TRAINER'S EYE #101 - "Fighting Mental Health With Pokemon" ft. Roy Flash Gordon from PokeMen's Health

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Roy Flash Gordon from PokeMen's Health.

PokeMen's Health shares his early experience with Pokemon starting finding comfort playing Pokemon Red to escape early child abuse. He shares how important it was to play Pokemon and how it stayed with him as he continued to age.

PokeMen's Health gives insight into starting the podcast and why he wanted to mix both Pokemon and Mental Health as a subject. He shares his experience being a life coach and utilizing Pokemon to help men connect with their inner child to become more healthier men.

Listen to this wonderful interview where mental health meets Pokemon!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Check out my episode with PokeMen's Health by clicking here!

Connect With PokeMen's Health: Podcast | Twitter

Transcript

PokeMen's Health: 0:00

This is Roy Flash Gordon of Pokéman's Health, and this is my Pokémon story.

David Hernandez: 0:43

Welcome to, as the Pokeball turns, where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez today. I'm joined by Roy, the Flash Gordon from Pokemon Health. He's a VGC competitor, men's life coach, and he has his goal to create a safe space where men can take on their mental health, create a supportive relationships and live their authentic selves. Roy, welcome to the show.

PokeMen's Health: 1:07

David, thanks so much for having me, man. I'm, excited to be here with you, excited to, chat about my favorite franchise ever, and, let the community know a little bit about what I'm up to.

David Hernandez: 1:19

Definitely. And it was by luck that I kind of found you actually found you through. messaged this to you. I found you through Pokemon Crossroads because I never heard of your podcast. And for those who don't know, I'm actually used to be a mental health professional myself. That's what I did for a couple of years. And even with my own struggles with, depression and, you know, going to therapy, it like hit close to home. And the question has been on my mind that I want to start this conversation with. Why both Pokemon and mental health? Why did you decide to diffuse those two together?

PokeMen's Health: 1:47

yeah. I think, um, let me talk more about the video game piece of it, I think Pokemon came into my world because of the video game. well that's what solidified it in my world either way. So you have the show, you have the cards and then the video game, eventually something I got my hands on and I played video games before that. I was probably like seven, eight, something along those lines. I played a few games before that and had a good time, but nothing captured my imagination, like Pokemon did. And, just from the start with the show with get into battle and like, Oh, wow, I can be like ash during this thing. Wow. I can have my own little adventure during this thing. I can be a hero during this thing. And it's only like years later. And I'm now looking back on everything that experience was for me. But, growing up in the hood, in an abusive household, like, with the challenges of just being a little black kid and not knowing, like, am I good, bad, am I pretty, ugly, like, all those sorts of things, like, piled up it's a tough mental health situation that, uh, a lot of us in that situation grow up through, and Pokémon was, like, you know, It was being a hero to me, essentially, you know, it was helping me survive. It was giving me something that made me really happy. Uh, it was also giving me something where I could be a little creative. I could be in charge, make decisions and see those things like carry out, in a world, you know, a little bit of an escape from the world that I was in. Uh, so I had just this deep, deep love for it. You know, looking back at it, it was something that was helping me manage my mental health as a kid, me like survive and regulate and, even find safety in a place that didn't always feel safe. And just growing up and going on my journey and deciding, Hey, I want to help people eventually being like, Hey, I think men, you know, really need some help. So I want to help men and knowing that the connection that I had with video games, it's probably something many men. having video games as well, and maybe not even able to articulate. but knowing that I had that experience, they may be having these experiences, we're connecting through the game anyway, through all these competitive means, but like, what if we connected the game through competitive means, and. Have other kinds of conversations together that can also help us in real life. And I just felt like this was a like step in the direction that would allow me to help people, but also like in this way that I'm like, yo, like I already enjoyed doing it, but I can play video games at the same time.

David Hernandez: 4:10

Right.

