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The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game
In his acclaimed national best seller, A Fighter’s Heart , Sam Sheridan took readers with him as he stepped through the ropes into the dangerous world of professional fighting. From a muay Thai bout in Bangkok to Rio, where he trained with jiu-jitsu royalty, to Iowa, where he matched up against the toughest in MMA, Sheridan threw himself into a quest to understand how and why we fight. In The Fighter’s Mind , Sheridan does for the brain what his first book did for the body. To uncover the secrets of mental strength and success, Sheridan interviewed dozens of the world’s most fascinating and dangerous men, including celebrated trainers Freddie Roach and Greg Jackson; champion fighters Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, and Marcelo Garcia; ultrarunner David Horton; legendary wrestler Dan Gable, and many more. What are their secrets? How do they stay committed through years of training, craft a game plan, and adjust to the realities of the ring? How do they project strength when weak, and remain mentally tough despite incredible physical pain? A fascinating book, bursting at the seams with incredible stories and insight, The Fighter’s Mind answers these questions and many more.
283 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
178 people are currently reading
2672 people want to read
About the author
Sam Sheridan
6 books172 followersAfter high school Sam went into the Merchant Marines, then quit and spent some time traveling Europe. He went to Harvard, also working a summer on the largest cattle ranch in Montana. Immediately after graduating, Sam took a job on a private sailing yacht for 18 months all the way to Australia. From there Sam went to Thailand, where he lived in a Muay Thai camp and fought, featuring on National Geographic’s “A Fighting Chance.”
Later Sam got a job doing construction in Antarctica, where he met a smokejumper who got him into Wildland Firefighting.
He continues to do yacht deliveries and has been writing books for the last few years. His first book, “A Fighter’s Heart,” took him on a lengthy odyssey to Brazil and Japan. Sam's second book, “The Fighter’s Mind,” is an investigation into the mental game of fighting, with essays and interviews with the best fighters and trainers in the world.
Later Sam got a job doing construction in Antarctica, where he met a smokejumper who got him into Wildland Firefighting.
He continues to do yacht deliveries and has been writing books for the last few years. His first book, “A Fighter’s Heart,” took him on a lengthy odyssey to Brazil and Japan. Sam's second book, “The Fighter’s Mind,” is an investigation into the mental game of fighting, with essays and interviews with the best fighters and trainers in the world.
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January 8, 2021
"At a certain point, if he's going to get to the top of the boxing profession, a fighter has to learn the difference between a truth and a lie. The lie is thinking that submission is an acceptable option. The truth is that if you give up, afterward you'll realize that any of those punches that you thought you couldn't deal with, or those rough moments you didn't think you would make it through, were just moments."
Teddy Atlas, as quoted in "The Fighter's Mind." Atlas is a noted boxing trainer and commentator and, now, podcaster.
A 3.5 star book, very close to four.
Sam Sheridan is a man who's led an interesting life in the best sense of the word and who has dabbled in actual MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighting and has a keen interest in the world of the fighting arts, ranging from Brazilian jiu jitsu to boxing to Muay Thai fighting, amateur wrestling of various kinds, judo, karate, Krav Maga and many other methods of combat.
Sheridan is a thoughtful man and, as a follow-up to his excellent book, "A Fighter's Heart," he wrote "The Fighter's Mind." In this latter book, Sheridan talks to various high-level competitors and trainers attempting to tease out the definable aspects of fighting's "mental game." This is a worthy ambition and a tough one. Almost all top-level competitors and trainers KNOW that a fighter's mental game is as much a part of his (or her) skill set as talent and conditioning. Indeed, there are many great boxers, for example, who box only in gyms and never in an actual boxing ring in front of a large audience. They may excel in the gym but freeze up at the thought of proving their worth in front of thousands of fans.
This "mental game" is certainly not exclusive to the world of professional fighting. It is also important to rock climbers, mountain trekkers, football players, chess players, symphony musicians, Broadway actors--almost anyone engaging in a challenging activity. Books could be written (and probably have been) on the mental game needed to finish medical school, or law school, and many have been penned offering advice on writing books.
But defining exactly WHAT this "mental game" is turns out to be extremely difficult. In my prolix review, I'm going to give some of the takeaways Sheridan learned from some of the fighting world's top athletes and trainers.
A couple observations about Sheridan:
1. He interviews some big-name people like Dan Gable, probably the greatest amateur collegiate wrestler of the modern era, and also the top wrestling coach. He also interviews Freddie Roach, one of boxing's top trainers who has trained boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao for the last 20 years or so.
2. Sheridan has been around the fighting world. He had at least one MMA fight, has lived in Thailand for six months learning their brutal sport of Muay Thai, and has trained in various other fighting arts. Thus he is not in awe of the some of the big names he meets. He has much respect for each person he interviews, but is not afraid to offer occasional criticism and frank opinions. This strengthens the book and is worthy of note mainly because Sheridan is not a professional sportswriter/journalist.
Mental game rule number 1: Don't go against your instincts.
Sheridan's first encounter is with Dan Gable. Dan Gable is a name probably not known to a great many of you readers, out there in Goodreads Land, but he is, arguably, the best or possibly the 2nd best amateur wrestler to have ever grappled on the mat. Gable was an Iowa boy who wrestled for Iowa State University, a perennial contender for top wrestling school in the nation. Gable won every wrestling match he wrestled as an amateur, in high school and college--until his final match, when he was beating his opponent and would win his 3rd consecutive NCAA championship. At the time, Gable's win-loss record was 183-0. In the final minutes of his last collegiate match, however, Gable was becoming frustrated. He thought to himself, "I'm not a guy who wins on points. I'm a guy who pins/submits his opponents." Going for the pin, he made a crucial mistake and was defeated by a narrow margin.
Mental Game #1 corollary: Don't let your ego defeat you!
Gable never lost a match again, as he competed in Olympic Freestyle wrestling and won an Olympic gold medal. This is impressive enough but what is astonishing is that Gable wrestled 12 matches to win his gold medal, pinning 7 of his opponents and only allowing 4 points to be scored against him.
I'm not sure how to stress just what an accomplishment Gable's wrestling career was. In Goodreads terms, it would be about the equivalent of a reader polishing off a thousand books every year for years, most of them hard books, and writing stupendous reviews on each one.
Mental Game Rule #2: There is no such thing as training too much. This is a Gable axiom, though many athletes have said it. It may be debatable in some sports, like competing in ultra-marathons, but in the fighting arts, there is always something one can learn, always a need for hard physical training. The best fighters are always in shape. As the great Muhammed Ali once said:
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses--behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gab...
Mental Game Rule Number 2: Always work on improving your weak points.
This is one of those axioms that seems self-explanatory, yet it is commonly NOT put into practice by the second stringers of most professional sports. Truly great athletes are never satisfied with their performances.
This rule comes from Freddie Roach, the great boxing trainer who helped turned Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao into a seven-division world champion. He is the only boxer in the history of professional boxing to hold world championships in seven weight classes. This is a feat that's not likely to be repeated and is just about on par with Dan Gable's amazing wrestling record. And it is unlikely that it would have been possible without the guidance of Freddie Roach, one of boxing's best trainers.
When Freddie first became involved training Manny, Pacquiao had already won a world championship but he had also been knocked out with punches to the belly on three or four occasions. Sheridan writes of him: "Like any good boxing trainer--anybody who is good at making a living building fighters--he can look right through your exterior and see what's happening inside. Roach's training philosophy consists of hard work, and especially hard work to correct a fighter's weak spots, such as Pacquaio's formerly tender stomach. His goal is to make a fighter the best version of himself--the best his inborn talents will allow. Roach is of the "Mr. Miyagi" school of trainers; if you've fought as hard as you can and you lose, it is no dishonor.
Sheridan then interviewed former World light-heavyweight champion Donnie LaLonde, a scrappy boxer with a powerful right hand who retired with a respectable 41-5-1 record, fighting such greats as Sugar Ray Leonard. LaLonde emphasized that, "You've got to do your thinking in the gym." This involves paying attention to what you do well and working to correct what you don't. LaLonde had some good trainers along the way who helped him with this process. He also emphasizes the positive side of being beaten, saying "great champions accept, internalize and understand defeat." A good fighter always learns from a defeat.
The author then pays a visit to Mark DellaGrotte, owner of a famous Muay Thai gym in Somerville, Massachusetts and one of the first American fighters to journey to Thailand to learn the Muay Thai styles of fighting practiced in the Land of Smiles. Muay Thai is a brutal sport and in recent years it has become part of the skill set of most serious Mixed Martial Arts competitors. DellaGrote stresses the need for composure in the fight at all times regardless of the circumstances. Don't show emotion, he says, and never give up until the final bell. This goes hand-in-hand with the Asian concept of not losing face. A fighter who gives his or her all, even if suffering a one-sided loss, is respected.
Mental Game Rule #2 Corollary: There is no dishonor in defeat if you've given your all in the fight.
Sheridan then treks to South Florida to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym operated by Robert Liberio. Liberio trains fighters in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and his philosophy about competition is similar to retired boxer Donny LaLonde's. "Maturity is a big part of success in fighting, because it means you understand the game--that losing is part of the game." and also adds, "The key to doing well in competition is to accept" (that you can lose).
Many professional fighters become proficient in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu--so much so that it has become part of any serious mixed martial artist's toolkit. Sam Sheridan sees its value in taking an opponent out of his game. A lot of fighters prefer striking (punching or kicking) and are more comfortable standing up. Practitioners of BJJ are just as comfortable fighting on the ground, and some of the best fighters are masters of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and can win easily against opponents who are not comfortable taking the fight to the mat.
