Why Great Coaches Train Athletes to Stop Thinking | Noah Neiman

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Noah Neiman co-founded Rumble, the boxing gym where more than 1.5 million people have taken a class. Before that, he was a 220-pound 13-year-old with ADHD who had been kicked out of two schools, an accountant calling his mom from the office bathroom, and a man who woke up in a hospital bed after nearly overdosing at a Super Bowl party. He calls it the worst moment of his life, and the best.

Not long after, he swerved his car toward a half-hung jiu-jitsu sign in Pittsburgh, walked up to the owner and asked to join before the gym had even opened.

In this episode he explains what actually got him through the panic attacks that followed, why a therapist's advice to punch a pillow sent him to a boxing gym, why he wouldn't trade his darkest day for $1 billion, how his dog Oz got him out of bed, and the voice that still asks him, "Am I washed?" Partway through, he explains why I got fewer skips the harder I tried to skip a rock.

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Audio/Listen only:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372
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00:00 Intro: The Worst and Best Moment of My Life
02:13 If You Knew What You Were Getting Into, You'd Never Do It
05:49 Why Trying Harder Gets You Fewer Skips
08:23 Train So You Don't Have to Think (LeBron, Bruce Lee, Bamboo)
11:09 ADHD, Panic Attacks and the Power of Physical Effort
13:33 Pete Carroll on Self-Talk: Everyone Needs a Coach
15:40 220 Pounds, ADHD and Kicked Out of Two Schools
18:53 Our Default Is Negative: Poise Under Pressure From Jiu-Jitsu
22:06 Told to Punch a Pillow, He Found a Boxing Gym
23:49 From the Heavy Bag to 1.5 Million Rumble Classes
25:57 Strength, Bags and Street Defense: Building The Pack
31:35 Jiu-Jitsu, College and the Accounting Job He Hated
33:51 New York Nightlife, the 2008 Crash and Going Home
35:58 Rock Bottom: Waking Up in the Hospital
38:35 The Jiu-Jitsu Sign That Changed His Life
41:47 "If You Don't Feed It, It Won't Grow": Beating Panic
42:39 $7 in the Bank and a 9 P.M. Class at Barry's
47:45 Building Rumble With Eugene Remm
49:18 Selling Rumble: The Blessing and the Curse of an Exit
51:35 Oz, the Dog Who Got Him Out of Bed
54:11 Why The Pack Is Named After a Three-Headed Dog
58:07 "Am I Washed?" The Self-Talk He Still Fights
1:00:29 Why He Wouldn't Trade His Darkest Day for $1 Billion
1:01:51 Marketing a Gym in 2026 vs. 2017
1:03:43 Why People Are Craving In-Person Connection
1:06:55 Tim Gallwey's Dark Night and the 13-Year-Old Guru
1:09:31 Only When You've Lost Everything Are You Free