PokeMen's Health: 4:11

It's like, that sounds pretty crazy. And everyone that I talked to, right. As I'm like, guys, am I crazy? They're like, actually, that's a really great idea. Like you're having trouble getting people interested, like just the base. So what if you combine it with the other hobby, and it's brought me. an opportunity to do that work, but also this crazy, fun community that I've never had before. So I just thought it was a really natural kind of gelling that wasn't being looked at. And, I'm just really excited that people are excited about it. And it seemed to maybe buy into that idea as well. A video game as this mental health, like support, It being used in a different way, essentially.

David Hernandez: 4:50

it actually reminds me of how people would go into sports maybe it's because of, you know, we're kind of the video game generation to a degree, because video games are more, they came out in the 1980s. Pokemon didn't come out to the 1990s when you think of the timeline, but you know, a lot of them are growing up was reinforced through sports. the whole idea was let the men come through sports, let them learn, let them learn how to lead, be disciplined and stuff like that. And it kind of, what you're talking about kind of reminds me through that, just with Pokemon or video games instead. And maybe that comes from us, you know, growing up with the video games, growing up with Pokemon. You mentioned how you talked about that was kind of your safe space to get away from the abuse at home. For me, I've talked about my podcast. I always try to remake that episode where Ash was about to be frozen to death but he was surrounded by his Pokemon because for me, I lived a lonely childhood, I didn't really have friends, I didn't have siblings close to me, so I lived by myself a lot, and Pokemon, just like for you, was my way to find solace outside of the pain.

PokeMen's Health: 5:46

Yes. Yes, dude. I think Pokemon is, just has so much heart. Right. I like feel like a soul connection to this thing. it's got so much heart and like themes of friendship that I think like. know, some people like might find corny or whatever, but I think there's a lot of like internalizing that we get through just playing it and being there through that experience. And I was thinking about like those, those little, you know, your little team, the little virtual team, like really like having a space in your heart and like really feeling like. somewhere to put your energy that you, you know, might put in relationships that you have, if you have them. And the reality for many people, especially in the gaming community is they may be a bit more disconnected from the outside world and more internal, but they've got a lot of video game friends and it's just like, yo, if you're going to find them somewhere. Find them number one, you know, find, find those somewhere is the number one thing to really, you know, live in your life and if you're going through a depression or tougher emotions and whatnot, having friends. Goes a long way to, you know, keeping you healthy, helping you move towards health and whatnot. and I see it, honestly, people making all these friends, through video games who may not have such a strong network, in person, just totally fine, you get those friends somewhere. And I see video games as being just a great bridge for a lot of people.

David Hernandez: 7:08

I want to switch topics to your experience with Pokemon and when that first started. You talked about how you were into battling. So when did you first start playing Pokemon?

PokeMen's Health: 7:16

Yeah. Um, I started playing again. I said it was eight. I feel like I might more closer to nine or 10 though.

David Hernandez: 7:24

I'm not judging you, don't worry.

PokeMen's Health: 7:26

Yeah, so whenever I got started, it was great. So I had a math teacher, it had to be when I was in his class. So probably around 10, uh, I had this math teacher who gave me his old game boy because he was like, video games are for children and I like you. You can have this. And he really took me under his wing. Yeah, he really took me on his way. He ended up being my first football coach as well. Very impactful person in my life. But also in life, you would not think that brick game boy made the impact that it ended up making on me. But he impacted me that way too. So I had

David Hernandez: 7:56

We'll just so make sure real quick. So he didn't want to play video games. He was like, and this isn't for me. So he just gave it to you out of

PokeMen's Health: 8:02

Yep.

David Hernandez: 8:02

no obligation whatsoever.

PokeMen's Health: 8:04

that's my Game Boy I younger. Yep, my Game Boy from when I was younger. I thought you might, want it. And my mom worked at the school at the time as a, as an aide. So he, like, knew just a little bit about herself.

David Hernandez: 8:13

Oh, okay.

PokeMen's Health: 8:14

So, it was really cool of him. I just had it, but I had no games. So, eventually, I, uh, Was walking down the street again. I'm in the hood and I come across this copy of Pokemon red on the floor. It's like in the ground, in the dirt, like beat up, like this got stolen from somebody probably, you know what I mean? It

David Hernandez: 8:33

you never know.

