Name: The Intense Mental Preparation in Fighting
Uploaded: 2024-01-11T19:42:35.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Intense Mental Preparation in Fighting' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-01-11. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Intense Mental Preparation in Fighting' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-01-11. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan Experience.
So tell me more, I want to hear more about this mental training.
Yeah.
And what's involved with that.
So you decided to do this after the Bilal fight?
Yeah.
So you said you made like some decisions in that fight that you like you never
had made before.
Yeah, I feel like I remember like you're in there and fighting like being in a
fight is the weirdest feeling ever.
Like sometimes like you're super present and then sometimes you're not.
Like I remember just being in that fight and for with Kelvin for 15 minutes I
was where my feet were.
I was super present.
Like I had like I was locked in that entire time when I fought Bilal.
I remember like I was just thinking about other shit and then I'd come back to
like like the present.
I'm like, what the fuck are you doing?
Like like I'm in the middle of a fight.
I just wasn't what kind of shit.
I just wasn't present.
Like I wasn't even like where like I just wasn't thinking about the fight.
Like I just didn't want to be there.
That's so weird.
And I didn't and I never felt like that before.
So now I started working with this guy Brian Cain.
He worked with GSP after GSP lost to Matt Serra first fight.
He started working with him and then I started working with Brian.
And it's just all about just being super present.
Like not even just in fighting but just in life.
Like not worrying about what I got to do later or stupid shit like that.
Just being in that moment and just focusing in on that because that's all you
can control.
I was so caught up in thinking about the future or what like happened the day
before.
Like if I had a bad day of training like I let it bother me.
And it just came out of the fight but I just wasn't in the moment.
And that's like now like I just try to be in the moment.
Everything I'm doing just super present not thinking too far ahead not thinking
about the past.
And that's something I used to get caught up in a lot.
Just not not being focused on in like I was just so worried about my next
session or my next this
or like thinking about my fight like things I can't control.
Like I can't control that far but all I can control is what I'm doing in this
moment.
So what is it that you do?
So like we just have like just like drills.
Like say if I'm sparring and if like something's not going my way just like
little like signals
just to like bring myself back into what I'm doing.
Like if a round doesn't go my way like not getting too caught up on that
and just knowing like I have another round and I can just get back into that.
And just having these like signal lights like yeah it's called like red, green,
red, red, yellow, green.
So green, all systems go.
You're having the best training session of your life.
Yellow, you're starting to get in your head a little bit.
It's not working out.
Like you're not getting off your shots, not getting off your takedowns.
Red is like you're getting pieced up.
Like your mind's going other places.
Like you don't want to fucking be there anymore.
And when you get in the red, you have to have like – like he works with
baseball players.
Say like you hit a – like you're about to get struck out.
The batter will step out of the box.
They'll take off their gloves and they'll like do like –
They'll like tap their shoulder or something and it's just like –
A reset.
Something that – a reset.
And that's exactly – that's exactly what it is.
So like if I'm having like a bad session, like obviously I'm not going to
fucking like tap my head or something like that.
But just like talking to myself and just – just knowing like I'm – all
right.
Like you're good.
Like bring it back.
Like just relax.
So how do you reset?
Like is there a very specific thing that you do?
I just talk to myself.
Just –
And like what do you say to yourself?
Just looking at myself.
Just – we have like our affirmations for my last fight where I control what I
can – I control what I can control.
I trust my training.
I'm aggressive and always moving forward.
And then we'd have a funny one to make it not that serious.
It was I'm confident.
I'm cocky.
I'm motherfucking rocky.
And it would just make you laugh.
And before my fight with Kelvin, I'm fucking in the bathroom and I'm saying
these affirmations.
And then I'll laugh because it's like – it's not that serious.
But like small little things like that just to – just to bring it back and
just be – just be present.
And I think that – and then I started – then I started working with another
guy through my management company.
His name is Brandon Epstein.
And we would do like visual – like visualize like the fights.
So every week we'd meet on the call and we'd go from visualizing being in the
locker room – well, even before that.
The first like – the nervous – like the most nervous I would get before a
fight is like that shower at like 12 o'clock fight day.
Like you get a shower and you know the car is coming to pick you up in like two
hours.
So we'd like close our eyes and we'd start in the shower.
I'd shower.
It could change.
Car would pick you up.
We're walking to the locker room.
