The many hats of Joe Rogan

by Luke Thomas on Apr 12, 2007 3:40 PM EDT in MMA News

Joe Rogan is a lot more thoughtful than most people realize. I don't know how strong his formal education is, but I've always been impressed with his reasoning and self-awareness.

Over at Dead Frog, Rogan goes on mostly about stand-up comedy, but throws in a cool quote about how the event of human struggle is revealing. Notable quote:

But the martial arts aren't really meat headed. There's a lot of discipline and self-knowledge that comes from them.

The human struggle is very fascinating. You learn so much about people by watching people deal with adversity. And there's no greater example of adversity than watching two men trying to dismantle each other with their own bodies, especially mixed martial arts which I find so much more fascinating than boxing or something like that.

And then he threw in this quote about jiu-jitsu that fits me to a tee:

I've never seen UFC. But once I heard you talk about it, it fit. The visceral experience of fighting and what it can show about life. It makes sense with who you are.

Violence is as much an aspect of life as sex or eating or anything else. And it shapes people. I have a friend who is a stand-up comedian. I got him into jiu-jitsu. I gave him a gift of a year of free jiu-jitsu classes. I just said, "Do this, it'll be good for your head."

It's completely transformed his life. He's done it for a year and a half now. And he's really becoming good. He was this nerdy character and this really skinny kid who basically smoked cigarettes and didn't really work out that much. And over the last year and a half, his body's changed. He's got muscles now. He works out all the time. He's much calmer. He's much more secure.

I don't know the guy, but he seems like a good friend and the type of person who makes genunie attempts at deeper thinking. That's rare and something I respect enormously.

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Chess with Pain

Every move has a countermove, every attack a best response. Chance and contingency play a small role, but success in MMA arises from mastering a broad range of skills and mental toughness in the face of adversity. The physical conditioning is more of a prerequisite to participate.

The people who think it's just a bunch of dumb brutes pounding each other have no clue about the level of skills it takes to be successful.

by 34hawk on Apr 12, 2007 4:52 PM EDT reply actions