PokeMen's Health: 8:34

might, yo, I was like, this feels too good to be true. And I'm begging my mom for this thing forever. and she just couldn't afford it, you know? So I take it up, I get some batteries for the game boy, pop it in and it's ready to roll. And I play that thing into the ground, at least two games on that cartridge. And the second one, like the first one, I was like, I don't want to erase this. I can't erase it. I can't erase it. But, you know, I wanted to move on and like really master this thing. And I did. And that was like the start of this tremendous journey. Played Gen 2 as soon as it came out. a friend gifted his copy to me. His parents really took a lot of care of me during that time. between, Ruby Sapphire. there was a bit of a space between playing. I think I was starting to get around high school, late high school, college years, where it was just like, you know, everyone was not playing games as much. I was a bit more focused on girls and football and all that stuff. But eventually I was like, Oh man, this Emerald thing sounds kind of good. So when Emerald came out is when I picked it up again, um, played it and pretty much everything else from there, I guess the time when I was in college, so the DS version, so Platinum, Diamond, Pearl, that was another slow start for me, same with Gen 5, but I eventually picked all of them up, played them through and it was Gen 6, like, really had me. 7 had me. It took me a minute to get a switch, but by the time, um, Sword and Shield started, I was back in, like, as hard as possible, just hooked. I was, like, in line the second the game comes out, ever since. And, just really enjoying it. So I played competitive. Pokemon and I think I gravitated towards that. Cause that's just like, the base experience. so we had right from the jump collection and battling was really it. I had no care for collection and maybe because like, I don't have access to the other game, you know? And my friend may or may not have a link cable, that sort of thing. So, you know, battling was always fun. I always wanted to, to win. Build the best team. I always wanted to try different combinations, like mono team or whatever. And just that part of the game is what made me fall in love. And I'm just a naturally competitive person. And eventually when connected to the internet and people became easier, which is around gen four, it was still really silly to connect to the internet, but it was like, it's around gen four, so funny. And, um, I played competitive smoke on. so an online forum that really dominate the space and it still does. But Smogon was it, if you want it to find games, you're on Smogon. If you want it to find trades, you're on Smogon, et cetera. And, uh, That really got me and I played Smogon singles for about a year. I was like one of my years during college. I was like studying and like trying to learn competitive Pokemon and really challenging to do because it was also really hard to build a team back then, get the materials you needed back then, much harder than it is today. But I played it pretty hard for a while and really enjoyed it. I would see doubles, which is the VGC actual, like, Pokemon standard of competitive. And I was like, doubles, that's, that's not how it happens in the show for real. So, uh, it was really, really goofy. And, played it out and eventually, you know, college and real life get too busy. So I was like, all right, I'm playing the base game, but I can't do this competitive thing. And I was kind of, you know, bummed out about that, but. It made sense at the time I was doing real life competitive stuff that just needed more time for me, you know, and like I said, it would pick up the generation whenever the new generation came out pretty consistently from gen six onward and, play it until I was done playing it, beat the base game, maybe catch a few legendaries and, keep up with, if there was any events and something cool to collect and whatnot. So I'd say February of, of 23 was when that idea was like starting to percolate a little bit to say like, like I'm doing this men's group stuff, the men's work stuff. Uh, and I wasn't having a ton of fun with it, honestly. Just doing it as it's like base, which is very like which is good. You know, we're working on it. It's very raw, which is good. Where those are skills we're trying to build, but like, it was just kind of boring, you know, stuffy and like traditional, like, uh, closer to

David Hernandez: 12:44

felt like a recovery meeting it

PokeMen's Health: 12:46

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. You know, which is fine. And I think it's super powerful, but I'm thinking about like, how do I want to like spend my life and do this? Like if this was to be, like a way to make a living and whatnot, and I'm just like, I don't see myself doing it like this. I see myself doing something a little different, something unique, whatnot. Uh, and at the same time, I was just like, you know, questioning life. And this is a bit of my mental health journey, just questioning like life and where I was and I'm really into inner child work, which we can talk about sometime. Uh, and one day, like, yeah, you know what I mean? I was like, what am wanting? You know? And like, he wants something more, like something's not working right now. And I eventually asked the question, like, instead of inner child, let's think about future self, you know, if I had financial freedom, what would I be doing? And I was like, I'd be trying to become a Pokemon master. Almost certainly. Like, I was just like, almost like,