Mental Game Rule Number 3: Take your opponent out of his game.
Sheridan next speaks with Josh Waitzkin, a former New York City chess prodigy and inspiration for the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fischer." Waitzkin was US Junior Chess Champion in 1993 and 1994 and achieved the title of International Master at age 16. He gave up competitive chess competition in 1999 and took up the martial art of Akido, becoming a world champion in 2004 in the Tai Chi "push hands" competition. He also earned a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and co-founded a Jiu Jitsu school in New York City.
Waitzkin also attended Columbia University, majoring in philosophy, and is among the most philosophical of all the fighters Sam interviewed. Waitzkin puts tremendous emphasis on the mental game of competition, whether it involves a chess match or a martial arts match. Waitzkin emphasizes the need to let go of ego and pursue any competition in a spirit of humility. He also stresses the importance of being relaxed while also being ready to strike. It takes mental clarity to do this, Waitzkin asserts--warning that anxiety causes a loss of focus.
I thought Waitzkin's interview was inspiring but would have been better had he pinned down what he meant by mental clarity and focus. I am also not so sure about anxiety. I've rarely known a professional fighter who wasn't a bit anxious before a fight, and most good fighters will admit to feeling fear before facing off with their opponent. Perhaps it is how you handle that fear and anxiety that matters most?
Mental Game Rule #4: Strive for mental clarity--don't lose focus!
Here's a real-life example of what happens when a fighter loses focus and lets fear and anxiety overcome him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJgfO...
And this example is especially strange given that the two fighters, Oliver McCall and Lennox Lewis, had fought earlier, with a much different outcome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaAs_...
Sheridan's final encounter is with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach Mark Danahar. There must be something about the study of philosophy that attracts these fighters because Danahar also holds graduate degrees in philosophy. He has trained many world champion fighters and is a 4th degree black belt in BJJ studying under Renzo Gracie--the Gracie's are considered the royal family of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and anyone who trains under a Gracie has the de facto respect of any serious martial artist.
Danahar believes that fear and anger are the two most dangerous emotions for a fighter. He believes the fear lies more in the public humiliation of defeat than in fear of personal injury. Anger is especially toxic because it causes shallow breathing and muscle tension, both serving to tire a fighter out early. He notes that many experienced fighter will deliberately try and anger a foe precisely to induce these deleterious physical conditions. As a countermeasure, he trains his fighters to relax in the ring or octagon and try and maintain a relaxed pace. stay focused and not allow themselves to be distracted or easily rankled. This is a sound training philosophy. If you watch some of fighting's greatest champions, they usually appear quite at home in the fighting arena.
Mental Game Rule Number 5: Fight fear and anxiety by relaxing as you work. Control the pace of the fight!
The takeaways from 'The Fighter's Mind' are that the fighter's mental conditioning is equally important as his or her physical conditioning and fighting skills. In fact, the "mental game" seems to go hand-in-hand with the other two skill sets. Fighters and their trainers/coaches have many paths to get there, but all realize that to ignore the fighter's "mental game" is a sure ticket to a combatant's defeat.
Teddy Atlas, as quoted in "The Fighter's Mind." Atlas is a noted boxing trainer and commentator and, now, podcaster.
A 3.5 star book, very close to four.
Sam Sheridan is a man who's led an interesting life in the best sense of the word and who has dabbled in actual MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighting and has a keen interest in the world of the fighting arts, ranging from Brazilian jiu jitsu to boxing to Muay Thai fighting, amateur wrestling of various kinds, judo, karate, Krav Maga and many other methods of combat.
Sheridan is a thoughtful man and, as a follow-up to his excellent book, "A Fighter's Heart," he wrote "The Fighter's Mind." In this latter book, Sheridan talks to various high-level competitors and trainers attempting to tease out the definable aspects of fighting's "mental game." This is a worthy ambition and a tough one. Almost all top-level competitors and trainers KNOW that a fighter's mental game is as much a part of his (or her) skill set as talent and conditioning. Indeed, there are many great boxers, for example, who box only in gyms and never in an actual boxing ring in front of a large audience. They may excel in the gym but freeze up at the thought of proving their worth in front of thousands of fans.
This "mental game" is certainly not exclusive to the world of professional fighting. It is also important to rock climbers, mountain trekkers, football players, chess players, symphony musicians, Broadway actors--almost anyone engaging in a challenging activity. Books could be written (and probably have been) on the mental game needed to finish medical school, or law school, and many have been penned offering advice on writing books.
But defining exactly WHAT this "mental game" is turns out to be extremely difficult. In my prolix review, I'm going to give some of the takeaways Sheridan learned from some of the fighting world's top athletes and trainers.
A couple observations about Sheridan:
1. He interviews some big-name people like Dan Gable, probably the greatest amateur collegiate wrestler of the modern era, and also the top wrestling coach. He also interviews Freddie Roach, one of boxing's top trainers who has trained boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao for the last 20 years or so.
2. Sheridan has been around the fighting world. He had at least one MMA fight, has lived in Thailand for six months learning their brutal sport of Muay Thai, and has trained in various other fighting arts. Thus he is not in awe of the some of the big names he meets. He has much respect for each person he interviews, but is not afraid to offer occasional criticism and frank opinions. This strengthens the book and is worthy of note mainly because Sheridan is not a professional sportswriter/journalist.
Mental game rule number 1: Don't go against your instincts.
Sheridan's first encounter is with Dan Gable. Dan Gable is a name probably not known to a great many of you readers, out there in Goodreads Land, but he is, arguably, the best or possibly the 2nd best amateur wrestler to have ever grappled on the mat. Gable was an Iowa boy who wrestled for Iowa State University, a perennial contender for top wrestling school in the nation. Gable won every wrestling match he wrestled as an amateur, in high school and college--until his final match, when he was beating his opponent and would win his 3rd consecutive NCAA championship. At the time, Gable's win-loss record was 183-0. In the final minutes of his last collegiate match, however, Gable was becoming frustrated. He thought to himself, "I'm not a guy who wins on points. I'm a guy who pins/submits his opponents." Going for the pin, he made a crucial mistake and was defeated by a narrow margin.
Mental Game #1 corollary: Don't let your ego defeat you!
Gable never lost a match again, as he competed in Olympic Freestyle wrestling and won an Olympic gold medal. This is impressive enough but what is astonishing is that Gable wrestled 12 matches to win his gold medal, pinning 7 of his opponents and only allowing 4 points to be scored against him.
I'm not sure how to stress just what an accomplishment Gable's wrestling career was. In Goodreads terms, it would be about the equivalent of a reader polishing off a thousand books every year for years, most of them hard books, and writing stupendous reviews on each one.
Mental Game Rule #2: There is no such thing as training too much. This is a Gable axiom, though many athletes have said it. It may be debatable in some sports, like competing in ultra-marathons, but in the fighting arts, there is always something one can learn, always a need for hard physical training. The best fighters are always in shape. As the great Muhammed Ali once said:
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses--behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gab...
Mental Game Rule Number 2: Always work on improving your weak points.
This is one of those axioms that seems self-explanatory, yet it is commonly NOT put into practice by the second stringers of most professional sports. Truly great athletes are never satisfied with their performances.
This rule comes from Freddie Roach, the great boxing trainer who helped turned Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao into a seven-division world champion. He is the only boxer in the history of professional boxing to hold world championships in seven weight classes. This is a feat that's not likely to be repeated and is just about on par with Dan Gable's amazing wrestling record. And it is unlikely that it would have been possible without the guidance of Freddie Roach, one of boxing's best trainers.
When Freddie first became involved training Manny, Pacquiao had already won a world championship but he had also been knocked out with punches to the belly on three or four occasions. Sheridan writes of him: "Like any good boxing trainer--anybody who is good at making a living building fighters--he can look right through your exterior and see what's happening inside. Roach's training philosophy consists of hard work, and especially hard work to correct a fighter's weak spots, such as Pacquaio's formerly tender stomach. His goal is to make a fighter the best version of himself--the best his inborn talents will allow. Roach is of the "Mr. Miyagi" school of trainers; if you've fought as hard as you can and you lose, it is no dishonor.
Sheridan then interviewed former World light-heavyweight champion Donnie LaLonde, a scrappy boxer with a powerful right hand who retired with a respectable 41-5-1 record, fighting such greats as Sugar Ray Leonard. LaLonde emphasized that, "You've got to do your thinking in the gym." This involves paying attention to what you do well and working to correct what you don't. LaLonde had some good trainers along the way who helped him with this process. He also emphasizes the positive side of being beaten, saying "great champions accept, internalize and understand defeat." A good fighter always learns from a defeat.
The author then pays a visit to Mark DellaGrotte, owner of a famous Muay Thai gym in Somerville, Massachusetts and one of the first American fighters to journey to Thailand to learn the Muay Thai styles of fighting practiced in the Land of Smiles. Muay Thai is a brutal sport and in recent years it has become part of the skill set of most serious Mixed Martial Arts competitors. DellaGrote stresses the need for composure in the fight at all times regardless of the circumstances. Don't show emotion, he says, and never give up until the final bell. This goes hand-in-hand with the Asian concept of not losing face. A fighter who gives his or her all, even if suffering a one-sided loss, is respected.
Mental Game Rule #2 Corollary: There is no dishonor in defeat if you've given your all in the fight.
