Joe Rogan Experience #783 - John Dudley
Dum dum dum dum dum! Yes, we're live! John Dudley, put the phone away and let’s get popping.
No, I got— I have some important subjects that I wanted to vent about, so... oh, did you put them on, like, a little note?
Yeah, I got a notepad. I'm pretty good about doing homework, so I love your podcast. So, listening through, there was crap you talked about I was like, "Oh yeah, I got to get on! Oh, you got to bring that up!"
Yeah, so John Dudley, world famous archery coach. He’s got a TV show, he’s got a podcast. I found out about you because of the TV show first, the podcast second, which I became obsessed with! If you’re into archery, like I know some of these people that are listening to this podcast, they get into archery because it sounds fun, like, "Ooh, maybe I need a new hobby." And uh, then you go down that crazy rabbit hole.
Well, when I found you, you’re down the rabbit hole like a few light years, you’re gone, man. Freaking Johnny Deep down in that deep!
You’re gone! You’re gone down the archery rabbit hole! I had no idea the rabbit hole goes so deep. But let’s show this video. We’re going to play this video. This is, uh, before John came up here, he did... now I just need to explain how difficult it is just to even hit a target at 100 yards. This is at 100?
Yeah, okay. 100 yards is a foot length of a football field. I want to shut that thing off. Just shut the volume off there.
Um, 100 yards, the length of a football field. And for archery, it’s just— it’s so hard to hit something as wide as your wingspan at 100 yards for the average person. And so John made this ridiculous shot on one of the gorilla kettlebells from Onnit.
Yeah, this was, uh, so we’ll play this here. This is going to be an unbelievable challenge. I've got Joe Rogan's favorite workout tool—I’ve got an Onnit kettlebell, Primal. And Kong is going to have to make a decision whether he’s going to let this arrow pass or not.
I’m going to try to put an arrow through that 2-inch handle right there. And actually at this distance of 100 yards and the angle that arrow has to come in, I bet it's even smaller. This is going to be an unbelievable challenge! Definitely going to have to defy the odds.
My idea is to put them right here on this shelf and I've got a curtain right behind, so hopefully it’ll stop the arrow but also let it do its thing so that we cap all this on tape. Right at dark, I’m going to put an arrow through a 2-inch gap in the handle if Kong lets it.
[Applause] There he is! Let’s check it out! It’s so ridiculous that that actually went in that little hole at 100 yards! Did you have to try more than one attempt?
This was actually my first shot with everything set up because I had to do a little bit of homework. What I did was I knew I couldn’t see the hole in the handle good enough to aim at it. So I actually sighted my bow in to where I hit 4.5 inches high from Kong’s face.
So I literally aimed right at Kong’s shiny face and I had my bow sighted in to hit 4.5 inches high to make it through the gap.
That's insane! Yep. Yeah, my wife's filming right here. Sharon was running the iPhone. But I had four cameras out so we could get some cool angles and stuff, and nailed it.
I wanted to wait till night so that that lighted knock could give a little bit more wow factor for everyone watching this. It’s such a ridiculous shot, but this 100-yard—thanks to the Onnit people too, that was awesome—getting that thing? Look at that!
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy right there! Carbon Defiant!
There you go, Joe! How awesome is that? 100-yard? It’s pretty amazing! And you watch that on YouTube. It just went off on YouTube on the Knock On Archery.
Yeah, Knock—did you guys put it up too?
We’ll put a link up. Okay, Jamie, if you can tweet it and I’ll retweet it when we get a chance.
Um, that’s insanely hard to do! It’s, uh... I mean, I never did any archery whatsoever till about three years ago. I mean maybe—maybe I might have done it. I think I might have done it in the Boy Scouts!
Everyone says that. You know what’s funny? Is every person that finds out I’m one—they’re in disbelief that there’s actually like professional archers. But then they say, "Oh, I tried archery like back in school one time in gym and I loved it!" But then everyone says, "But I hit my arm!"
Right, they remember that they tried it once and they loved it, but they hit their arm.
That’s what I always thought! I had to wear those wrist things! Like, when I would see people that were shooting bows without those wrist things, I’m like, “They’re like riding a motorcycle without a helmet! These people are crazy! They're loose people!"
Well, the way some people shoot, it’s like riding a bike without a helmet. You peel some skin off if you do it the wrong way.
Well, that’s what I’ve been going into over these last couple of days with you! This one of more fascinating aspects about this. I want to—I don't want to call it a sport, ‘cause I think archery is a lot of different things; it’s a discipline for sure.
But when it’s done correctly, in a lot of ways, it’s almost like a martial art! It’s like a learning—it's like a weapon art! Like in martial arts when you see someone do something perfect...
If someone’s like really good at Judo or something like that, like when they execute a throw, and it’s just perfect position, perfect technique, it’s beautiful.
You know, there’s a beauty to it! And when you see an archer—like, I was talking to you about this when I was watching and trying to get it in my head, this sort of flow that you have in what you do.
It’s super similar in a lot of ways to something that I really didn’t predict! Like, I guess I just always assumed that I kind of knew what something is if it seems pretty straightforward.
Like, “Oh yeah, you pull this string back and then you let the arrow fly! Pretty straightforward!” Like, I think that’s most people’s idea of what archery is! But then when you really pay attention to the technical aspects of all the different stuff that’s going on— and all the different things you think about—and how you literally cannot have anything on your mind other than the technique involved—your foot placement, your technique in standing, your breathing; where and how you’re drawing it back, the position of your front shoulder, the position of your rear elbow; how you're pulling, how do you respond after the arrow's released?
There's so much going on that like, when you put it all together, like it leaves no room for homework. There’s no room for relationship... ships, there’s no room for taxes!
There’s no room in there man if you want to make a nice shot like that! Like, I guarantee you if we could have a brain scan of your head the second you release that arrow at 100 yards to go in that 2-inch gap, there would be nothing in there other than what you did.
There would no other cells would be fired up, no—no, that’s one thing! And actually, like, yesterday when we were shooting, there towards the end of the day, you got to the point where your mind was clear.
It’s almost like for me, you know your family came home, like things were winding down; you knew that like work was over.
It was like right before dark and like for me, I love shooting at first light and at last light because it seems like that’s when I’m not really worried about someone texting me or calling me! I’m not worried about a problem at home, and I shoot with a clear mind!
I’m way more efficient at my practice. It is a form of meditation. I mean, it’s like you said, it’s an art! And if you’re clouded then it will reflect that on the target! I mean it’s like if your arrows are in one spot then you know you have a single focus!
And it’s almost like the more those arrows are spread—that’s a representation of how many other thoughts and distractions you have going in your mind! I mean! And I look at it that way! When I shoot, I’m trying to narrow everything down to just a movement!
And you look at good golfers—the ones that swing easy, and it just literally looks like flow. They’re such good strikers, and they’re so much more efficient when you see people that are trying to be robotic and almost like hack something then it’s like too systematic!