David Hernandez: 13:38

Driving to the land, trying to understand the power

PokeMen's Health: 13:40

Exactly. It was like, you know, doing what I love, but like competitive, like something really indulgent, something that felt really indulgent And I was like, you know what? I can do that right now. I might not be that good yet. You know, I might not go to every single tournament, but I can absolutely pursue competitive Pokemon right now, because guess what? I'm going to have to be good if I'm ever going to become a master. So I should probably start trying to like, be good. And you know, the base game, especially when you play since you're a kid, you get a ton of like base knowledge and whatnot. So pretty much from then on, I started to learn VGC, like updated, learn it and see like what the metagame was like and whatnot. And no, I also knew it was attractive because I knew that it's way easier to build teams and stuff than it used to be. there's a lot more items you can get. You finish the game, you get access to even more stuff. That's like cheaper to get than it ever was. Like you don't have to do a bunch of crazy quests to, to get one thing that's going to contribute to the 10 things you need to build a Pokemon, that kind of thing.

David Hernandez: 14:36

It was a struggle

PokeMen's Health: 14:37

It struggle. It was

David Hernandez: 14:38

Preach. I'm not going to stop

PokeMen's Health: 14:40

Yes! Oh my god, there's ways to get money, like, that are, like, reasonable, that isn't battle the Elite Force 17, 000 times, but you still might

David Hernandez: 14:49

Real quick. I want to touch on something. What life changed for me was how easy it was to get the IVs you want. Because back then, Gen 3 and 4, you had to continuously try to re roll. That's all it was. You could not control the IVs.

PokeMen's Health: 15:03

it was a mess. It wasn't a mess. I mean, you could play like that from gen two. I'm pretty sure. Right. And I love that that was in the game and I love that it was like hidden and he had to figure it out. Right. But we live in the day and age we do. Please don't hide that stuff for me. I want to know how to just do it. But like legit, that was really tough to try to get good. IVs on six mon, that's crazy, you know, and people would do it. People were really into breeding, another really cool mechanic in the game, right? And something that, back then, people actually did it. I hatch eggs all the time. Those were, like, the

David Hernandez: 15:35

you're talking thousands of

PokeMen's Health: 15:37

You guys!

David Hernandez: 15:38

like I think it was crazy and I had a friend he was into the competitive and what he did was he actually had like papers and papers on his wall you thought it would be like a madhouse he had papers and papers of just written of the breakpoints the IVs like he was really in depth to it for me I couldn't go that far because I was like My madness is enough with just trying to get breedable moves and nature's like I'm good there I never broken the IVs because of how difficult it

PokeMen's Health: 16:04

Yeah, dude. So tough. And you just reminded me of the egg move thing. I'm like, Oh my God, the breedable moves. Holy God. Like

David Hernandez: 16:11

Yeah, it was it's it's a challenge

PokeMen's Health: 16:13

much work. And I appreciated it. I did. I just, just like, I just don't have the time. I would have done anything. Like, honestly, if I had like more resources, time, money, whatever to do it, like I would, I would have gladly done all the breeding, built my team. Cause When you built a Pokemon during those days, you were like, satisfied. And

David Hernandez: 16:34

That's a commitment right there.

PokeMen's Health: 16:36

like, this is my mind. And there's people who are pulling their minds back from those days still. And it's so, so cool that you can do that, but they're like pulling their minds back from back then. And it's like, Wow. You really got like a super strong attachment to this, like, thing that you built in the video game. I think it's pretty cool. That's a pretty cool thing to like have available a cool experience, but we ain't all get that time. So I'm glad that it

David Hernandez: 16:59

Not anymore not

PokeMen's Health: 17:00

anymore. anymore. So I'm glad that we can just hop in, do the thing. And because of the accessibility that existed now and the place that I was just like, wow, how can I pursue my purpose? And this other fun thing, which is type of purpose to like bucket list item, right? how can I do those things and connect with my community? Oh, wow. Oh, wow Pokimane's health like i'm like in the shower just like oh pokimane's health that sounds