Sheridan then treks to South Florida to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym operated by Robert Liberio. Liberio trains fighters in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and his philosophy about competition is similar to retired boxer Donny LaLonde's. "Maturity is a big part of success in fighting, because it means you understand the game--that losing is part of the game." and also adds, "The key to doing well in competition is to accept" (that you can lose).
Many professional fighters become proficient in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu--so much so that it has become part of any serious mixed martial artist's toolkit. Sam Sheridan sees its value in taking an opponent out of his game. A lot of fighters prefer striking (punching or kicking) and are more comfortable standing up. Practitioners of BJJ are just as comfortable fighting on the ground, and some of the best fighters are masters of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and can win easily against opponents who are not comfortable taking the fight to the mat.
Mental Game Rule Number 3: Take your opponent out of his game.
Sheridan next speaks with Josh Waitzkin, a former New York City chess prodigy and inspiration for the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fischer." Waitzkin was US Junior Chess Champion in 1993 and 1994 and achieved the title of International Master at age 16. He gave up competitive chess competition in 1999 and took up the martial art of Akido, becoming a world champion in 2004 in the Tai Chi "push hands" competition. He also earned a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and co-founded a Jiu Jitsu school in New York City.
Waitzkin also attended Columbia University, majoring in philosophy, and is among the most philosophical of all the fighters Sam interviewed. Waitzkin puts tremendous emphasis on the mental game of competition, whether it involves a chess match or a martial arts match. Waitzkin emphasizes the need to let go of ego and pursue any competition in a spirit of humility. He also stresses the importance of being relaxed while also being ready to strike. It takes mental clarity to do this, Waitzkin asserts--warning that anxiety causes a loss of focus.
I thought Waitzkin's interview was inspiring but would have been better had he pinned down what he meant by mental clarity and focus. I am also not so sure about anxiety. I've rarely known a professional fighter who wasn't a bit anxious before a fight, and most good fighters will admit to feeling fear before facing off with their opponent. Perhaps it is how you handle that fear and anxiety that matters most?
Mental Game Rule #4: Strive for mental clarity--don't lose focus!
Here's a real-life example of what happens when a fighter loses focus and lets fear and anxiety overcome him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJgfO...
And this example is especially strange given that the two fighters, Oliver McCall and Lennox Lewis, had fought earlier, with a much different outcome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaAs_...
Sheridan's final encounter is with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach Mark Danahar. There must be something about the study of philosophy that attracts these fighters because Danahar also holds graduate degrees in philosophy. He has trained many world champion fighters and is a 4th degree black belt in BJJ studying under Renzo Gracie--the Gracie's are considered the royal family of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and anyone who trains under a Gracie has the de facto respect of any serious martial artist.
Danahar believes that fear and anger are the two most dangerous emotions for a fighter. He believes the fear lies more in the public humiliation of defeat than in fear of personal injury. Anger is especially toxic because it causes shallow breathing and muscle tension, both serving to tire a fighter out early. He notes that many experienced fighter will deliberately try and anger a foe precisely to induce these deleterious physical conditions. As a countermeasure, he trains his fighters to relax in the ring or octagon and try and maintain a relaxed pace. stay focused and not allow themselves to be distracted or easily rankled. This is a sound training philosophy. If you watch some of fighting's greatest champions, they usually appear quite at home in the fighting arena.
Mental Game Rule Number 5: Fight fear and anxiety by relaxing as you work. Control the pace of the fight!
The takeaways from 'The Fighter's Mind' are that the fighter's mental conditioning is equally important as his or her physical conditioning and fighting skills. In fact, the "mental game" seems to go hand-in-hand with the other two skill sets. Fighters and their trainers/coaches have many paths to get there, but all realize that to ignore the fighter's "mental game" is a sure ticket to a combatant's defeat.
January 16, 2025
A good book parts of which were excellent. Sam Sheridan used very much the same formula as he did in Fighters Heart. Talking to the leading trainers and fighters in different combat sports. The main problem for me was that there was not too much new information in the book from Fighters Heart. This book was more along the lines of what trainers are looking for while they are training their fighters. The thing is, when you are talking to the top trainers, talking about their top fighters, these guys already have IT. Now the trainer just has to fine tune them. There were great chapters like Kenny Florian's where he talks about his career and preparation for his fights and his attitude to wards wins and losses. To me, this is what the whole book should have been like. Unfortunately, some of it (probably because of the subject matter) reads like a bit of a textbook, but there are more great chapters than the dry ones. I would recommend Fighters Heart or everyone wanting to know about a fighters' mindset and need to fight. This book is a good add-on, and if you have not read the first book, it would possibly be very good as a stand-alone book. It just falls a little short of being great for me.
August 6, 2012
What’s weird about this book is that I can’t really imagine anyone reading it without being much interested in fighting. What’s REALLY weird about THAT is that I don’t have much interest in fighting. Not on this level, anyway, with descriptions of people I’ve never heard of doing things that are difficult to imagine. Just trying to understand what’s going on, my recent Google search history must look like that of a guy prepping to street fight his way across South America. The long way.
What I WILL say is that there are some really interesting insights in this book that apply to a hell of a lot more than fighting. To everything, really. Which serves to make the point made in just about every book, something about how fighting is a universal language and takes us back to our roots and so on and so on. But honestly, there’s some stuff of value in here to the complete non-fighter.
Because I don’t want to ruin the whole book by summarizing it, I’ll just talk about what I found to be one of the more interesting ideas in the book, and based on that you can decide if it’s worth your time to look through the rest.
One thing a lot of the interviewed fighters agreed on was the idea of attacking someone where they are strongest. Let’s take this out of the realm of fistfighting for a minute.
Let’s say you’re a warlord. And I’m a warlord. I built a huge fortress that I claim is impenetrable. Nobody has broken down the doors in a hundred years. Nobody’s even gotten close.
Now, you’re going to attack me, and you’re faced with a choice. Most would say, Okay, the gate is impenetrable. Let’s go in the side door. But what a lot of fighters would tell you, and chess players and ping-pong players and all kinds of weirdos profiled in this book, is that you should come right through the front door. Crazy, I know. But the thing is, if you enter the fortress by digging a tunnel underneath, you still have to beat me once you’re inside. It’s going to be tough. I still think the front door is impenetrable, and though you’ve worked around it I still have that mental security blanket. If you manage to come in the front door, however, everything I thought I knew about how the battle would go is destroyed. I was expecting you to go around, or to subvert my defense. But instead you came right through, ran right over the top of my best weapon, and now I have no confidence in anything.
In the world of mixed martial arts, you can kind of think of there being the worlds of stand-up fighting and ground fighting. If we were fighting, you an expert wrestler and me coming from a boxing background, you would assume that I was going to try and beat you with punches and to stay off the ground however I could. So your game plan would be to get me on the ground, even if it meant eating a few punches. But if I know that’s your strength, imagine if I decide that I’m going to take things to the ground right off, and for the first few minutes I manage to hold my own. The round ends, and then we both go back to our corners, but you go back knowing that I’m not afraid of the best weapon you have.
It’s a lesson that applies to a lot of things, I think. I don’t think of myself as a person who is often frustrated, but in looking at it I think that a lot of the times I DO feel frustrated it’s as a result of being stymied by something that lies within my strengths. If I make one out of every 15 shots in pool, it doesn’t faze me because I don’t expect to make ANY. But if I try to spell the word “rhinoceros” ten times in a row, and every single time I see that red squiggly line appear beneath it, I’m going to start thinking something’s wrong. I’ll be wondering if I’m not the speller I once was. I’ll be thinking about “rhinoceros” the next time I go to spell “diplodocus” and feel completely sure that I’m going to fail.
It’s a really great tool to be aware of, that in life you’re going to fail at things you’re good at, and it would behoove a person to be very aware of that and not be overly sensitive.
There are probably half a dozen lessons like that in the book. So if it’s of interest to you, and if fighting is at least not a hindrance to your reading it, then I say go for it.
If the fighting is still completely nonsensical and barbaric, you might try the author’s other book, A Fighter’s Heart, which is more about explaining that inexplicable: the Why.
Oh, and also, Marcelo Garcia is a guy mentioned in the book. Here’s a brief video that goes a long way to explaining what’s so difficult to capture in words, especially at about 4 min 50 when he’s rolling around with a guy who is WAY bigger (even non-fight-fans can probably appreciate this, and it’s more akin to wrestling than fighting. No blood :) ). It’s like watching someone wrestle a pile of snakes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY8JlJ...
What I WILL say is that there are some really interesting insights in this book that apply to a hell of a lot more than fighting. To everything, really. Which serves to make the point made in just about every book, something about how fighting is a universal language and takes us back to our roots and so on and so on. But honestly, there’s some stuff of value in here to the complete non-fighter.
Because I don’t want to ruin the whole book by summarizing it, I’ll just talk about what I found to be one of the more interesting ideas in the book, and based on that you can decide if it’s worth your time to look through the rest.
One thing a lot of the interviewed fighters agreed on was the idea of attacking someone where they are strongest. Let’s take this out of the realm of fistfighting for a minute.
Let’s say you’re a warlord. And I’m a warlord. I built a huge fortress that I claim is impenetrable. Nobody has broken down the doors in a hundred years. Nobody’s even gotten close.