You see someone like that does professional karate or something, if they’re in a forms competition, if they’re like real rigid going around, it’s just not what it’s meant to be Ian.
I mean it’s supposed to be a dance! It’s supposed to be like literally a mental musical that’s playing! And if your mind is clear then it’s a form of meditation! It really is—no question about it!
And that same state of total complete concentration exists in a bunch of different disciplines! And, you know, finding it in archery now—rec, or I should say recognizing it. I definitely haven’t hit it, but finding that, seeing it and recognizing that sort of super high-level flow that comes into play when someone’s excellent at what they do.
Um, I’ve seen that in pool! I’ve seen that watching professional pool players! Like, um, perfect example, like you were talking about, like striking the ball really hard as a golfer; there’s a guy named Francisco Bustamante. He’s one of the best pool players in the world, and he’s from the Philippines.
And Francisco Bustamante has the most ridiculous break. You would think if you watch his break shot that he weighs—400 lb and has arms like tree trunks—you watch that break, and it’s just blah, blah! Those balls close the triangle!
If you just watch the speed of the ball, and it’s effortless! The way he does it is just he has this perfect amount of timing and flow—here, you can see him do it here. This isn’t him; this is a different guy.
If you just look up Bustamante, Francisco Bustamante breaking, that’s what it says. Well there’s definitely—not him. This is some overweight gentleman! What if he gained?
Oh, that is him! That is him! He’s just—it’s a weird—he’s in a weird pose!
Oh, that’s what—oh okay! It’s just a weird pose! I thought when he was bent over, I thought that was his whole body!
Yeah, he is loading! But he’s a tiny guy! Like if you see him physically.
Yeah, I mean, he might weigh like—well, he’s a little fat now! He’s getting older! But when he was young, he probably weighed 140 lbs, but he was like B-Lam!
Oh my goodness, those balls go flying everywhere! No one’s like him!
Yeah, yeah. Dog, get after it! He’s excited! I think he just won on the break or something like that. Sweet!
I’ve seen him make six balls on the break! Like he’s playing nine-ball, he makes six balls on the break, he’s got three balls to run out. He’s just insanely good.
But he’s just a devastating player! And one of the things when you watch him play—and a lot of the Filipinos, Filipinos are so good. There are so many really good Filipino pool players!
But they have this gentle flow to what they’re doing; like everything is like a ballet—like effortless—the weight of the cue does like all the work, and everything looks like it flows and like a dance!
Well, the one thing that’s so cool about—well, the one thing I’m really proud of as an archer is that I’ve got to the point where I have a platform to get people involved. And that was when I found out that you really liked my podcast, which the podcasts are totally geared around education and learning, you know—that I got to a platform to where I could help people.
And now there are people like you that are coming in that never really have considered that whole world, and they come in. And I look at people that like, you know, they go to the YMCA, they want to take like Tai Chi or they want to take yoga—they’re looking for a stress-free type of hobby. And archery is a great sport for that!
It’s growing so much! I mean Hollywood’s embracing it, obviously, with a lot of the movies. But they’re not portraying it as an art form. When that movie—the—what the hell is it called—the Hunger Games?
Yeah! When she started becoming more famous or that movie, rather, became popular, archery took off, didn’t it? A lot of people got involved!
Yeah, I mean, you look at, um, you look at the Avengers, you look at, you know, Hunger Games, there are actually so many—even a lot of the sitcoms now. You know, obviously crossbows are popular because of walking dead.
But when it comes to like true archery, you just see a lot more archers coming in! Lord of the Rings, you know, Legolas was so popular because of that and it’s really such a cool sport. I mean, it’s an Olympic sport!
And we’ve actually have a phenomenal Olympic team here in the US! Our men’s team is definitely going to be contenders for another medal. They were silver medalists last year!
And so you were saying that compound bows are not in the Olympics? It’s recurve bows? Yep, it's recurve bows!
And that’s—it's kind of a tradition! And honestly, it’s a different style of art, but it’s super graceful too. And, I mean, I think it’s everyone has something that they like to do.
Some people like the simplicity of a sport! It’s like there are people that go and want to only have a longbow, or they don’t want sights! They just want the Zen part of trying to pull back with no sights!
But then there are also people like us that want to see how finite and accurate you can become! So they like the techie side, which is where compound bows come in! They’re just—they're much more efficient!
And, obviously, the accuracy—as we’ve seen—is almost mind-blowing at times! Pretty mind-blowing!
And it’s also for a guy like me ’cause I’m a gadget dork! So it combines both things; it combines the Zen aspect of complete and total discipline and focus and looking at one task and drowning out the rest of the world, but it also has like geeky stuff like different kinds of sights!
And this is a new cam that they just came out with, and these are different kinds of strings! And when you do this, it makes this better, and there’s so much going on with it!
Oh yeah! You can, you know, if I look back at the bows I started with, and I’ve only been shooting professionally since ’97, so I mean, it’s 19 years I guess it seemed—I’m getting old now but um...
That’s a long time! The bows that I use then that are at the house, you wonder how in the heck you shot that good with them! And actually, um, two months ago, I was at the Olympic headquarters, like the Olympic Museum!
So they have all these awesome Olympic artifacts of like swim trunks, people or like, you know, the javelin. I got to see the original recurve bows like J bars was actually on display! And they constantly change them so if you’re visiting the museum, you’re not seeing the same things all the time!
But you look at those pieces of equipment, the bikes! I mean, the bikes that people rode in the Olympic games? It’s like holy cow—how are they that efficient?
It’s almost more impressive because now we’ve gotten so advanced in our equipment that it’s easier to be at the level I think than 20 years ago ‘cause the equipment just wasn’t there!
You know, I almost wonder if those people didn’t have to put in two or three times the time and be just that much more elegant at what they did because their equipment was almost a handicap back then.
Could they perform the same kind of feats? Like, could someone shoot an arrow like that? Like was it a common thing to be able to shoot what you did at 100 yards and shooting through that 2-inch opening into the kettlebell handle?
Um, I’m sure there are people that were. There’s a lot—there’s actually a lot of people in archery now that are pushing this envelope! I mean long, long-distance shooting is becoming super popular.
And you know, to a lot of the real target archers that are out there that are listening to this podcast, see, when we go to a full fita tournament, we shoot 30—what does fita stand for?
Um, well now it’s World Archery. So like a world archery event if you shot a full target round, you would shoot arrows at 30, 30m, 50m, 70m, and 90m.
And I found out from you that 90m is 99 yards! It’s one of the easiest metric conversions to do! You take the first number and you add it to the second! So if you got 40, take the four and add it behind the 40, you got 44 yards if it’s 40m.
So yeah, that’s one of the— the one metric system that I never forget! But, um, so 99 yards is where we would stand on the line and shoot at, you know?
And I think I told you that back in 2005 I was really focused on on shooting well for the US team when I was on the compound team.