David Hernandez: 17:26

every best idea happens in the

PokeMen's Health: 17:27

can say. Yeah. And it was just boring. And, I just so excited about it. And one day I was like, Oh, podcast could be fun. Pokemon community is a lot of podcasts. Like, I'd love to just talk to guys about their experience. I'm like, How do I introduce this, this topic of like, Hey guys, like what if we engage with our masculinity more healthily? And I was like, I don't really know, but let's just go in and learn about how guys are doing it. You know, going without judgment and, and create something where we can give each other ways to grow, essentially be better, be healthier. But I'd love to inspire people to question how they've been question where I come from, like society saying men have to be like this and how, like I said, that's not great for us, by the way. Right. Like question that. Can you then make your own definition of, you know, what it is to be a man who's living healthily, with kindness in his heart, meaningfully, with compassion for this world and everyone in it, you know, how do you do that? And maybe we can help these guys who are struggling to figure that out. And, um, it feels like a big mission. Uh, and it's a mission that I pursue outside of Pokemon's health as well still, but it feels like I'm making. an impact on the community that means a lot to me, already, just from choosing to say, Hey, Pokemon, like you're supposed to be from a special community to me. And I want to help you, you be happier, be healthier. And that's, that's what it's all about for me. Yes.

David Hernandez: 19:02

are going to have is that, you know, we're from kind of the nerdy side society because for the longest time we were kind of the outcast. And thanks to Marvel, it's kind of come a little bit forefront people. It's okay to kind of dive into comic books, but even with Pokemon, like you think about growing up, I'm sure you heard the same thing, especially growing up in the hood, you know, Pokemon was for sissies. for little kids. You know, why are you still on the Pokemon? You're 14 years old. Uh, my mom wondered that like, why are you still on the Pokemon? You should have put it to the side. And that's kind of the messages we got growing up. Now, people coming after us don't get to, thankfully don't get to experience that. They get to kind of feel acceptance and that's okay to like Pokemon. That it's for everybody. And that's such a good mission is to where you kind of be able to kind of bring, I think what you said earlier is like, I feel like life is always about us trying to find our inner child looks off because we put so many barriers. We've put so many expectations that we think of what we should be. Instead of living out who we really are. And that's so powerful that what you're doing is because I feel like you're trying to get people connected to who they were originally and get them back to you know, with our old older brain to be able to live up to their fulfillment selves.

PokeMen's Health: 20:14

Absolutely. And it's, oh man, it's like a nail on the head for me though. It's just. I think about, again, I'm very much into the inner child work. I think about my younger self all the time and feel like I am this kid, but bigger and with actual adult like responsibilities and experience. Insights gained from that experience. But it's just like at that core, like soul level, it's the same like presence that that kid was, And then the world comes and does, does what it does, you know, like we get experiences, but we also get, you know, a lot of bad experiences amongst those, A lot of pain, a lot of stuff that tells that that little kid that he can't be who he is. And when you remove all that stuff, it's that kid just wanting to be who he is. Right. now though. I'm big, I'm strong, I can do stuff, I can move more freely, I've got resources, could always use some more resources, but I've got some resources, like, and now, all the stuff that was alive, you know, a lot of that stuff that was alive back then, the stuff that, A lot of times it's just as important to us now, but it's covered up in a bunch of the world's crap, you know, and I, I want guys to at least say, Hey, let's remove some of that world's crap. And who's under there, you know, that someone you still are in alignment with? And I think people find that. In a lot of ways, and there's some things that have evolved with your improved experience and perspective, but there's a lot of stuff that's under there that we ignore, desires we ignore, things we need that we ignore, that I think we are very much benefited from getting in touch with.

David Hernandez: 21:50

Coming back to the Pokemon side of things. So you know, you've grown up with Pokemon your whole life. Do you have a particular generation that you enjoy either experiencing or re experiencing? And if so, what is it?

