During Joe Rogan Experience #2470 with Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, Joe Rogan talked candidly about his personal history with jiu-jitsu and the current state of jiu-jitsu gyms across the country.
When Poilievre asked about residual injuries from his competitive days, Rogan confirmed the physical toll. “Oh, yeah. I’ve had three knee surgeries, two reconstructions,” he said.
Asked whether those injuries came from taekwondo, Rogan replied, “Yeah. And jiu-jitsu. One of my ACL injuries was from jiu-jitsu.”
The conversation then turned to what types of injuries are most common in the sport. “Knees, backs, necks, shoulders. Those are the big ones. Elbows,” Rogan said.
When Poilievre asked whether those injuries come from arm bars specifically, Rogan pointed to a more avoidable cause. “Yeah. Not tapping. That’s a big one. A lot of guys get hurt just because their ego because they don’t want to tap.”
Rogan admitted he once had the same mindset. “When I was younger, I was really st**id and I wasn’t into tapping. But as I got older, I got a lot smarter. Fortunately, I got a lot better. So I wasn’t in a situation where I had to tap a lot. But if I did, I did. I just tapped. And that’s the smart thing to do,” he stated
His advice to other practitioners was direct. He mentioned: “I would tell people, treat it like you’re playing basketball. Don’t treat it like it’s your life or death. The game is if a guy gets you in an arm bar, he’s essentially breaking your arm. If he breaks your arm, he can ki ll you. That’s the game.”
Rogan continued: “But don’t treat it like that. Treat it like you can tap and keep going. Or you can not tap and your arm’s going to be destroyed maybe for the rest of your life.”
Rogan added that he had seen the consequences firsthand. “I’ve seen that happen with people where their forearm snaps and they have to have plates in it and then it’s a chronic injury for the rest of their life,” he stated.
On jiu-jitsu gyms, Rogan was straightforward. “It’s very difficult to have a bad jiu-jitsu gym today,” he told Poilievre. He credited the competitive nature of the industry.
He said, “There’s too many good people. There’s too many good gyms. In Austin alone, Austin alone has like 10 amazing jiu-jitsu schools.”
Rogan also shared his own background in the sport. “I didn’t start jiu-jitsu till I was 29, I think,” he said, going on to explain that he trained first with Rickson Gracie, then Carlson Gracie, then Jean Jacques Machado, before eventually training at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, founded by his close friend Eddie Bravo.