And there were several tournaments that I was really focused on. I knew that I was going to be shooting um a national championship in Britain and in Australia. I was going to be going—I think I had shot one in Poland. I had one or two here in the US, but you know that year I think I logged—I mean I shot two, three, 400 arrows a day.
And 90m for me, the further you go out it’s like putting a bigger microscope on things that you’re doing wrong. You know, it’s just like an art or um, if you look at a golfer that’s making long putts, obviously it’s magnifying mistakes in their swing.
Or golfers that are drivers, you know, people that really are just sitting there trying to be accurate at the long game—it magnifies mistakes.
So I really like shooting at longer distances. I know you do too because it magnifies a stake and you can correct it easier and it really helps bring things together.
But that year I shot well over 30,000 arrows at 99 yards during training! Insane!
Yeah, yeah. I mean and there’s professional archers! There’s archers—I guarantee you, there are archers right now somewhere that’s preparing for a World Cup event or something!
And there’s people that literally have calluses thicker than most weightlifters just from grabbing a hold of that release! You know, I remember looking at an Olympic recurve shooter’s fingers one time, and I remember his hands, his three fingers that he grabs a string with, it looked like a frog hand because the tips were so big from pulling blood!
You know how I think that? Because he—I mean these guys, you look at the people that are at the Olympic training centers that are just there. They get up, they go eat, and then they shoot until 5 or 6 at night, they eat and then they go and do a weight training session.
I bet you there are people that do a thousand arrows a day! So, I mean, you know, you can build up some stamina!
Yeah, it’s really impressive! But in saying that, I think with archery, it’s, you know, I know that I’m really big into fitness as well.
I credit my fitness and my story as an athlete prior to being an archer as part of what’s helped me be successful, and there’s a big difference between quantity and quality.
And a lot of people make the mistake I think with any sport of just trying to practice more or train more. And even weightlifters, you know, I see people that I go in the gym and they’re like on one exercise, and then when I leave the gym in 50 minutes or an hour, they’re like maybe done two different types of exercise!
And it’s just—it’s not efficient! You know, I think a lot of people as athletes sometimes miss the boat of quality over the quantity! And I was always that way.
There are days where I go practice and I may only make a hundred shots, but once I start realizing that I'm breaking down, I know to step away!
Right. You don’t try to push through it!
Yeah, and I told you that yesterday too. There was a time where I said, you know, if we’re just out here getting repetition, I guess that’s one thing, but we really don’t need to do that aiming at a target.
Well, you had a really good point too about those bad shots and bad repetitions. You got to get those out of your head.
So it’s not just that you made a bad shot; now you have to make a bunch of good shots to try to get away from the effect of the bad shot! It’s not as simple as the one bad shot!
No, it’s imprinting! Yeah!
I mean, it’s an imprint. And I think with any type of athletic—you know, and it’s probably that way with fighters, I’m sure too! If you get someone that’s just really in a rhythm and in a flow, if all of a sudden they start making a mistake or doing something bad, as a coach you try to get them back into that rhythm again so that you can weed out that imprint!
You know, and that’s tough as an athlete sometimes! You know, people that—and I’m sure for fighters, you know, you look at people that come out and have a disappointing loss; it’s almost like that’s an imprint.
It is! And that’s why that statement “you’re only as good as your last fight” is so disturbing to fighters!
Yeah, and that’s one thing—one of the most important things that I learned as a competitive archer, and I had a temper when I first started as a pro! If I made a bad shot, you know, kind of like when you put one in the pool when you put one in the pool and you were like freaking you were pissed off—I would be on a tournament!
You know, I would freaking ram my stabilizer into the ground so hard that I would crack it!
You know, well, my problem was—and I just did it once—there’s—it’s a really complicated geeky sort of an explanation, folks, but there’s a certain type of release where it’s a tension-based release and that’s what we’re practicing with, and the difference between pulling a trigger and then allowing the tension.
But you have to hold the safety while you pull it back; otherwise, the arrow just flies. I mean, it’s not like it’s not going to shoot anything; it’s going really slow, but it lobs in a very embarrassing and just very disappointing way!
It just comes off your thing as you’re pulling the bow back; it goes toink! And you go, “What the f***! I did this!”
I did it three times! I did it yesterday and today!
Oh, it was super embarrassing but uh, so that’s—I was definitely annoying myself! Well, when I would make something like that, that would really trigger me into a pissed-off realm, I would let one mistake affect everything else after that!
And a lot of athletes—the really good athletes that I watch in any sport—tennis players, golfers, the key is when you have a negative moment to not let it affect what hasn’t happened yet!
So, um, a guy came up to me one time after I made a bad shot and he could tell I was getting hot, and he looked at me and he said, “You know, the only arrows you have control on right now are the ones that are still in that quiver.”
And for me, that like, it completely changed my outcome as a professional archer! And I’ve brought so much of what archery has done for me as an athlete into my life!
And there are times where just something really torques you off and you have to just like look at, “Okay, everything I do from here on out is the only thing I have control on!”
Because that’s history! There’s no—I haven’t figured out a way once that release goes pling to actually grab that arrow and pull it back and stick it back in the quiver or put it back on the string!
It’s like a perfect representation of life! You make a decision; if it was f***ed, you have to reset and say, “What do I need to do with myself to get back on track in life?”
You know, we make bad decisions at times, but how do we make a good decision to get back online?
Yeah! It’s management of the mind, in a lot of ways! Yep!
And it’s all—one of the things that I also like about archery, love about archery, is that it’s absolute. You can’t pull that arrow back like it's flying through the air, and either it hits the bull’s-eye or you missed!
It’s just—it is what it is. It doesn't care about where you live! It doesn't care who your uncle is! It doesn't care how much money you make a year! It doesn’t care!
The arrow is going to go! It’s an absolute discipline! And I think you coming from professional—or coming from sports, rather—sports background, you played a lot of football!
Yep! Um, when you play sports, especially insanely competitive sports, you learn where all the edges are to be had.
You learn where all the edges are to be had as far as technique, as far as conditioning, as far as all the different things you have to do in order to be successful and to win!
And everyone knows is that in most sports, especially in a physical sport like football, there’s a f*** lot of work involved! There’s not a single person who jumps off the bench who doesn’t have any training whatsoever and kicks ass in football!
You just don’t! You got to learn! And you have to learn how to move! You have to learn all the different plays! You have to learn the technique involved in different aspects of the sport!
And I think coming from a competitive background in athletics, you’ve kind of translated that understanding of where all the problems are in archery because there’s a lot of people that are like—they don’t have good coaching!
And so they start off with a lot of really bad habits, and then they have to figure out a way to either break those habits or they live with those habits, and then they do the best they can with this sort of limited path that they’ve carved in and they seem to not be able to escape!
The same thing exists in martial arts! One of the hardest things for me when I used to teach was teaching people that already had a bad technique imprint in their brain!
Like they would have one way of throwing a kick or something like that, and I would have to go, “Oh Jesus, I got to figure out a way to break this guy of this thing!”
