meditation almost. Yeah. But the actual name like hypnotism, I've only had it done by two people. Well, as when you're watching fighters, if you're I think fighters are one of the most complex puzzles for psychologists, because I think it's a super rare state, like the rare state that someone gets to where they can be completely calm and see everything in the heat of a dangerous encounter with another trained fighter. Yeah. And when you're watching these things play out on TV, and you oftentimes see how much anxiety plays a factor or doesn't play a factor, how much someone having the I don't give a fuck attitude for real, it can play, it can be a benefit, and it can fuck you up sometimes too. And to see these complex psychological puzzles play out and see fighter struggles, and see how much anxiety plays a factor, or doesn't play a factor. And then see fighters struggle and then regroup, have a bad fight and come back better. All that stuff is like, it's, it's really like a giant microscope on the human character. Yeah. You know, and like a guy like you, who comes back from that Johnny Walker fight and looks sensational against Eric Anders, man, it was like, that was one of those things you're like, I like what I'm seeing. He figured some shit out, man. I mean, like that was, that was, that was incredible. It was really fun to watch, man. Yeah. It was a guy who really loves Muay Thai. It was fun to watch. Thanks, man. That was, and that's, that's kind of the goal too, going forward is that I want to continue to like put on stuff like that, continue to learn Muay Thai and then cause that fight kind of raised the bar, right? People are like, Oh man, this guy for sure. Kind of put me back on the map. So now I'm ready to just go back and, you know, how many guys use mental coaches now? If you had a guess. A good handful. Good handful. Yeah. A good handful. I think, I think a lot of Shorman, Vinnie Shorman, he hypnotized me and he hypnotizes a lot of fighters. Yeah. Yeah. He's a, yeah, it was a trip. It was very strange. It's like, Oh, this is real. It's a weird feeling, right? How long ago was it? It was the old studio. So it had to be at least a year and a half, maybe two years ago. Okay. Yeah. It was pretty weird, but he's a great mental coach too, though. He knows like what's creeping around yourself. What's creeping around your subconscious, just waiting to pop up and play tricks on you. You know, you sure you put in enough rounds. Where does he live? He's a UK guy. Okay. Yeah. I gotta get linked up with him. Yeah. I'm all about it. I don't care. Anybody. I'm like, yeah, like whatever you got. Yeah. Vinnie Shorman. Let's go. Yeah. He's a good dude. I'll connect you guys. I think it's a probably one of the least trained aspects of fighting is the mental aspect of it. You know, you realize how good guys are just by watching them train. You see them spar. You see them do all these things. You have a tan. He's got, this guy's fucking good. This guy's got great jujitsu. This guy got great kickboxing. You ever hear about the people that like their, their sayings, right? Like, man, that guy's amazing in the gym, but when he shows up to fight, he just doesn't put on. Like I've been that guy multiple times and like, yeah, a lot of it has to do with mentally. Yeah. That's almost like an unaddressed giant chunk of the puzzle. Like a third of the puzzle. Like it was a pie. A third is keep it together. You know, like, you know, when it's ready to go and now it's all happening, don't freak out. And you never like, here's kind of something that I think about. You never know everybody's situation, right? So the day before the fight, we have weigh ins and then Dana comes back and like, he gives us our speech, right? So everyone there, you don't know what life position they're in, you know? So it's like, Hey, there's a potential we can get a bonus. So all those guys are affected emotionally somehow. You know what I mean? Some guys, maybe they don't care. Some guys may be like, maybe they do, but then like we walk out and then there's a crowd, 15,000 people sold out. Look around. We got Joe Rogan sitting here. We got Mick Maynard say we got Dana Y. We got everybody sitting around and then like, we're still human too. So we're thinking like, this is kind of like a test. You know, it's like, we got all the, we got the whole board right here in front of me ready to take my test. You know, like, yeah, it really depends on like, there's so much that goes into it. Like mentally, you gotta be prepared for a lot of things. Or some guys block it out, but it's just like, like anything else. You had to know about halfway into the first round, some special shit was happening though. On this fight? Yes. After. So after the first round, I was very happy. I sat down. My coaches were like, okay, this is good. This is good. You're doing this. I was like, listen, I don't want to know what's good. What should I expect the next round? Like, I was ready to go. I told this straight to George. I'm like, dude, I don't care. What do I need to do next? What should I prepare for? And he's like, prepare for a little bit more pressure. He's probably going to try to shoot for the takedown in this round. I was like, okay, cool. So that I was just looking for that and using my tools to kind of to just prepare for that. But definitely midway through the second round. I was like, okay, like, I know he still got a lot of power, all this stuff. But I think that that leg, I should be able to, you know, buy some time and take away a little bit of damage, like coming at me. I mean, he had to be in agony and he never stopped coming. Yeah. I mean, he didn't wince at all. Like even on the cage when I was just like, when he was on the back and I was trying to kick his leg, he just, his face, his facial expression never changed. He's a fucking savage, man. That's crazy. He's a bad man. Respect that guy. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Even before, like even before the fight. Before and after. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, maybe even more so, man. Not everybody can do that. Not everybody can take that, you know, and to do it the way they do it. But he did it with 100% of his character intact, never shirked, never shied away from it, kept moving forward. That's a dangerous person. And he's still getting better. Oh, yeah. That guy's just getting better. Oh, yeah. When you were doing how much do you think the hypnosis helped you? A really good amount, man. How much different did you feel like in what way? Hmm. I just, I felt more clear. I'm I feel like a lot of times I can be just kind of like an anxious guy. I just I feel like I feel a lot of just energy that kind of like, I don't know, I go into a room and I'm just like, so having having the focus on having my intention set on what I wanted to happen was 70%. Like, I know 70%. Of like the hypnotism, all that stuff to just help me to keep my thoughts on track something never fall back onto every single time. If I felt like I was getting distracted or getting nervous or whatever, I would remember, you know, the things that we went over in the hypnotism. And so every time just kind of like that hit that reset button or just a delete button on on thoughts that I just didn't want to have or thoughts that would make me feel anything other than happy and ready to go.