PokeMen's Health: 22:02

it's a tough question. Tough question. As I played all the remakes and there's been like just I will feel like I feel like something's always just like a little bit just little off. And it's just like, oh yeah, this is cool. This is how I wish it was when I was a kid, but it doesn't feel like when I was a kid. And this is something like, it doesn't feel like a real re exploration, you know? I think if I had to pick just going off the top of my head, and I'm going to think about playing the OG game, probably Gen 2, but maybe Gen 4. Like, Gen 4, like, I loved Pokemon. I loved Pokemon before Gen 4, but something about Gen 4 just, like, locked it in so hard. Like, just the amount of new evolutions. And it was always back in those days, like we know the formula is somebody's getting, somebody new is going to evolve, you know, somebody old is going to get a new evolution, right? We know that's the formula by now, but back then we didn't have any idea.

David Hernandez: 22:59

We had no Yeah.

PokeMen's Health: 23:01

they gave who an And like, we still get those surprises here and there still, but like, we're expecting it back then we weren't even expecting it. So there are so many engine for, I just thought the integration of the DS was crazy cool, even though like going back now, it's like, Oh, this is really slow and inconvenient. And like, it doesn't feel like as good as it did.

David Hernandez: 23:20

It's like you have to enter a friend code just to be able to battle somebody. This is kind of

PokeMen's Health: 23:24

Yeah.

David Hernandez: 23:24

then plus the battles are always so slow

PokeMen's Health: 23:26

So slow, but like back then it's all we had. I'm like, I want to be here as long as possible. It's great. It's fine. You know what I mean? Uh, I enjoyed the Pokemon. I enjoyed the starters. I loved that Lucario came into the game. enjoyed that there was a variance in ways that things evolving. I tried not to look at anything, uh, as long as I could for some reason, but Like, just exploring the world was fun. I hated the spelunking thing, that was really weird. you know, even There was like the under It's the underground thing, and you had to like

David Hernandez: 23:53

Oh, Underground Tunnel. Okay, I gotcha, gotcha. I was like, what? Spelunking? What the hell are you talking about? What game do you, what bootleg game do you

PokeMen's Health: 24:00

Big Doug, the Big Doug part. Yeah. Um, but it was, uh, just It felt so fresh, so new. Like, there was a lot of different things that we just hadn't experienced in Gen 2 and Gen 3. if I were to put a game in to re experience, it wouldn't be Gen 4, but I gotta say, those memories are very fond. Gen 2 would almost certainly be that because it was, Again, we had the evolutions. I thought it was crazy when Crystal came out. I was like, there could be a third version. That's what. I love Lugia. I love the dog thing. Like when you, you know, the event happens and you're just walking around doing your thing and eventually one just pops up and you're just like, what was that? and then it runs away, you know, like figuring that whole thing out. Uh, I felt like it was, it was a pretty independent exploration also. So just fresh eyes on everything, not looking to anyone thing for help that we could walk through is weren't what they were, what they are today and even what they were, you know, in our teenage years and things, but it was, just amazing. And then to figure out, wait, I can play eight more gems in the place we just came from, you know, it was, it was peak. Like, I don't know that I've had those feelings, but I do know that I've had some feelings that are like, ah, this is that nice Pokemon feeling. And then each generation has really carved out its own little, like space in my, my brain a little bit.

David Hernandez: 25:18

It's a tough choice, right? Because on one hand, you speak of just two and four. two, you've got a brand new generation. got, you find out at the end, you get to re explore Kanto. You kind of see how the game's changed in the past, I think in game it was like three years between that and the original games. And then to top it all off, you face your former self. Like what's better than that? And then on the other hand, let's talk about Gen 4. Gen 4 introduced the wireless capability through the internet. You could do battling. They introduced the global trace system, which I love. Although you can never get traced on because everybody wanted a shiny me for

PokeMen's Health: 25:49

Yes.