We're in the locker room.
We're hitting pads.
We're warming up, getting your hands wrapped, making that walk.
And then like for 5, 10, 50, however long I'd be just eyes closed visualizing
how I want the fight to go.
Bad situations, good situations.
And then eventually winning the fight and visualizing talking to you or talking
to DC.
And I would do these mental reps over and over and over again.
Sitting in the sauna, I would do it.
Sitting in the cold tub, I would do it.
I would have my affirmations so like timed up.
If I was going in the cold for three minutes, I knew how many times I would
have to say them.
And then my three minutes would be up.
And that's all in training camp.
And I would just do that shit over and over and over again.
And that was something you'd never done before.
Never done before because I would never think about it.
And then before you know it, you get there and you're like, fuck.
It feels brand new to you again because you only fight a couple of times a year
if you're lucky.
But instead, I'd seen these things a million times in my mind already.
Like, yeah, physically I wasn't there.
But mentally, like, I'm already in this locker room.
I've already walked in the cage.
I already made the walk.
Like, they would make custom music for me that I would listen with my walkout
music, Kelvin's walkout music, crowd noise.
And I would listen to it before sparring and when I'm shadowboxing and shit
like that.
Like, and I just, like, felt so prepared doing it.
And I just never did anything like that before.
And, yeah, it's a fucking game changer.
That's interesting because they do say that visualization actually helps skill
learning as much as training.
Yeah.
Like, if you are training but then also visualizing things and spending as much
time, your training, your improvements will be compounded.
Oh, 100%.
And, like, I'm blanking on a million other things we do.
But, like, that's, like, the big ones.
Like, just visualizing what you want to do.
And not just the good, the bad, too.
Like, so I would think about, like, if I get ready for Kelvin, everyone is,
like, I'm going to get knocked out.
I'm going to get this.
I'm going to get that.
So I would visualize getting fucking dropped and having to get back in or
getting rocked or going for a takedown, getting stuffed and having to recover
from that and go and win the fight because they're not going to, you're not
going to,
it's not always going to go your way.
Right.
So visualizing the bad but still making it out with the good, which I didn't do
with Bilal.
Like, he rocked me in that moment and I was still there.
Instead of just making that switch and be like, you're good, like, go back and
just getting back to the fight, I just never could get back.
Is that partially attributable just also to getting hit?
Like, because sometimes when guys get hit, they get, they're out of it.
Like, you've seen many guys that go back to the fourth round and they don't
know what round it is.
No, because I was, I remember everything.
I wasn't, like, I was definitely, definitely buzzed me, but I remember just
putting my hands up and I just couldn't throw, I'm like, punch.
And I heard the 10-second clap go off.
I thought I was going to get saved by the belt and I was going to make it to
the next round and I never did.
Well, it was an interesting stoppage because it was, it was one of the rare UFC
stoppages with the guy standing up.
Yeah.
It's very rare.
Yeah.
I never, and that's what I'm saying.
Like, I didn't get dropped and I remember everything.
I remember hearing the clapper.
My coaches were right behind me.
I could hear my coach, John, screaming, he's good, he's good, he's good, and he
stopped it, which, good on him, but I, like, I just couldn't, I couldn't do
what I wanted to do.
It was the weirdest feeling.
Well, it's so subjective.
Yeah.
Like, when a fight gets stopped and when it doesn't get stopped.
And the thing that sucks the most is when a fight is stopped too late.
Yeah.
You mean, like.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, the Jalen Turner, Bobby Green fight.
That was bad.
Jesus Christ.
That was bad.
That was so bad.
You were cage side for that, right?
Oh, my God.
I was like, stop the fight.
What is happening here?
I think it was, like, 20-something unanswered strikes or something like that.
That is so hard to watch.
Yeah.
It was.
So unnecessary.
It was bad.
But, yeah, back to, like, the mental performance stuff, like, it was just
really just all came down to just me just being focused for 15 minutes.
Because, like, you can be doing anything and just you're fucking driving, but
you're looking off.
Like, you're not in the moment, you know?
And that's something, like, now I try to, like, I try to do in everything I do
in my life.
If I'm walking my dog, I'll leave my phone at home and just try to be present
doing the thing you're doing at the time.
Not wearing.
There's so much noise and other shit.
And when I'm fighting, like, the only thing I'm fucking thinking about is
fighting.