Because as soon as he gets tired or as soon as he panics, the knee goes down, the foot goes up, he loses all the power, the hips don’t engage!
It’s like… but if I could take a kid—a 5-year-old kid—and show them that from the beginning, their instinct would be to throw it correctly!
The instinct, even when tired—knee comes up, hip turns over, body extends, full power. And those things are so hard to unlearn once you get like a bad path!
It’s why it’s—as I really do think that archery in a lot of ways is a martial art!
Oh yeah, well you look at the whole Asian culture, and I've said time and time again, I’ve coached all over the world. And you know that’s kind of what I do now!
I do a lot of coaching that most people don’t even know about with teams that just would rather have confidentiality and whether or not they’re working with an outside source, which is great!
But when I—the probably the best place I ever taught was when I went to India because I actually taught those—I had I was supposed to have 16 archers; once I got there there was about 140!
I mean it was unbelievable! Anyone they thought could be a potential winner for their team was there, and there were so many kids and you know, adults that were there!
And I remember I took several members of the team that had a bad habit of you know punching the trigger and anticipating the shot, which is a big negative in archery.
And I gave him a device, same one I gave you! I gave them a release that forces them to not think about actually aiming the front sight of the bow!
It’s a device that makes them focus on the movement of archery, pulling through the bow, letting the front arm go forward, the back arm to come back!
And I remember I gave him string and that release! I took all their bows away and locked them up because I said, “Until you can do this, we’re not going any further!”
So I took those eight and I had them do that to the side! And then I came over and I started trying to work on all these other people, and there was like, this person needed their bow worked on, this person needed to watch me shoot, these people wanted, you know, to take pictures or video of me shooting.
Then we went to lunch! And then the whole thing started over again! Then when it came to dinner time, I told them, “You guys all go ahead! I’m going to pack up my gear!”
Well once the whole big crowd left, those same eight kids were still over there with strings pulling on that release.
And almost every one of them was damn near bloody in their hand from just executing, and I came over, and I’m like, “Oh my goodness, have you guys been here the whole day?”
“Yes sir, yes sir!” There’s like this culture—there are no wonder to me why like martial arts is such a discipline because that culture teaches discipline and hard work within that art better than anything!
And I think that archery coming out of, you know, out of Asia—I think, um, all the, like the Korean team are so strong because of their disciplines!
And I’m sure with the martial arts, it’s the exact same thing! They’re not afraid to take what the coach says and just do it until the coach says no!
And a lot of people here in any sport are looking for the shortcut! People at the gym, they want body—I mean, they want the shake that melts fat!
They want to be able to go in and get the machine that does four-minute abs or whatever!
And the reality is you have to have commitment! And you have to have discipline in anything in life! Otherwise, if you don’t, you’re just going to be another person bitching about why someone else has something and you don’t because you’re not willing to put the effort in for it!
Yeah, and then on the other hand, it’s not a good idea to cut your hands with a rope! You got to take some time off, kids!
Yeah! Yeah, slow down! Don’t be afraid to raise your hand and say, “Coach, can we take a break here?”
And then I should point out to a lot of people that, you know, there’re a lot of people that don’t want to get involved in anything like archery that are uninterested in it because they feel like they don’t want to hunt.
They don’t want to be a bow hunter. I’ve heard that before.
I’m not interested in that! I’m like, even if you're—you don’t have to be interested in that! Like, that is—that’s the furthest end of the extreme spectrum when it comes to archery!
You could enjoy archery with just a yard, a yard, and a target! I mean, you can— you don’t need to shoot anything other than a target to—and to get, like, you know, yesterday and today, we’re just shooting targets and very fun, super fulfilling!
At the end of the day, you know, especially ‘cause yesterday, made a lot of progress at the end of the day, I was like, “Wow, you know, this feels great! It’s cleansing!”
You’ve made a dramatic improvement! I’m really pumped with how you are! But what I love about archery is hopefully you can’t hear that! This is dang good, by the way!
When Joe does his, um, commercials, which actually it’s the only thing on TV I don’t fast forward through the commercials because I love how you do them!
But when he talks about the butter coffee, take his advice on it! It’s good!
I’ve enjoyed it! Yeah, get some good coffee, some good grass-fed butter and some MCT oil. Blend it all up, it was awesome!
I think what’s so cool about archery too, is it’s not a sport that is limited by your age! And for that matter, it’s not totally limited by your physical physique!
Well, how about that guy that has no arms? Oh yeah, Matt is unbelievable! Incredible!
Yeah, Matt Stutzman, I mean it should be Matt Studman! He’s I mean the armless archer; he’s so inspirational! I mean, his kind of—his nickname is Inspirational Archer and he’s definitely just that!
For someone to be able to shoot with their legs is amazing! And actually, Matt, we haven’t talked about this, but Matt and another pair of archers here from the US named Jeff Fab that shoots with his mouth!
He was in a motorcycle accident and now he’s a pair archer!
Yeah, there’s Matt Stutzman right there! And so how does Matt? He holds the bow with his right foot and then his left foot’s on the ground, and how does he release the bow?
So well, he’s actually designed—Jeff Fab’s designed a new one too on the right! But so he’s developed a release to where he’s actually able to push on it with his chin!
And he’s a—he actually activates from back tension! Now they’ve designed a release for him where he can hook on and he slowly starts to continue to move back until it triggers the string to fire!
And as he moves back, he's still looking through his peep sight! Yep, wow!
It’s a small movement! You know how small the movement is? I mean when I talk about that movement, it’s very finite—it’s a matter of an inch or two!
I think that’s Jeff right there! Yeah, there’s Jeff!
So yeah, when I did, um, last year when I had to have my shoulder redone, I did not want to miss archery season!
And just really took it as a personal challenge to not put my head down! I learned to shoot!
It was actually my bow arm was the one I had worked on, so I had to learn to shoot with my mouth using my opposite arm in my non-dominant eye, which was... I’m thankful for it!
People always, you know, people ask me all the time if I regret this or if I would do that different! And screw that! I mean, you can’t—the past is the past!
I just want to look forward on everything! When I messed up my shoulder, I was bummed about it, but in all fairness I thought it was a really good challenge to look at a sport that I love from a new direction...
You know? Yeah! To look at the technique involved! You know, I think, um, someone said it—I forget who it was—that one of the best ways to get good at something is to do it with your opposite hand!
Oh! And that’s—it’s not just doing it, like, say if you’re boxing and you’re working on your straight right hand!
A lot of times when you do your straight left hand, it actually improves your straight right hand because in learning how to do it in an awkward way, what you’re doing is sort of programming into your mind the critical aspects of the technique!
How to throw the hips in, when to plant, and then when you go over to your more coordinated side, it’s just like super tuned in to the critical aspects of the movement!
So then when you get—you know you throw a left hand, then you switch over to your right side, you’re like blam! It’s just even better! It’s even faster! It’s even cleaner!