Now, you’re going to attack me, and you’re faced with a choice. Most would say, Okay, the gate is impenetrable. Let’s go in the side door. But what a lot of fighters would tell you, and chess players and ping-pong players and all kinds of weirdos profiled in this book, is that you should come right through the front door. Crazy, I know. But the thing is, if you enter the fortress by digging a tunnel underneath, you still have to beat me once you’re inside. It’s going to be tough. I still think the front door is impenetrable, and though you’ve worked around it I still have that mental security blanket. If you manage to come in the front door, however, everything I thought I knew about how the battle would go is destroyed. I was expecting you to go around, or to subvert my defense. But instead you came right through, ran right over the top of my best weapon, and now I have no confidence in anything.
In the world of mixed martial arts, you can kind of think of there being the worlds of stand-up fighting and ground fighting. If we were fighting, you an expert wrestler and me coming from a boxing background, you would assume that I was going to try and beat you with punches and to stay off the ground however I could. So your game plan would be to get me on the ground, even if it meant eating a few punches. But if I know that’s your strength, imagine if I decide that I’m going to take things to the ground right off, and for the first few minutes I manage to hold my own. The round ends, and then we both go back to our corners, but you go back knowing that I’m not afraid of the best weapon you have.
It’s a lesson that applies to a lot of things, I think. I don’t think of myself as a person who is often frustrated, but in looking at it I think that a lot of the times I DO feel frustrated it’s as a result of being stymied by something that lies within my strengths. If I make one out of every 15 shots in pool, it doesn’t faze me because I don’t expect to make ANY. But if I try to spell the word “rhinoceros” ten times in a row, and every single time I see that red squiggly line appear beneath it, I’m going to start thinking something’s wrong. I’ll be wondering if I’m not the speller I once was. I’ll be thinking about “rhinoceros” the next time I go to spell “diplodocus” and feel completely sure that I’m going to fail.
It’s a really great tool to be aware of, that in life you’re going to fail at things you’re good at, and it would behoove a person to be very aware of that and not be overly sensitive.
There are probably half a dozen lessons like that in the book. So if it’s of interest to you, and if fighting is at least not a hindrance to your reading it, then I say go for it.
If the fighting is still completely nonsensical and barbaric, you might try the author’s other book, A Fighter’s Heart, which is more about explaining that inexplicable: the Why.
Oh, and also, Marcelo Garcia is a guy mentioned in the book. Here’s a brief video that goes a long way to explaining what’s so difficult to capture in words, especially at about 4 min 50 when he’s rolling around with a guy who is WAY bigger (even non-fight-fans can probably appreciate this, and it’s more akin to wrestling than fighting. No blood :) ). It’s like watching someone wrestle a pile of snakes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY8JlJ...
January 27, 2021
Motivational, but not moto. No mean feat, that.
September 3, 2019
I picked this up hoping I’d like it maybe even half as much as I did Sheridan’s first work, “The Fighter’s Heart”. I was pleasantly blown away in how impressive it turned out to be.
His opening salvo proved one of my favourite non fiction reads of all time. Sam captures fighting, martial arts, and human nature in a book that is a sure must read for any combat sport fan. I go so far as to say it’s a must read for any martial artist or even anyone interested in that facet of human nature. It’s remarkable stuff in a remarkable work.
So how did he follow such an achievement? With a slightly different approach, and with a different question in mind.
The Fighter’s Heart was asking what drove a fighter to fight.
The Fighter’s Mind is asking what fighter’s think.
Through interviews with legends of combat sports (and even some ultra marathon runners) Sam pieces together the various tales and wisdoms of figures from across different backgrounds into little glimpses into the complexities of a fighter’s mindset. It’s intricate and complex yet entertaining and deeply human.
While this all screams for fight fan’s attention, it is still easily digestible and complete with lessons that transcend fighting to the point of widespread applicability to daily life.
It was like watching a movie after being told you’d love it, built lofty expectations, and then... actually loved it more than you expected.
That’s how I felt putting it down.
His opening salvo proved one of my favourite non fiction reads of all time. Sam captures fighting, martial arts, and human nature in a book that is a sure must read for any combat sport fan. I go so far as to say it’s a must read for any martial artist or even anyone interested in that facet of human nature. It’s remarkable stuff in a remarkable work.
So how did he follow such an achievement? With a slightly different approach, and with a different question in mind.
The Fighter’s Heart was asking what drove a fighter to fight.
The Fighter’s Mind is asking what fighter’s think.
Through interviews with legends of combat sports (and even some ultra marathon runners) Sam pieces together the various tales and wisdoms of figures from across different backgrounds into little glimpses into the complexities of a fighter’s mindset. It’s intricate and complex yet entertaining and deeply human.
While this all screams for fight fan’s attention, it is still easily digestible and complete with lessons that transcend fighting to the point of widespread applicability to daily life.
It was like watching a movie after being told you’d love it, built lofty expectations, and then... actually loved it more than you expected.
That’s how I felt putting it down.
April 3, 2016
I’ve read many books on the mental art of toughness, discipline development and sports psychology, so I wasn’t expecting too much from this except for perhaps a synthesis and reframing of the varied existing theories applied to fighting. What I walked away with was any number of game-changing insights and lessons learned on how to develop and appreciate the importance of the mind when applied to any endeavour, including my own personal passion of bodybuilding and strength training.
Yes, to call this book a “game-changer” isn’t simple review hyperbole - it will literally alter the way you think and approach your chosen endeavour whether you’re a fighter or not.
Fighting is perhaps the perfect context for discussing the mental strategies of sport's psychology. You have the training and mental lead up to a match where the objective is to brutalise your opponent in a ring surrounded by a forum of your peers or the greater public. Money, pride, ego and personal safety are but a few things that are on the line whether you win or lose. The fight happens in real time and involves presence, strategy and any number of psychological and cognitive tools to draw on. And all of this needs to happen both at the conscious and mindless level, lest you find yourself face down on the canvass. Whether victory or failure ensues, lessons will be learned from the experience.
I don't want to give too much away here, but Sheridan’s highly developed and researched book extrapolates the mental approaches from a range of fighting arts and their practitioners - the lessons learned from victories won and battles lost, the nature of sustaining the day to day grind, how athletes endure the physical rigours which require a level of discipline and fortitude under-appreciated by the non-athlete and perhaps never experienced by those who never transition to the higher echelons of any sport.
Sheridan is extremely thorough in leaving no stone unturned and he travels to many parts of the world interviewing and researching coaching icons such as Pat Millitich, Greg Jackson the Gracie Family, to fighters Randy Couture, Kenny Florian and diverse fighter-philosophers such as Josh Waitzkin to name but a few.
Be warned, It’s not a 12 step program of “do this and then that” style coaching. The lessons are contained within and extrapolated through Sheridan’s discussion and reflections on his interactions with industry icons, historical references and personal experiences.
However, I defy you to read this book and not take away not only a large number of lessons you can apply to your own game but also the tools to assist you in living in the moment, strategies to apply to beating pressure, and enhancing your game in ways you’ve never even contemplated beyond the realm of simple physical training.
Yes, to call this book a “game-changer” isn’t simple review hyperbole - it will literally alter the way you think and approach your chosen endeavour whether you’re a fighter or not.
Fighting is perhaps the perfect context for discussing the mental strategies of sport's psychology. You have the training and mental lead up to a match where the objective is to brutalise your opponent in a ring surrounded by a forum of your peers or the greater public. Money, pride, ego and personal safety are but a few things that are on the line whether you win or lose. The fight happens in real time and involves presence, strategy and any number of psychological and cognitive tools to draw on. And all of this needs to happen both at the conscious and mindless level, lest you find yourself face down on the canvass. Whether victory or failure ensues, lessons will be learned from the experience.
I don't want to give too much away here, but Sheridan’s highly developed and researched book extrapolates the mental approaches from a range of fighting arts and their practitioners - the lessons learned from victories won and battles lost, the nature of sustaining the day to day grind, how athletes endure the physical rigours which require a level of discipline and fortitude under-appreciated by the non-athlete and perhaps never experienced by those who never transition to the higher echelons of any sport.
Sheridan is extremely thorough in leaving no stone unturned and he travels to many parts of the world interviewing and researching coaching icons such as Pat Millitich, Greg Jackson the Gracie Family, to fighters Randy Couture, Kenny Florian and diverse fighter-philosophers such as Josh Waitzkin to name but a few.
Be warned, It’s not a 12 step program of “do this and then that” style coaching. The lessons are contained within and extrapolated through Sheridan’s discussion and reflections on his interactions with industry icons, historical references and personal experiences.
However, I defy you to read this book and not take away not only a large number of lessons you can apply to your own game but also the tools to assist you in living in the moment, strategies to apply to beating pressure, and enhancing your game in ways you’ve never even contemplated beyond the realm of simple physical training.
October 25, 2018
One of the few I couldn't put down, granted I was on an airplane with little else to do if I did put it down..but I don't think I would have anyways!
This book is one for any sort of athlete, or just competitive people in general. No experience or even understanding of fighting/martial arts is required. This book brings such critical perspective to the mental game needed for almost any athletic arena, with a particular emphasis on 1v1 physical sports. Having only done one Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training session myself, I already had a brief perspective on how much more there was to the sport than what a typical bystander might suspect. This book, along with Sam Harris' article 'The Pleasures of Drowning', perfectly piece together the whole picture, or at least as much of one you can without experiencing it all yourself.
Such sports are far from a bunch of half-brained idiots getting they faces messed up to make some money. Obviously, the section towards the end that highlights the unmatched reaction times of table tennis players, and their reliance on instincts and prediction abilities, did not go under-appreciated. Further, the section discussing the necessity to separate confidence from the ego was fascinating, and one that warrants a bit of reflection from everyone.