David Hernandez: 25:50

And then you had all the HMs, which, you know, I can kind of leave those. It introduced so many different ways to kind of experience what you can see on pixels from the snow, from climbing rocks. If you play Platinum, you talk about the, distortion world where you're actually going sideways. That blew my mind when I first saw that because I'm so used to seeing my character straight. It was, it was mind blowing to see it go, uh, sideways left to right, or I'm sorry, up to down. It was that mind blowing everything. And it's hard to choose between those

PokeMen's Health: 26:19

Mm hmm. It's a tough choice. It is a tough choice. like you said, so much like innovation for the time, uh, whether it was like gameplay or how we experience Pokemon

David Hernandez: 26:29

So, you know, you talk about how you're into VGC, you're into competitive. So how's it been to be able to kind of pursue that kind of competitive side of yourself with Pokemon? Do you like to go to tournaments? Like, what does that look like for you?

PokeMen's Health: 26:40

Yeah, definitely. It's so it started with local tournaments and I always knew that I was going to, you know, hop right into regional as soon as I could. my first regional was in Milwaukee. And that was the end of that season. And then the new season started. I did some other locals and whatnot, new season start. And even then though I had no clue on, Points, the system, like how it worked, how it could even see any of that stuff. so I went from, you know, Big, big rookie. And I'm still, there's some more growth to be done, but like big rookie to just like grinding, regionals and locals and whatnot, and even playing more Pokemon showdown, which I was really resistant to early in the career. But people are like, you have to play showdown if you're going to, test out ideas, get enough practice in and whatnot, and you can get a lot of fast practice on showdown instead of playing the game, which has its animations and all that stuff, and I can actually do it while I'm commuting and whatnot. So playing around with that and all things that are kind of helping me build my skills for more of the VGC stuff. Now competing in Pokemon, it's been crazy. Crazy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I've had matches where, you know, that I'm starting to get a little bit better than what it was. And if I'm really getting how game flow goes and getting the mindset right and whatnot can get to points where we're having some crazy good games. All right. I'm starting to play some pretty good games against some good people. And They get heated. We get to game three and I started tournament game one. I'm like, like chomping at the bit, you know what I mean? And it's, if we get to game three and it's hot and competitive, like the blood gets pumping, like anything else I have competed in, you know, it is just that, uh, important to me now. And definitely lets me connect with a side of myself. I've played competitive sports my entire life, and it's allowed me to have an outlet to experience that heart pump and that, part of me that just wants to go up against another person's will and see who can, you can get it done. Yeah. I love it.

David Hernandez: 28:39

And then, and then that game three, you got the tension. Like it's anybody's game. It takes one move and you know, you feel the palms getting sweaty. The end. you know, as you get older you can't really do as much as the physical stuff, but The mental side of the game, you know what I mean like but the mental side is still there though it sounds like with the pokemon BGC side

PokeMen's Health: 28:56

yeah. you know, I'd love to do some more competitive sports and my body hurts. I don't know if I'm going to be doing very much more of that. And to know that I have this now, which is very much a mental game is pretty cool.

David Hernandez: 29:09

you talked about how you're improving when it comes to VGC, what does it look like to improve kind of space? Like, are you trying to focus more on what you're trying to think ahead of what your opponent would do? you trying to improve your mods, IVs or EVs? Like, what does that kind of side when it comes to improving VGC from a novice to what I guess your skill level and even beyond, what is, what's the gap I guess is what I'm

PokeMen's Health: 29:30

definitely. I think the builds is probably the easiest bit. And as you get to be a more experienced player, I think you learn that there is a whole play style discovery that you probably want to make. And it's like, what do you like to play? How do you like to play it? What are you good at playing? I think the biggest thing for me was learning that yes, there are these high meta teams, right? There's maybe, five ish teams that will probably look exactly the same, across the board. Maybe there's more, right? But these high meta teams, you can have a high meta team and be hot, stanky garbage. You can have the team that's the most popular team because it is the best team and be hot garbage at it. If you know nothing about The stats and if there are important stats interactions based on, you know, if you're doing tailwind, which doubles your speed, or if you're going to do trick room or you, you know, about your trick room matchup and whatnot, but basically stat interactions that. Are really important if you put some stats on because that's the best thing to do for that build, but don't know how they interact with your team or common threats to your team, then you got nothing. There's just so much depth. And I walked into this thing just like, Oh, I'm just gonna press some buttons. I like Dragon Knight. E Speed's his strong move, right? You know, so it's crazy. So I'm still learning that there's depth, and friends help you learn that. Like this is not, it's, it's, you're out there competing solo, but it really is the team sport in a lot of ways. I think if you're going to, You know, create your optimal six Pokemon to put on the field, really learn about how to do that best and really learn about as many matchups as possible, and that's a lot of job for one person to do, but you get your community out there to help you and it's a whole different game.