And I think that that probably makes sense with archery as well! I bet a lot of people would probably benefit—although it’s not a traditional thing to do—probably benefit from having both left-handed bow and a right-handed bow and learning how to shoot left-handed!
Well, look at how many skateboarders get better when they learn to skate goofy! You know, if they learn to skate with the opposite foot!
Yeah! Back when I was a skater! You know, you either skated like straight foot or you skated goofy! But then people didn’t really switch back and forth a lot at that time unless, like, the freestyle skaters did back then!
But then when I got away from skating and started playing football for a while and then archery, and then all of a sudden, you know the X Games happen, you start seeing guys like Tony Hawk or whatever.
You realize that the whole skating world just completely went to like what the freestyle skaters were, and just being able to switch either way and still perform the exact same tricks!
And I think any athlete that’s listening—and you know what’s funny is sometimes I’ve seen you say, “Hey, I’m talking about hunting today,” but some of you listeners might get pissed!
But whatever! ‘Cause some people just want UFC or some people don’t like to hear that! You can’t ever worry about that!
Yeah! But what’s super important is that people need to take some of these elements and apply them to their life! And what I really believe is when I get better as an athlete is when I recognize whatever my biggest weakness is, and that’s what I focus on making my strength!
I call it selective cycling! I work on this with a lot of my students! I’ll literally take the one thing that they do the worst and that’s all I want them to do for almost a month!
Because a lot of psychology has shown that if you have a negative habit, it normally takes about 21 days to recreate a positive habit! Right!
So you have to be able to take your weakness and mentally be tough enough as an athlete to be willing to make that your strength! And I’ve had several things in my career that were my weakness that are now my strongest aspect!
Field archery was my biggest weakness, now it’s my biggest strength!
What is the difference between field archery? Well, it’s not on flat ground! You know once you start changing angles, and once you start having to make shots in canyons, you have to learn wind, you have to learn trajectory...
So field archery is—you have like a course that you have to run, and it’s all outdoors in the woods! Yep! It would be outdoors, it would be, you know, the really difficult field courses are like throughout cliffs and mountainous areas to where, you know, you have shots where they’re straight up, way over your shoulder, where you’re aiming on, you know, 50-degree angles, and then you’re aiming down!
Or somewhere—and I’ve even had to aim straight down between my legs! Those types of things are extremely technical!
You know, if you had golfers that had to play in really difficult terrain, obviously they have to start learning draws and fades, and they have to start learning clubs that play differently in the wind!
It would be the same thing! It pointed out just like when we shoot at longer distances!
I mean, you were shooting amazing at 80—were we at 80 yards?
Yeah! On your rubber deer—your rubber elk, you call it! I always laugh at the rubber—it's funny!
But, um, you were shooting amazing! And then you would have one shot where something wasn’t right, but it would show up! And that’s what field archery did to me!
It really started to open up my weaknesses! And for me as an athlete, I’m always so competitive that I want to know what I suck at!
Because I think if you’re really going to master something, regardless of the craft, you have to be so well-rounded! And I mean the UFC is that way!
Even as a spectator, I’m not a fight specialist by any means, but I’ve always loved watching the UFC. And it’s funny how the people who won the early UFC versus how rounded you have to be now to win!
You can't afford to have a weakness! So ignoring it isn’t doing you any favors!
Yeah! It’s a different world, now—completely different world! And you also, much like we were talking about before in the UFC, you have to be able to pretty much execute from both sides!
It’s very rare that someone only has like a good right kick! You know? You have to learn how to kick with the left side too!
But in Jiu-Jitsu, that exists as well! Like there are a lot of guys that have a strong side—like they only like to pass to the left, or they only like to pass to the right!
They only submit guys off their right arm! It’s like it’s real common to have a side where you’re really good at it!
What really—one thing you said the other day when we were sitting there talking, and you were talking about setting up moves for Jiu-Jitsu and how evolving it is!
How it continually evolves and all of a sudden a new move will get invented, and you’ll be practicing that, and then someone just notices, “Wait, there’s a big weakness right there!”
“Yeah, do this!” And we’ve kind of eliminated someone getting that move done on you, and then it’s like holy crap!
Well, so how do we actually combat that? Right? It’s just a continual chess game!
Yeah, it really is! And the body can move in so many different ways! It’s one of the more interesting aspects of Jiu-Jitsu!
As there are so many different ways the body can move, so when two people are engaging each other, there’s the possibilities of attacks and counterattacks are like near infinite!
It’s a spectacular example of like an extreme discipline! And something that becomes—just for a lot of people, becomes a massive, massive obsession!
Did you see the Anthony Bourdain thing that he won a Jiu-Jitsu tournament?
Uh-huh! Anthony Bourdain starts Jiu-Jitsu at 58 years old! Okay, he was, I think he quit smoking.
He wasn’t smoking anymore because he—he stopped smoking when his daughter was born, I think! But still, like, still was hitting the booze! You know? Still wasn’t eating healthy, he was on statins for his blood pressure or cholesterol!
I guess he just, you know, just wasn’t healthy! Yeah, gets into Jiu-Jitsu because of his wife!
His wife is a maniac; she loves Jiu-Jitsu! Gets into it, and now he's obsessed! Trains every day, often twice a day!
And he just won a Jiu-Jitsu tournament! Has a blue belt at, what is he, 59 or something like that? F***ing incredible!
59-year-old Bourdain took home the gold at his first Jiu-Jitsu tournament! I mean, get the f*** out of here! To me, as someone who loves Jiu-Jitsu, I’m just blown away!
I’m blown away! I just love seeing a guy like him who is a madman at so many different things and also a guy who’s an artist—his art being culinary, being a chef!
I learned from watching his show that that’s an art form. I didn’t really consider it before! Or I watched, um, No Reservations, his old show.
I watched him interact with all these cooks, and like a light bulb went off—I’m like, “Oh, cooking’s an art!” These heck yeah!
I never thought of it that way! I thought of it as like, “Oh, this guy knows how to cook. This guy makes some good this,” and that guy cooks some good that! But I didn’t think of it in the same way I look at, like, maybe a guy who’s an amazing sculptor!
I didn’t think about it that way! And then I realized it when I watched his show. I was like, “Yeah, really! I never did!”
I was just thought, “Oh, this guy’s a kick! You know, this guy knows how to make sausages!” or “This guy’s really good at lasagna or something!”
Never seemed like an art! So seeing him, a guy who highlighted that there’s an art in cooking food, then become obsessed with this art of Jiu-Jitsu!
And which I think, in a lot of ways, like we were saying about AR, archery, there are parallels!
I mean, people think of Kendo, which is a Japanese sword fighting art! That’s unquestionably a martial art! Well then so is AR archery!
Yep! And if Kendo’s a martial art, so is archery! 100%! Because archery involves a weapon, involves—but it’s so much more than that! Man, so much more than that!
It’s some weird, crazy moving meditation that I feel like when it goes well, like yesterday when we shot really well and we shot like tight groups at 80 yards, well after it’s over, like physically you feel better!