Great book, read it.
This book is one for any sort of athlete, or just competitive people in general. No experience or even understanding of fighting/martial arts is required. This book brings such critical perspective to the mental game needed for almost any athletic arena, with a particular emphasis on 1v1 physical sports. Having only done one Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training session myself, I already had a brief perspective on how much more there was to the sport than what a typical bystander might suspect. This book, along with Sam Harris' article 'The Pleasures of Drowning', perfectly piece together the whole picture, or at least as much of one you can without experiencing it all yourself.
Such sports are far from a bunch of half-brained idiots getting they faces messed up to make some money. Obviously, the section towards the end that highlights the unmatched reaction times of table tennis players, and their reliance on instincts and prediction abilities, did not go under-appreciated. Further, the section discussing the necessity to separate confidence from the ego was fascinating, and one that warrants a bit of reflection from everyone.
Great book, read it.
August 2, 2012
The Fighter's Mind is an outstanding book, a collection of essays by Sam Sheridan, each focussed on a different fighting discipline, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing (with occasional essays focussed on non-fighting sports, such as long-distance running). Throughout the book, Sheridan is trying to unravel the mystery of what drives a fighter to continually put their life at risk in pursuit of a goal that can bring them little more in return than physical and mental injury. This book is wonderful and, I suspect, even non-fight fans would enjoy it.
January 25, 2020
Thanks very much Braden. I loved this book. Very conversational, interesting, easy and thought-provoking. There are a lot of lessons that can be applied to everyday life in here. I really, really enjoyed it.
November 10, 2023
The chapters by the ultra runner and Bobby Fischer were standouts.
Random Notes and Quotes as I was reading:
- Fighter's are born in the dedication to repetition.
- andre loved boxing, and you have to love it to be great
- If you are so much faster than everybody else, if you can see that power as being for a reason, not for your own glory but something larger than yourself, it must be a great relief. A powerful tool. **
Andre Wade Chapter
- you have to love it.
- great fighters learn from an early age that you have to have perspective
Marcelo Garcia
- love it, love, love it. Never stop learning, studying, teaching, trying
Pat Militech
- know you can lose.
Freddy Roach
- entity vs incremental
- come back after you get knocked out. Now you have an opportunity in your heart to actually learn what you're doing wrong. Because before you were doing it wrong, but kept winning
-
Dan Gable
- psychic work service
- and learning from house one loss
Delagrotte
- all about camp
Couture
- when I'm done learning I'm done winning
- keep peespective
- but just as Gable probably never would have had the fire to have the Olympic career he did without losing that final NCAA match, Randy might never have had the fire to succeed in the way he did as a fighter if he'd want a meddle in the Olympics. And it's something Randy is tangentially aware of
- anxiety versus excitement
Dave Horton
- ability to override (mental over physical pain)
- commitment over dedication
- this too shall pass
- it never always gets worse
Kenflow
- fighters make peace with the terror of fight or flight and learn to harness it. But it takes time.
- It comes around to an important facet of fighting: acknowledging your identity and working to make it the best version of you.
- You can't fight on emotion or adrenaline. At the end of the day, you have to have a love for it, something that lasts forever, because that will carry you.
Shamrock
- Always evaluate. Always
- someone better someone equal someone weaker
Josh
- depth over breath man
- there's a subtle difference to, say, gables intensity, which feels joyless, from a deeper than this place. Josh's intensity is easier, color with excitement. It's playful.
- if deep, fluid presence become second nature, then life, art and learning take on a richness that will continually surprise and delight... The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition come in the boardroom come at the exam, the operating table, the big stage a
Greg Jackson
He's smart enough to really be humble
- My only real strength is that I'm reflective.
- you can train mental toughness and work harder
- Greg is a diehard advocate of learning to function under pain. under duress
- your job, with all that mental training, that suffering, is just to push your own line of mental breaking so far back your opponent can't find it.
- training fighters is like jazz. some pieces need to be pushed and others pulled...At the core of everything is respect. If they con't have it, they're unhappy. keep that in mind
- You just have to let it all go. Accept that it sucks and do the job. I know you're nervous and you'll be scared, but when the cage closes none of that matters anymore
"See much, study much, suffer much is the path to wisdom"
- If you do your art well, fame is something that you dal with
- When I make mistakes I look at those pictures. Burnout is my number-one enemy. I have to look for inspiration to stay on the cutting edge.
- Imagine a negro slave in colonial America gaining his freedom and eventually conquering North and South America with an army - that's still not at astounding as what Genghis did. (drank the dark water)
- If we have a night where all my guys win, lal four or five, then my treat is Beethoven's Ninth, The ODe to Joy, the most beautiful and emotional thing ever written.
-
Down the rabbit hole
- there are no shortcuts but a lifetime of study. There are no easy ways but obsession.
- zen koans (those odd little stories) are in some ways about that - cutting you loose from your reasoning brain , the part filled with conscious thought and narration, ties up in the past and future and too slow to be useful in a fight.
- there are no shortcuts or mysteries. These abilities come only with endless practice. Once you've devoted a lifetime to study then the important thing is to get out of your own way and not screw yourself up by thinking
- the top athletes were just getting more efficient at processing signals
- state of consciousness actually change the way you biologically process stimuli
- ego disrupts the gamma
- there's no secret to the zone, the void. It comes only after mastery.
- why do we do anything? My first serious art teacher used to say in a sad voice, we draw because we want to be loved( he was a dapper man, a quiet alcoholic with cold talent.) Those kids from the broken place, from the howling wilderness of a childhood unloved, unvalued, they find something and fighting, they can take that love. The feeling of worth that the missing father never provided- you can force the issue, for one night, for one moment.
Random Notes and Quotes as I was reading:
- Fighter's are born in the dedication to repetition.
- andre loved boxing, and you have to love it to be great
- If you are so much faster than everybody else, if you can see that power as being for a reason, not for your own glory but something larger than yourself, it must be a great relief. A powerful tool. **
Andre Wade Chapter
- you have to love it.
- great fighters learn from an early age that you have to have perspective
Marcelo Garcia
- love it, love, love it. Never stop learning, studying, teaching, trying
Pat Militech
- know you can lose.
Freddy Roach
- entity vs incremental
- come back after you get knocked out. Now you have an opportunity in your heart to actually learn what you're doing wrong. Because before you were doing it wrong, but kept winning
-
Dan Gable
- psychic work service
- and learning from house one loss
Delagrotte
- all about camp
Couture
- when I'm done learning I'm done winning
- keep peespective
- but just as Gable probably never would have had the fire to have the Olympic career he did without losing that final NCAA match, Randy might never have had the fire to succeed in the way he did as a fighter if he'd want a meddle in the Olympics. And it's something Randy is tangentially aware of
- anxiety versus excitement
Dave Horton
- ability to override (mental over physical pain)
- commitment over dedication
- this too shall pass
- it never always gets worse
Kenflow
- fighters make peace with the terror of fight or flight and learn to harness it. But it takes time.
- It comes around to an important facet of fighting: acknowledging your identity and working to make it the best version of you.
- You can't fight on emotion or adrenaline. At the end of the day, you have to have a love for it, something that lasts forever, because that will carry you.
Shamrock
- Always evaluate. Always
- someone better someone equal someone weaker
Josh
- depth over breath man
- there's a subtle difference to, say, gables intensity, which feels joyless, from a deeper than this place. Josh's intensity is easier, color with excitement. It's playful.
- if deep, fluid presence become second nature, then life, art and learning take on a richness that will continually surprise and delight... The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition come in the boardroom come at the exam, the operating table, the big stage a
Greg Jackson
He's smart enough to really be humble
- My only real strength is that I'm reflective.
- you can train mental toughness and work harder
- Greg is a diehard advocate of learning to function under pain. under duress
- your job, with all that mental training, that suffering, is just to push your own line of mental breaking so far back your opponent can't find it.
- training fighters is like jazz. some pieces need to be pushed and others pulled...At the core of everything is respect. If they con't have it, they're unhappy. keep that in mind
- You just have to let it all go. Accept that it sucks and do the job. I know you're nervous and you'll be scared, but when the cage closes none of that matters anymore
"See much, study much, suffer much is the path to wisdom"
- If you do your art well, fame is something that you dal with
- When I make mistakes I look at those pictures. Burnout is my number-one enemy. I have to look for inspiration to stay on the cutting edge.
- Imagine a negro slave in colonial America gaining his freedom and eventually conquering North and South America with an army - that's still not at astounding as what Genghis did. (drank the dark water)
- If we have a night where all my guys win, lal four or five, then my treat is Beethoven's Ninth, The ODe to Joy, the most beautiful and emotional thing ever written.
-
Down the rabbit hole
- there are no shortcuts but a lifetime of study. There are no easy ways but obsession.
- zen koans (those odd little stories) are in some ways about that - cutting you loose from your reasoning brain , the part filled with conscious thought and narration, ties up in the past and future and too slow to be useful in a fight.
- there are no shortcuts or mysteries. These abilities come only with endless practice. Once you've devoted a lifetime to study then the important thing is to get out of your own way and not screw yourself up by thinking
- the top athletes were just getting more efficient at processing signals
- state of consciousness actually change the way you biologically process stimuli
- ego disrupts the gamma
- there's no secret to the zone, the void. It comes only after mastery.