David Hernandez: 31:21

Last thing I want to talk about for this interview is, of course, you've mentioned it is your podcast. And you talked a bit about like how it started and what it came to be. One question I really wanted to ask was what has been the response and feedback since started the podcast? Have you found a lot of guys resonated with your message?

PokeMen's Health: 31:39

It's got a small audience right now, but it's growing a little bit at a time. And I feel like I've gotten a lot of love for it. By NAIC, I made a ton of, friends and a number of them at NAIC that I did not even, you know, have first time meeting there It was because they started listening to the podcast or they heard, uh, they listened to one episode of the podcast because their favorite streamer was on it or like their buddy was on it or something. And they have been listening ever since. it's been really cool to see, like, folks are open to it. Folks know that it is a needed thing, you know, that guys really need to put some more attention on, on their mental health struggles. And folks have really enjoyed coming on and just having a conversation and talking about that stuff. Cause often these conversations are conversations that, you know, they may have in a therapy office or maybe not even like in the context that they get to have them with me. Right. And. There's even people that have not had any sort of conversation of that nature, where it's just like, tell me about you and your ideas in this area, really, and it's the, I think those are the biggest questions, like, how do you feel about these things? It all makes you feel about yourself there and being asked about their feelings for some of my, uh, interviewees was a new experience and maybe not new or something that just has not happened in a long time. And it made a difference that they got to have those conversations and like those expressions here and that from people, opens the heart right up, you know. that makes me feel like I'm like, okay, I'm doing this. And I don't like even fully know where it is or where it leads, but people are getting something from Guys are getting something from it. And even getting to, you know, I've had other identities on, I've gotten to learn about them and, and when I get that approval. Of this podcast from a woman or someone of a different gender. it. Let's me know, like, okay, they see this as something that is contributing to, you know, fight against really for me as oppression of all sorts, you know, open up space for people to be who they are and whatnot. And to get that approval from them as well, which seems to be positive and like, this is a good thing. Uh, it just makes me feel like going in the right direction.

David Hernandez: 33:54

And if you want to hear your favorite podcaster on his podcast, I will actually be a guest on this podcast. Link will be in the description of this episode, but Roy. I gotta ask my last question before we close this one, okay? Say somebody's gonna come and challenge you to a Pokemon battle. Six on six. What six Pokemon are you gonna bring to the battle?

PokeMen's Health: 34:12

I'd probably be a fighting type gym trainer, uh, so I'm gonna go I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with some fighting types, let me get Lucario, obviously, let me get Hawlucha, me go Lilligant, let me go Lilligant,

David Hernandez: 34:24

Oh, are we talking about his uni little

PokeMen's Health: 34:26

go Lilligant, yes, yes, the fast um, oh man, how do I set sun with a fighting type? Let's go with Mian Xiao. That feels

David Hernandez: 34:36

Oh, that's a good one.

PokeMen's Health: 34:36

Yeah. Um, Urshifu. Let's go Urshifu. Single strike. Single strike Urshifu. And Marshadow. Marshadow. Of

David Hernandez: 34:51

it. Well, Roy, thank you for coming on the show. You've been a wonderful guest. If people want to check out your podcast, if they want to connect with you, where can they go by all means, please plug away.

PokeMen's Health: 35:01

course, uh, you'll find Pokimane's health podcast on everywhere you can listen to podcasts. I'm also on Instagram. But it's probably where I'm going to post the most Twitch is where I do streams once, twice a week has been a little slow these days, just with life stuff going on, but I definitely intend to pick that back up. And of course I'm on Twitter and threads. If you ever want to connect, please come on through.

David Hernandez: 35:24

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