You feel like charged up! You feel elevated! You feel better than if you did nothing!
Like if you could take a drug that makes you feel the way you feel when you hit a perfect X at 80 yards, like that? Ah!
Like, you would take that drug all day! Oh yeah! If that was a cigarette, yeah!
Right? Freaking high on bulls-eye! High on bull! You didn’t get any!?
I’ve been pounding that crap all morning, man! Lit up right now!
A skin’s tingly! Yeah, it’s—it’s a very strange, I guess, discipline! A martial art, a discipline! But I think almost labeling these things in any other way than just calling them what they mean...
That’s just it! It is archery! You know, when you put them in categories, when you categorize things as, "This is a sport," or "This is a hobby," or "This is a..." It almost trivializes the benefits, the positive benefits of it!
It’s funny that you say that because now I know I could never pull you away because I love as an athlete to step away with perfection!
And you would shoot a group that was like perfect, and I knew that we were close to being done for the day, and I’d be like, “All right, let’s end on that!”
And you’re like, “No way, dude; I’m doing another one!” But then if you made one negative shot in that group, you were pissed again!
Which I can understand, too, ‘cause I’m so competitive that way! But I also love that feeling that you’re talking about! It’s awesome!
Sometimes it’s important, and that’s what I was trying to like work with you on! Is it doesn’t get better than what you just did! You’re on a high!
Let’s—I want you to like step away thinking about your trip all night and tomorrow! You know you visualize it long enough; I’m the way I think is tomorrow you’re more likely to be able to duplicate!
I don’t like to go—I don’t ever like to go to bed on a negative!
Right! So that’s actually what I was trying to do!
But you know we’re not good enough friends where I can be like, “Listen! Give me your—” Well, I don’t know; I guess I did take some stuff away from you!
So I probably could! Some of the releases that I was using, he won’t let me use. I know, but it’s in your house!
Well, this is very geeky stuff, so for people that are listening to this, they don’t understand, but because there are so many different aspects of archery, there’s where you’re standing, what your Ure is—how you’re focusing, what you’re looking at, what you’re concentrating on—because of that, there’s a tendency to anticipate the shot and it becomes sort of overwhelming because you’re managing all these different things.
So what a lot of people try to concentrate now in the world of archery is getting what you call a surprise shot.
Meaning that—this is just for the people at home obviously, not for you—meaning that when you pull back the—the thing that you’re concentrating on is just focusing on the target!
All of your technique as far as keeping the bow balanced and level and keeping it on to—all that stuff is something you’ve already worked on! All you’re working on now is pulling through the shot!
So you don’t think about executing the shot like, “Ready, go!”
And when you think of that, “Ready, go!” that pressing that button, you have a tendency or possibility of punching it, of hitting it wrong, of tweaking and twisting—and we talked about that today!
Because it’s in a lot of ways, it’s like a fight. When a fighter trains for a fight, you’re training for something that is going to be a moment that’s like months away from now.
So all of this work and effort then comes to fruition in this one moment! Fighter number one, are you ready? Fighter number two, are you ready? Fight! Holy [ __ ]! Here it is! It’s happening!
But at least in a fight, you know you’ve got a few rounds! You can kind of settle in after the first minute or so, you can relax and get into the groove of everything!
In archery, oftentimes, that all that training and preparation—whether it’s for a tournament or even more critically if you’re hunting, it comes down to that one moment!
And that moment sometimes can be completely overwhelming because that moment—although your practice has been constant and diligent, that moment is entirely alien!
This moment didn’t exist during any of the practice! There was never the elevated heart rate! There’s never the freak out! There’s never the massive consequences if you make an error!
Everything has to be in place and those things are what make a discipline so rewarding when you actually pull it off!
All those things like knowing that there are so many different factors involved! And then this alien moment!
So those factors involved—all the discipline factors—you have to drill them into a point where they become a part of you—they become ingrained in your genetics! They become a part of your DNA!
So that in that one insane heart-pounding moment, you can execute it flawlessly! And the best way to do it, which I’m learning from you, is by figuring out how to do it with a surprise shot!
So that way you take out the anticipation aspect of it!
Yeah! It’s the less you think about it, the more likely it is for things to happen!
You know, you have to be so focused on the process that the prize happens without your expectation!
The really interesting part about what I’ve learned as a competitive archer is it’s the fastest buzz kill of any sport I’ve ever had!
And what I mean by that is there’s times where you’re standing on the line, you realize, “Okay, archer number one, one arrow, archer number two, one arrow, closest to center decides a gold medal match!”
You literally let go and you’re, you know, you’re sitting there, you know, “F*** pickles!” Your heart rate’s beating out your neck!
You know, you’re trying not to—I actually had this—weird feeling; I’ve had this feeling go both ways! But you let that arrow go and you—you have so much adrenaline that—you can barely manage it!
And then you’re like—you shoot, and you see the shadow of that arrow hit out like out of the gold to where you know you lost! And it’s instantly gone!
You have—you’re not nervous; you’re not like sweating or shaking! You just knew you blew it! And it’s like wiped so fast!
It’s really, really strange that the release of one product, you know, of an art form can just—you instantly know that you screwed up!
And I’ve been that way as a hunter too, where you get nervous and all of a sudden that shot happens—and then you almost can’t—you know for some people they make the shot and then they get like that, but sometimes you make that shot and it’s amazing how fast it’s just gone.
And it’s such a rewarding thing when you can take that ball of just emotion and just say, “I got this!”
And you freak, clamp down on it, and then you see that arrow go into the gold! And it’s just like, it’s such a reward!
Like for me—what you, I think for you and your mentality and me and mine, you get so much reward for that!
That for me, I never really worried about a—I never worry about a trophy or medal or, you know, for that matter the checks never really mattered either!
When I was younger, I needed them! But you know, I’ve just come to the real realization that you know every trophy I have at home is tarnished!
You know they need cleaning! You know they just wilt away! But what imprints I have in my mind of moments like that is what pulls me through as a person!
And it’s positive AA that I can reflect on! You know, I know that what’s satisfying to me and I feel so content with life is these small little goals and accomplishments that I’ve had where I’ve controlled myself—not the situation!
I was in a gold medal match in Poland and they had the gold medal match in this square, like in the square of the main town. You were shooting from the beach into the main square of the town.
And our match was first! And I was the first archer! So I stepped up! We were in a team round! And there were so many people!
I raised my bow, I pulled back, I was going into my shot, and as I'm looking through my scope at the target about four people’s heads come like looking in like this because there were people lined all the way down!
And this is 70m, so everyone evidently was shuffling to try to get to see the archer, not realizing like, “Okay, there’s an arrow going over your head!”
So I’m going from like mentally having a sight picture that I’m not nervous about to all of a sudden thinking if I shoot someone in the face I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a Polish prison!
And I remember they have someone like cleaning the line, getting the people to back up! No, it was just like they didn’t—I don’t think they really thought that people were going to come in!