- why do we do anything? My first serious art teacher used to say in a sad voice, we draw because we want to be loved( he was a dapper man, a quiet alcoholic with cold talent.) Those kids from the broken place, from the howling wilderness of a childhood unloved, unvalued, they find something and fighting, they can take that love. The feeling of worth that the missing father never provided- you can force the issue, for one night, for one moment.
January 7, 2025
Fairly interesting if not riveting. Do feel mentally ready for a scrap at least. I would have found it more engaging if featuring insight from more recent/active fighters but appreciate it’s an older book now.
June 1, 2019
A good read with lots of inspirational and insightful interviews. However I would have liked a few more interviews with more underdog/amateur type characters and a few more female fighter perspectives. Overall a fun read though.
July 8, 2025
4.5/5
The Fighter’s Heart was asking what drove a fighter to fight. The Fighter’s Mind is asking what fighter’s think.
Sam Sheridan is a man who's led an interesting life in the best sense of the word and who has dabbled in actual MMA fighting and has a keen interest in the world of the fighting arts, ranging from Brazilian jiu jitsu to boxing to Muay Thai fighting, amateur wrestling of various kinds, judo, karate, Krav Maga and many other methods of combat.
Sheridan talks to various high-level competitors and trainers attempting to tease out the definable aspects of fighting's "mental game." This is a worthy ambition and a tough one. Almost all top-level competitors and trainers KNOW that a fighter's mental game is as much a part of his (or her) skill set as talent and conditioning.
While this all screams for fight fan’s attention, it is still easily digestible and complete with lessons that transcend fighting to the point of widespread applicability to daily life.
Fighting is perhaps the perfect context for discussing the mental strategies of sport's psychology. You have the training and mental lead up to a match where the objective is to brutalise your opponent in a ring surrounded by a forum of your peers or the greater public. Money, pride, ego and personal safety are but a few things that are on the line whether you win or lose. The fight happens in real time and involves presence, strategy and any number of psychological and cognitive tools to draw on. And all of this needs to happen both at the conscious and mindless level, lest you find yourself face down on the canvass. Whether victory or failure ensues, lessons will be learned from the experience.
I don't want to give too much away here, but Sheridan’s highly developed and researched book extrapolates the mental approaches from a range of fighting arts and their practitioners - the lessons learned from victories won and battles lost, the nature of sustaining the day to day grind, how athletes endure the physical rigours which require a level of discipline and fortitude under-appreciated by the non-athlete and perhaps never experienced by those who never transition to the higher echelons of any sport.
Summary/ Key lessons:
Mental game rule number 1: Don't go against your instincts.
Sheridan's first encounter is with Dan Gable. Dan Gable is arguably, the best or possibly the 2nd best amateur wrestler to have ever grappled on the mat. Gable's win-loss record was 183-0. In the final minutes of his last collegiate match, however, Gable was becoming frustrated. He thought to himself, "I'm not a guy who wins on points. I'm a guy who pins/submits his opponents." Going for the pin, he made a crucial mistake and was defeated by a narrow margin.
Mental Game #1 lesson: Don't let your ego defeat you!
Gable never lost a match again, as he competed in Olympic Freestyle wrestling and won an Olympic gold medal. This is impressive enough but what is astonishing is that Gable wrestled 12 matches to win his gold medal, pinning 7 of his opponents and only allowing 4 points to be scored against him.
Mental Game Rule #2: There is no such thing as training too much. This is a Gable axiom, though many athletes have said it. It may be debatable in some sports, but in the fighting arts, there is always something one can learn, always a need for hard physical training. The best fighters are always in shape. As the great Muhammed Ali once said:
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses--behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
Mental Game Rule Number 2: Always work on improving your weak points.
This is one of those axioms that seems self-explanatory, yet it is commonly NOT put into practice by the second stringers of most professional sports. Truly great athletes are never satisfied with their performances.
This rule comes from Freddie Roach, the great boxing trainer who helped turned Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao into a seven-division world champion. He is the only boxer in the history of professional boxing to hold world championships in seven weight classes. And it is unlikely that it would have been possible without the guidance of Freddie Roach, one of boxing's best trainers.
When Freddie first became involved training Manny, Pacquiao had already won a world championship but he had also been knocked out with punches to the belly on three or four occasions. Sheridan writes of him: "Like any good boxing trainer--anybody who is good at making a living building fighters--he can look right through your exterior and see what's happening inside. Roach's training philosophy consists of hard work, and especially hard work to correct a fighter's weak spots, such as Pacquaio's formerly tender stomach. His goal is to make a fighter the best version of himself--the best his inborn talents will allow. Roach is of the "Mr. Miyagi" school of trainers; if you've fought as hard as you can and you lose, it is no dishonor.
Sheridan then interviewed former World light-heavyweight champion Donnie LaLonde, a scrappy boxer with a powerful right hand who retired with a respectable 41-5-1 record, fighting such greats as Sugar Ray Leonard. LaLonde emphasized that, "You've got to do your thinking in the gym." This involves paying attention to what you do well and working to correct what you don't. LaLonde had some good trainers along the way who helped him with this process. He also emphasizes the positive side of being beaten, saying "great champions accept, internalize and understand defeat." A good fighter always learns from a defeat.
The author then pays a visit to Mark DellaGrotte, owner of a famous Muay Thai gym in Somerville, Massachusetts and one of the first American fighters to journey to Thailand to learn the Muay Thai styles of fighting practiced in the Land of Smiles. Muay Thai is a brutal sport and in recent years it has become part of the skill set of most serious mma competitors. DellaGrote stresses the need for composure in the fight at all times regardless of the circumstances. Don't show emotion, he says, and never give up until the final bell. This goes hand-in-hand with the Asian concept of not losing face. A fighter who gives his or her all, even if suffering a one-sided loss, is respected.
Mental Game Rule #2 lesson: There is no dishonor in defeat if you've given your all in the fight.
Sheridan then treks to South Florida to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym operated by Robert Liberio. Liberio trains fighters in BJJ and his philosophy about competition is similar to retired boxer Donny LaLonde's. "Maturity is a big part of success in fighting, because it means you understand the game--that losing is part of the game." and also adds, "The key to doing well in competition is to accept" (that you can lose).
Mental Game Rule Number 3: Take your opponent out of his game.
Sheridan next speaks with Josh Waitzkin, a former New York City chess prodigy and inspiration for the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fischer." He gave up competitive chess competition in 1999 and took up the martial art of Akido, becoming a world champion in 2004 in the Tai Chi "push hands" competition. He also earned a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and co-founded a Jiu Jitsu school in New York City.
Waitzkin also attended Columbia University, majoring in philosophy, and is among the most philosophical of all the fighters Sam interviewed. Waitzkin puts tremendous emphasis on the mental game of competition, whether it involves a chess match or a martial arts match. Waitzkin emphasizes the need to let go of ego and pursue any competition in a spirit of humility. He also stresses the importance of being relaxed while also being ready to strike. It takes mental clarity to do this, Waitzkin asserts--warning that anxiety causes a loss of focus.
Mental Game Rule #4: Strive for mental clarity--don't lose focus!
Sheridan's final encounter is with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach Mark Danahar. There must be something about the study of philosophy that attracts these fighters because Danahar also holds graduate degrees in philosophy. He has trained many world champion fighters and is a 4th degree black belt in BJJ studying under Renzo Gracie--the Gracie's are considered the royal family of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and anyone who trains under a Gracie has the de facto respect of any serious martial artist.
Danahar believes that fear and anger are the two most dangerous emotions for a fighter. He believes the fear lies more in the public humiliation of defeat than in fear of personal injury. Anger is especially toxic because it causes shallow breathing and muscle tension, both serving to tire a fighter out early. He notes that many experienced fighter will deliberately try and anger a foe precisely to induce these deleterious physical conditions. As a countermeasure, he trains his fighters to relax in the ring or octagon and try and maintain a relaxed pace. stay focused and not allow themselves to be distracted or easily rankled. This is a sound training philosophy. If you watch some of fighting's greatest champions, they usually appear quite at home in the fighting arena.
Mental Game Rule Number 5: Fight fear and anxiety by relaxing as you work. Control the pace of the fight!
The takeaways from 'The Fighter's Mind' are that the fighter's mental conditioning is equally important as his or her physical conditioning and fighting skills. In fact, the "mental game" seems to go hand-in-hand with the other two skill sets. Fighters and their trainers/coaches have many paths to get there, but all realize that to ignore the fighter's "mental game" is a sure ticket to a combatant's defeat.
This book is an excellent look into how fighters think about all aspects of fighting, including training, fighting under pressure, winning, and losing. Each chapter contains bits and pieces of interviews with great fighters, coaches, and artists, and the author weaves the quotes and ideas into a larger, cohesive narrative.
What I really enjoyed about the book was that on the surface it's about the mentality of fighting, but it's not really about fighting -- it's about becoming better at whatever you do. It's about finding your purpose in life and pursuing it relentlessly.
Extremely short summary of lessons:
- Fighter's are born in the dedication to repetition.
Andre Wade Chapter
- you have to love it.
- great fighters learn from an early age that you have to have perspective
Marcelo Garcia
- love it, love, love it. Never stop learning, studying, teaching, trying
Pat Militech
- know you can lose.
Freddy Roach
- entity vs incremental
- come back after you get knocked out. Now you have an opportunity in your heart to actually learn what you're doing wrong. Because before you were doing it wrong, but kept winning
Dan Gable
- psychic work service
- and learning from house one loss
Delagrotte
- all about camp
Couture
- when I'm done learning I'm done winning
- keep perspective
- but just as Gable probably never would have had the fire to have the Olympic career he did without losing that final NCAA match, Randy might never have had the fire to succeed in the way he did as a fighter if he'd want a medal in the Olympics. And it's something Randy is tangentially aware of
- anxiety versus excitement
Dave Horton
- ability to override (mental over physical pain)
- commitment over dedication
- this too shall pass
- it never always gets worse
Kenflow
- fighters make peace with the terror of fight or flight and learn to harness it. But it takes time.
- It comes around to an important facet of fighting: acknowledging your identity and working to make it the best version of you.
- You can't fight on emotion or adrenaline. At the end of the day, you have to have a love for it, something that lasts forever, because that will carry you.
Shamrock
- Always evaluate. Always
- someone better someone equal someone weaker
Josh
- depth over breath man
- there's a subtle difference to, say, gables intensity, which feels joyless, from a deeper than this place. Josh's intensity is easier, color with excitement. It's playful.
- if deep, fluid presence become second nature, then life, art and learning take on a richness that will continually surprise and delight...
- The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition, come in the boardroom, come at the exam, the operating table, the big stage etc
Greg Jackson
He's smart enough to really be humble
- My only real strength is that I'm reflective.
- you can train mental toughness and work harder
- Greg is a diehard advocate of learning to function under pain. under duress
- your job, with all that mental training, that suffering, is just to push your own line of mental breaking so far back your opponent can't find it.
- training fighters is like jazz. some pieces need to be pushed and others pulled...At the core of everything is respect. If they con't have it, they're unhappy. keep that in mind
- You just have to let it all go. Accept that it sucks and do the job. I know you're nervous and you'll be scared, but when the cage closes none of that matters anymore
- “See much, study much, suffer much is the path to wisdom"
- If you do your art well, fame is something that you dal with
- When I make mistakes I look at those pictures. Burnout is my number-one enemy. I have to look for inspiration to stay on the cutting edge.
Down the rabbit hole
- there are no shortcuts but a lifetime of study. There are no easy ways but obsession.
- zen koans (those odd little stories) are in some ways about that - cutting you loose from your reasoning brain , the part filled with conscious thought and narration, ties up in the past and future and too slow to be useful in a fight.
- there are no shortcuts or mysteries. These abilities come only with endless practice. Once you've devoted a lifetime to study then the important thing is to get out of your own way and not screw yourself up by thinking
- the top athletes were just getting more efficient at processing signals
- state of consciousness actually change the way you biologically process stimuli
- ego disrupts the gamma
- there's no secret to the zone, the void. It comes only after mastery.
- why do we do anything? My first serious art teacher used to say in a sad voice, we draw because we want to be loved( he was a dapper man, a quiet alcoholic with cold talent.) Those kids from the broken place, from the howling wilderness of a childhood unloved, unvalued, they find something and fighting, they can take that love. The feeling of worth that the missing father never provided- you can force the issue, for one night, for one moment.
The Fighter’s Heart was asking what drove a fighter to fight. The Fighter’s Mind is asking what fighter’s think.
Sam Sheridan is a man who's led an interesting life in the best sense of the word and who has dabbled in actual MMA fighting and has a keen interest in the world of the fighting arts, ranging from Brazilian jiu jitsu to boxing to Muay Thai fighting, amateur wrestling of various kinds, judo, karate, Krav Maga and many other methods of combat.
Sheridan talks to various high-level competitors and trainers attempting to tease out the definable aspects of fighting's "mental game." This is a worthy ambition and a tough one. Almost all top-level competitors and trainers KNOW that a fighter's mental game is as much a part of his (or her) skill set as talent and conditioning.
While this all screams for fight fan’s attention, it is still easily digestible and complete with lessons that transcend fighting to the point of widespread applicability to daily life.
Fighting is perhaps the perfect context for discussing the mental strategies of sport's psychology. You have the training and mental lead up to a match where the objective is to brutalise your opponent in a ring surrounded by a forum of your peers or the greater public. Money, pride, ego and personal safety are but a few things that are on the line whether you win or lose. The fight happens in real time and involves presence, strategy and any number of psychological and cognitive tools to draw on. And all of this needs to happen both at the conscious and mindless level, lest you find yourself face down on the canvass. Whether victory or failure ensues, lessons will be learned from the experience.
I don't want to give too much away here, but Sheridan’s highly developed and researched book extrapolates the mental approaches from a range of fighting arts and their practitioners - the lessons learned from victories won and battles lost, the nature of sustaining the day to day grind, how athletes endure the physical rigours which require a level of discipline and fortitude under-appreciated by the non-athlete and perhaps never experienced by those who never transition to the higher echelons of any sport.
Summary/ Key lessons:
Mental game rule number 1: Don't go against your instincts.
Sheridan's first encounter is with Dan Gable. Dan Gable is arguably, the best or possibly the 2nd best amateur wrestler to have ever grappled on the mat. Gable's win-loss record was 183-0. In the final minutes of his last collegiate match, however, Gable was becoming frustrated. He thought to himself, "I'm not a guy who wins on points. I'm a guy who pins/submits his opponents." Going for the pin, he made a crucial mistake and was defeated by a narrow margin.
Mental Game #1 lesson: Don't let your ego defeat you!
Gable never lost a match again, as he competed in Olympic Freestyle wrestling and won an Olympic gold medal. This is impressive enough but what is astonishing is that Gable wrestled 12 matches to win his gold medal, pinning 7 of his opponents and only allowing 4 points to be scored against him.
Mental Game Rule #2: There is no such thing as training too much. This is a Gable axiom, though many athletes have said it. It may be debatable in some sports, but in the fighting arts, there is always something one can learn, always a need for hard physical training. The best fighters are always in shape. As the great Muhammed Ali once said:
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses--behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
Mental Game Rule Number 2: Always work on improving your weak points.
This is one of those axioms that seems self-explanatory, yet it is commonly NOT put into practice by the second stringers of most professional sports. Truly great athletes are never satisfied with their performances.
This rule comes from Freddie Roach, the great boxing trainer who helped turned Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao into a seven-division world champion. He is the only boxer in the history of professional boxing to hold world championships in seven weight classes. And it is unlikely that it would have been possible without the guidance of Freddie Roach, one of boxing's best trainers.
When Freddie first became involved training Manny, Pacquiao had already won a world championship but he had also been knocked out with punches to the belly on three or four occasions. Sheridan writes of him: "Like any good boxing trainer--anybody who is good at making a living building fighters--he can look right through your exterior and see what's happening inside. Roach's training philosophy consists of hard work, and especially hard work to correct a fighter's weak spots, such as Pacquaio's formerly tender stomach. His goal is to make a fighter the best version of himself--the best his inborn talents will allow. Roach is of the "Mr. Miyagi" school of trainers; if you've fought as hard as you can and you lose, it is no dishonor.
Sheridan then interviewed former World light-heavyweight champion Donnie LaLonde, a scrappy boxer with a powerful right hand who retired with a respectable 41-5-1 record, fighting such greats as Sugar Ray Leonard. LaLonde emphasized that, "You've got to do your thinking in the gym." This involves paying attention to what you do well and working to correct what you don't. LaLonde had some good trainers along the way who helped him with this process. He also emphasizes the positive side of being beaten, saying "great champions accept, internalize and understand defeat." A good fighter always learns from a defeat.
The author then pays a visit to Mark DellaGrotte, owner of a famous Muay Thai gym in Somerville, Massachusetts and one of the first American fighters to journey to Thailand to learn the Muay Thai styles of fighting practiced in the Land of Smiles. Muay Thai is a brutal sport and in recent years it has become part of the skill set of most serious mma competitors. DellaGrote stresses the need for composure in the fight at all times regardless of the circumstances. Don't show emotion, he says, and never give up until the final bell. This goes hand-in-hand with the Asian concept of not losing face. A fighter who gives his or her all, even if suffering a one-sided loss, is respected.
Mental Game Rule #2 lesson: There is no dishonor in defeat if you've given your all in the fight.
Sheridan then treks to South Florida to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym operated by Robert Liberio. Liberio trains fighters in BJJ and his philosophy about competition is similar to retired boxer Donny LaLonde's. "Maturity is a big part of success in fighting, because it means you understand the game--that losing is part of the game." and also adds, "The key to doing well in competition is to accept" (that you can lose).
Mental Game Rule Number 3: Take your opponent out of his game.
Sheridan next speaks with Josh Waitzkin, a former New York City chess prodigy and inspiration for the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fischer." He gave up competitive chess competition in 1999 and took up the martial art of Akido, becoming a world champion in 2004 in the Tai Chi "push hands" competition. He also earned a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and co-founded a Jiu Jitsu school in New York City.
Waitzkin also attended Columbia University, majoring in philosophy, and is among the most philosophical of all the fighters Sam interviewed. Waitzkin puts tremendous emphasis on the mental game of competition, whether it involves a chess match or a martial arts match. Waitzkin emphasizes the need to let go of ego and pursue any competition in a spirit of humility. He also stresses the importance of being relaxed while also being ready to strike. It takes mental clarity to do this, Waitzkin asserts--warning that anxiety causes a loss of focus.
Mental Game Rule #4: Strive for mental clarity--don't lose focus!