And I remember I drew back, and I was so—I mean you've seen me shoot in my element; it’s very smooth!
So then all of a sudden there was like my front arm was like, you know, I got into that tremor mode like, you know what you have when you when the anxiety sets in!
And I remember I shot and they're like, you know they called 10 and I came off the line and my other teammate that was with me goes, "What the hell, dude? Why are you shaking so bad?"
He’s like, “What the hell, dude, you almost missed! What’s up with you?” Like as we’re passing one another!
And I go, “You’ll see!” And he freaking pulls back and he goes, “What the f***? Damn!”
I’m like, so that next round, I'm like, “Get freaking people out of the way!"
Like I had people’s faces in my scope! That’s a YouTube video waiting to happen! I saw somebody catching one to the temple, leaning into the path!
That’s just so ridiculous! You don’t want one to the temple!
And if anybody doesn’t—if you don’t know, like when you’re looking through a site of a um, uh, an archery sight, they’re very small! So you’re looking at a very narrow window!
So for these people to actually be in your sight, they had to be extremely close to the path of the arrow! It’s one—a while the arrow was arcing over their melon!
But their head! Christ! ’Cause they were between me and the target!
So crazy though! It was very crazy! That’s so dumb!
Yeah, I was like, what is up with this?
They did what I did at the pool today—forget to get to the safety!
It’s easy when you’re concentrating on all the other things! It weirds me out! I’ve been at—I’ve been at places where I’m practicing and you're like shooting, and then someone else is at this club and you like go down to pull your arrow!
And then all of a sudden you're like sitting there like pulling your arrows and it’s like, "Uh, yo, what’s up?"
Oh god! Oh, I’m just saying I’m aiming at that other target!
It’s like, okay! Well, yeah! You know how many Joe Rogan pool shots I’ve seen in my day? I don’t want to be on the receiving end of that!
It certainly can happen! You know what you’ve got set up is really cool! That giant long range at your house so you could practice like in your yard!
Like there’s a video that you put up—John set up my bow! I got this bow from Hoyt, and John set it up perfect!
And he took these crazy shots! And one of them he took was 122 yards!
Yep! And to be able to do that and to have like this big open space like that in your yard has got to be [ __ ] awesome!
It’s way cool! Yeah, actually, um, when we bought my house, my wife Sharon, she knew that we wanted to move out to a farm because where I—when I before I moved to Iowa, so I could get more deer tags!
You laugh about that! It’s hilarious! Who the [ __ ] moves to a state so they can get more deer tags?
You can get an extra deer tag—who doesn’t? I’ll guarantee you right now if Cam Haynes could get two elk tags if he crossed a state line, I’ll guarantee you he would do it!
Oh, he loves Oregon! He travels a lot anyway. Well, he might! See, I get three buck tags, actually!
So I bet you—I’m in a different situation though! Like white tail hunting in Iowa is just so different! And plus it’s, for folks who aren’t aware, it’s like a tradition! It’s an Americana thing!
Like white tail hunting is probably the biggest hunting pastime in America! More people hunt white tails! More people spend more time hunting white tails than anything!
And it’s also like probably some of the best meat you’re ever going to eat in your life!
Oh yeah, I’ve been crushing mine! I mean, yeah, so I love—that’s why I was so surprised when you said you don’t—you didn’t see like cooking as an art!
I actually, when I go someplace nice, I take pictures of my food because to me, I see it that way!
And actually, I cooked some backstraps the other night! And you know, I cooked some backstraps! I like, you know, cooked some vegetables in like coconut oil or something!
And then, you know, I like sliced through that tenderloin and like kind of folded them all down and kind of stacked my little backstrap up and kind of leaned them against there! And I was just like looking at it like, "Why would people not want to do this?"
Like, “Why would people not want to be able to do this for themselves to make a nice meal?”
Yeah! To make a nice meal! And obviously it’s something that is a reward of hard work and dedication that I’ve put in through the year!
You know, my saying—one saying that I made on my TV show during the first few seasons is, “I’m a target archer to become a better hunter.”
And I’m a better hunter because I’m a target archer! I got into professional archery 100% because I wanted to be more proficient and ethical knowing that I was a bow hunter.
And I kind of had the—it was actually the same type of feeling; I was—I was only 10. But I mean when I started competing, I started hunting when I was 10!
So there was like six or seven years there where I wasn’t competing, but I remember having one hunt where I felt so much anxiety and I like blew a shot and I just completely missed!
And I couldn’t explain why, and it was at that moment that I’m like, “You know what? If I’m going to do this, I need to be able to be ethical at it!”
So at that point, I was kind of looking for a way to become better. And I was actually—it was right before I was supposed to leave for my first football camps for college; I was driving down a road and there was a sign on the road that said, “3D archery shoot.”
And it was just an arrow pointing down! And I pulled in—I had like my hunting bow in the back of my truck, you know, kind of driving in—and I see all these people like shooting on this practice range!
And then I see like groups of four going into this course to like shoot! And it was all foam animal targets with scoring rings on them!
And you step up to the line, you look at the target, you try to figure out how far it is without having a range finder, and then you make a shot!
And depending on, you know, all the scoring is within the ethical kill zone of an animal! So after I think it was 15 targets—it was a 40-target course—after 15 targets I didn’t have a single arrow left in my quiver!
I’d lost all of them! And it was like a wake-up call! It was the first time that I had ever felt defeated at something!
It was the first time that I had a very clear wake-up call of “Maybe you’re not good enough to be doing this!”
You know? And for me, that was a trigger as a competitor! I think the standout athletes in any sport are the ones that take those moments very personally and change a direction to make it their best!
Or either realize, “I’m either going to be good at this or I need to find something else to be good at!” You know? To focus all your energy to!
And one thing led to another. I went to an archery shop where I saw a lot of guys with like shirts on that said the name of a shop!
So I knew they were like kind of local shooters for representing this store! So the next day I was in that store, and I said, “Hey, I want to get better!
I know a lot of guys here were shooting!” And a lot of those guys were in the range! And I just started asking questions!
A lot of people didn’t want to help—which is why I really want to help the archery world! It’s my way of giving back because there were people that didn’t want to help me!
But then I remember a guy came in and said, “Are my arrows done?”
And the guy behind the counter said, “Let me check in the back!” And he kind of walked past me, and he goes, “Come here kid!”
And ‘cause I had hung out in that store for about four days just kind of watching and looking around! I didn’t really have any importance!
So he takes me in the back room, and he says, “You got to build these guys' arrows for me because I forgot to do them!”
And I said, “I don’t know how to build arrows!” And he goes, "Okay, you take this feather, you put it in this clamp, put glue right down this feather like this, put the arrow in this jig, you push down on it, then you turn the wheel, go to the next arrow!”
After you get to the end take the clamp off, put another feather in, and he literally gave me the thing! So I was in there like trying to figure out how to do this.
I didn’t even work there! No, I was there like literally stalking people in the range! I was like the weird guy in the corner with like the hunting bow that was probably my dad’s hand-me-down!
I’m like stalking all the shooters! And about an hour later, I came out with, you know, this guy's arrows that he probably paid a hundred bucks for, and some like snot-nosed kid that had never even built them built them for the guy!
And so he goes, “All right, good job!” And he goes, “Here, now go do these!”
And two weeks later I remember telling my dad, “Hey, I think I'm going to—I’m not going to do the football thing!”
And he’s like, “What do you mean?” And I said, “I got to offer a job at this archery shop! I’m going to do it!"
And my dad's like, “So you’re not going to play college football and get a education?”
“You’re going to work in an archery shop?” He goes, “What’s this archery shop paying?” I said, “$4.10 an hour!”
Yeah, my dad’s been so good! My both my parents have been so supportive on everything in life, but that was the one time where he looked me in the face and just said, “This is a really stupid decision!”
But hey, I mean, you know, it’s—I just think it’s a great story because it shows that if someone’s willing to commit to a dream, then as long as you’re able to put in the work and stay focused on it, there are so many people that make businesses out of dreams!
Or you know careers out of sports that you would never even consider! Well, just think of that story! Now you’re traveling all over the world coaching international teams in archery!
I mean it’s a crazy story if you really stop and think about it! It’s really weird! You know, I have some very—I have some friends that are very successful according to the business world!
And there are times where I’m with those people, and then they’re introducing me to like a senator or governor! And then they’re like, “Well John, you know.”
It’s like, “Hey, this is my personal friend John!” And I’m, you know, with the President of University or something!
And they’re like, “So John, what do you do?” And it’s one of these—you want to be able to say, “Oh, I have an MBA!”
Or “You know, yeah, I do, um, rocket science stuff!” But it’s like, “Uh, I’m an archer!”
Yeah, I shoot a bow for a living! And they’re just like, really? I’m a slingshot master!
Yeah, exactly! But then you start—you know, you start explaining what you’re actually doing, and you realize this is a really big world, and there are such great people there!
You know, I literally—it’s really nice to be able to say I don’t have any regrets in life because I’m in an industry that I love!
I’m doing something that I really really love and there are such good people around it! And all you have to do is get up every morning when the alarm goes off—mine goes off pretty early— and then just put in the work!
And you know, I just think it’s so cool to know that there’s opportunity like that! Different a path that maybe perhaps other people hadn’t considered!
Oh yeah! Yeah, and just, you know, it’s such a great country to live in too here in the States because you can take something that no one really might not believe in but yourself!
And if you apply the work to it, you can make it happen! And in traveling through all the different parts of the world that I’ve traveled, I’ve gone to places where you just you know, you really wish you could give some of those people a chance!
Because you can tell that they have such heart and such desire, but they don’t have opportunity! That’s sad!
Like to me, that’s really sad that there’s not opportunity everywhere! And then you come here and you see someone that has potential or opportunity but they’re lazy and they won’t put in the work!
Yeah! They don’t have the desperation! They don’t have the desire! They don’t have the drive!
They don’t! They don’t! You know, I think a lot of times for some people when they’re young, it’s not enforced early on that when you work hard at something, it’s really rewarding when it’s over!
And it’s difficult to work hard at something! It’s difficult to get your ass out of bed! It’s difficult to force yourself to get up off the couch! It’s difficult to—but once you do it, it always feels good!
And even if you do something and it doesn’t work out well, like even if you’re practicing archery, the shots don’t go well, it’s still—you’re involved in the discipline!
And it’s giving you something to concentrate on! And that’ll translate, that energy and momentum will translate to the rest of your life!
If you’re working to improve at something, whether it’s archery or Jiu-Jitsu or anything when you’re working to improve on it!
I firmly believe that that motivation and that momentum of improvement applies to the rest of your life!
And it’s one of the things that people love about any particular discipline is the aspects of it and the qualities of it that sort of transfer onto your everyday life!
You know, it’s weird because until you and I communicated some on the phone, when I worked for an archery company, and I was just a sales guy making calls, I never got to see faces!
All I ever heard was voices! So voices for me are always triggers! ‘Cause for 10 years I was just making calls when you and I first talked on the phone!
And I like heard your voice directly like from my device, I actually realized—I haven’t even told you this! But when I work out or when I shoot, and a lot of times when I’m just working in my building, I’ve comprised like about 5 hours of a MP3 that’s nothing but motivational sayings that I’ve heard someone say—whether it’s—and I—that’s all I play! It’s my ambient sound!
And you were on there twice about just almost like what you just talked about—just a positive! It was just a positive rant that you had about all people have to do is make a step in a direction!
And you might, you know, you might look in the mirror one time and you don’t like what’s there, but you know you have the opportunity to turn around and go a different way!
And one thing that I really try to drive to people because there’s times you talk to someone and you know that they’re down in the dumps.
You know and one thing I tell people is, you know, “Motivation gets you going, commitment keeps you going!”
You know it’s—it’s no different than the New Year’s resolution! I freaking hate that! I hate—if there’s any time I don’t want to go to the gym, it’s two weeks after New Year’s because it’s like this swarm of people!
And it’s like, “Good for them! You know they’re not in shape! Good for them to come here!”
But then it’s so disappointing when it’s like two days, they’re gone! W—that’s so common too!
Yep! Yep! And you know if you’re at that stage and you’re at the point where you’re like, “You know what? I want to change myself physically!”
It’s funny how many people won’t even—it’s funny how many people are going to the gym to work out, but they’ll circle the gym parking lot like 10 times.
So they want the first row to open up, park as far away from the front door as you can! And warm-up by walking in! Skip, yeah!
Skip to the lop! Well, I think a lot of people need a life coach! I think this is what I'm—the conclusion, one of the conclusions that I'm coming to in life is that, um, people need to either find a way to motivate themselves through all the different stuff that’s available online!
I mean there are a million different websites and Instagram pages and lots of YouTube videos that show some motivation and they can help you!
But we, human beings learn from each other! And I think most of the cultures in the past, not trying to like glorify the past and say they had it nailed and we don’t!
But most of them were in tighter knit groups and they emulated the behavior and the patterns of the successful members of that group—the leaders of that tribe!
That’s where traditions and skills were passed on and that’s where ethics and that’s where certain philosophies were passed down from generation to generation!
These were the most beneficial to the community as a whole! To the individual, to the culture, whatever!
What whatever it is, this world that we’re living in today, we’re almost in a lot of ways— like you were saying, people with so much opportunity but too lazy!
We’re almost in a lot of ways, just lacking in a pattern—a correct pattern! And a coach, or a mentor, or a person who is ahead of you but honest!
Like ahead of you as far as like maybe been alive longer or maybe had more experiences, but very honest about the difference between you and them!
Because a lot of people think that you see some, like we were talking about today, this is a ridiculous analogy, but when I was on MTV, we were talking about Downtown Julie Brown!