Sheridan's final encounter is with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach Mark Danahar. There must be something about the study of philosophy that attracts these fighters because Danahar also holds graduate degrees in philosophy. He has trained many world champion fighters and is a 4th degree black belt in BJJ studying under Renzo Gracie--the Gracie's are considered the royal family of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and anyone who trains under a Gracie has the de facto respect of any serious martial artist.
Danahar believes that fear and anger are the two most dangerous emotions for a fighter. He believes the fear lies more in the public humiliation of defeat than in fear of personal injury. Anger is especially toxic because it causes shallow breathing and muscle tension, both serving to tire a fighter out early. He notes that many experienced fighter will deliberately try and anger a foe precisely to induce these deleterious physical conditions. As a countermeasure, he trains his fighters to relax in the ring or octagon and try and maintain a relaxed pace. stay focused and not allow themselves to be distracted or easily rankled. This is a sound training philosophy. If you watch some of fighting's greatest champions, they usually appear quite at home in the fighting arena.
Mental Game Rule Number 5: Fight fear and anxiety by relaxing as you work. Control the pace of the fight!
The takeaways from 'The Fighter's Mind' are that the fighter's mental conditioning is equally important as his or her physical conditioning and fighting skills. In fact, the "mental game" seems to go hand-in-hand with the other two skill sets. Fighters and their trainers/coaches have many paths to get there, but all realize that to ignore the fighter's "mental game" is a sure ticket to a combatant's defeat.
This book is an excellent look into how fighters think about all aspects of fighting, including training, fighting under pressure, winning, and losing. Each chapter contains bits and pieces of interviews with great fighters, coaches, and artists, and the author weaves the quotes and ideas into a larger, cohesive narrative.
What I really enjoyed about the book was that on the surface it's about the mentality of fighting, but it's not really about fighting -- it's about becoming better at whatever you do. It's about finding your purpose in life and pursuing it relentlessly.
Extremely short summary of lessons:
- Fighter's are born in the dedication to repetition.
Andre Wade Chapter
- you have to love it.
- great fighters learn from an early age that you have to have perspective
Marcelo Garcia
- love it, love, love it. Never stop learning, studying, teaching, trying
Pat Militech
- know you can lose.
Freddy Roach
- entity vs incremental
- come back after you get knocked out. Now you have an opportunity in your heart to actually learn what you're doing wrong. Because before you were doing it wrong, but kept winning
Dan Gable
- psychic work service
- and learning from house one loss
Delagrotte
- all about camp
Couture
- when I'm done learning I'm done winning
- keep perspective
- but just as Gable probably never would have had the fire to have the Olympic career he did without losing that final NCAA match, Randy might never have had the fire to succeed in the way he did as a fighter if he'd want a medal in the Olympics. And it's something Randy is tangentially aware of
- anxiety versus excitement
Dave Horton
- ability to override (mental over physical pain)
- commitment over dedication
- this too shall pass
- it never always gets worse
Kenflow
- fighters make peace with the terror of fight or flight and learn to harness it. But it takes time.
- It comes around to an important facet of fighting: acknowledging your identity and working to make it the best version of you.
- You can't fight on emotion or adrenaline. At the end of the day, you have to have a love for it, something that lasts forever, because that will carry you.
Shamrock
- Always evaluate. Always
- someone better someone equal someone weaker
Josh
- depth over breath man
- there's a subtle difference to, say, gables intensity, which feels joyless, from a deeper than this place. Josh's intensity is easier, color with excitement. It's playful.
- if deep, fluid presence become second nature, then life, art and learning take on a richness that will continually surprise and delight...
- The secret is that everything is always on the line. The more present we are at practice, the more present we will be in competition, come in the boardroom, come at the exam, the operating table, the big stage etc
Greg Jackson
He's smart enough to really be humble
- My only real strength is that I'm reflective.
- you can train mental toughness and work harder
- Greg is a diehard advocate of learning to function under pain. under duress
- your job, with all that mental training, that suffering, is just to push your own line of mental breaking so far back your opponent can't find it.
- training fighters is like jazz. some pieces need to be pushed and others pulled...At the core of everything is respect. If they con't have it, they're unhappy. keep that in mind
- You just have to let it all go. Accept that it sucks and do the job. I know you're nervous and you'll be scared, but when the cage closes none of that matters anymore
- “See much, study much, suffer much is the path to wisdom"
- If you do your art well, fame is something that you dal with
- When I make mistakes I look at those pictures. Burnout is my number-one enemy. I have to look for inspiration to stay on the cutting edge.
Down the rabbit hole
- there are no shortcuts but a lifetime of study. There are no easy ways but obsession.
- zen koans (those odd little stories) are in some ways about that - cutting you loose from your reasoning brain , the part filled with conscious thought and narration, ties up in the past and future and too slow to be useful in a fight.
- there are no shortcuts or mysteries. These abilities come only with endless practice. Once you've devoted a lifetime to study then the important thing is to get out of your own way and not screw yourself up by thinking
- the top athletes were just getting more efficient at processing signals
- state of consciousness actually change the way you biologically process stimuli
- ego disrupts the gamma
- there's no secret to the zone, the void. It comes only after mastery.
- why do we do anything? My first serious art teacher used to say in a sad voice, we draw because we want to be loved( he was a dapper man, a quiet alcoholic with cold talent.) Those kids from the broken place, from the howling wilderness of a childhood unloved, unvalued, they find something and fighting, they can take that love. The feeling of worth that the missing father never provided- you can force the issue, for one night, for one moment.
August 15, 2022
FANTASTIC book! The prose, storytelling, and countless 'aha' moments were surprisingly better than I had originally expected when I first decided to pick this one up. The wisdom contained within is not limited to the domain of combat sports, but can stand toe-to-toe with the best personal development material I've read. Many of the insights Sam shares are worth meditating on, especially for anyone who's looking to conquer one's own body and mind, or to achieve excellence in his/her own business or chosen career path.
Sam slices through the pseudo-scientific bullshit peddled by the intellectuals, academics, and theoreticians with surgical precision. Any real practitioners who has skin in the game, and who have refined their craft through battle-tested (scientific) practice, risk taking, tinkering and empirical experiment are worlds apart and will spot the difference right away. Sad thing is, so many folks are fooled nowadays by any sort of 'expert intimidation.'
Hollywood & Western media has been notorious for distorting Zen/Eastern philosophy, and has downplayed the sheer amount of hard work + discipline + dedication + practice needed for mastery over a craft. Everyone's looking for a shortcut, but there are none. As Sam puts it, Enlightenment = Experience.
I'd put this right next to Andre Agassi's Open for an incredibly well written, entertaining account of what it truly means to get into the psyche of an elite, top-performing athlete at the highest level.
P.S. The author is a Harvard alumni. Wasn’t expecting that, since I typically associate those types as trust fund brats with soft hands. My original assumption was that the book was written by a former UFC fighter or retired athlete, but this explains the level of complexity and polished prose.
Sam slices through the pseudo-scientific bullshit peddled by the intellectuals, academics, and theoreticians with surgical precision. Any real practitioners who has skin in the game, and who have refined their craft through battle-tested (scientific) practice, risk taking, tinkering and empirical experiment are worlds apart and will spot the difference right away. Sad thing is, so many folks are fooled nowadays by any sort of 'expert intimidation.'
Hollywood & Western media has been notorious for distorting Zen/Eastern philosophy, and has downplayed the sheer amount of hard work + discipline + dedication + practice needed for mastery over a craft. Everyone's looking for a shortcut, but there are none. As Sam puts it, Enlightenment = Experience.
I'd put this right next to Andre Agassi's Open for an incredibly well written, entertaining account of what it truly means to get into the psyche of an elite, top-performing athlete at the highest level.
P.S. The author is a Harvard alumni. Wasn’t expecting that, since I typically associate those types as trust fund brats with soft hands. My original assumption was that the book was written by a former UFC fighter or retired athlete, but this explains the level of complexity and polished prose.
March 18, 2023
I liked many things about this book. Being someone who has a background in psychology, many things rang true and it’s an awesome thing to see it transfer into the sports world and an individualist sport such as boxing. The author does a fantastic job weaving in all the different perspectives from those coaches and ex fighters that he sits down with. Each has a unique perspective on the mindset of an fighter and what the differences are that makes him or her successful and or what it takes to become the top dog.
From wrestlers, coaches, boxers, trainers, and mma fighters the unique experiences in their respective fields allow for a cumulative gathering of different expert opinions based on countless hours or fights, fighters, and training observed. There can be no better substitution for this type of insight and expertise.
Anyone dealing with athletes should open this book and soak up as much information as they can in order to better help your athletes while continuing to assist them in building themselves inside of their sport.
From wrestlers, coaches, boxers, trainers, and mma fighters the unique experiences in their respective fields allow for a cumulative gathering of different expert opinions based on countless hours or fights, fighters, and training observed. There can be no better substitution for this type of insight and expertise.
Anyone dealing with athletes should open this book and soak up as much information as they can in order to better help your athletes while continuing to assist them in building themselves inside of their sport.
July 11, 2011
This book is an excellent look into how fighters think about all aspects of fighting, including training, fighting under pressure, winning, and losing. Each chapter contains bits and pieces of interviews with great fighters, coaches, and artists, and the author weaves the quotes and ideas into a larger, cohesive narrative.
What I really enjoyed about the book was that on the surface it's about the mentality of fighting, but it's not really about fighting -- it's about becoming better at whatever you do. It's about finding your purpose in life and pursuing it relentlessly. There are some great life lessons in The Fighter's Mind, and you don't have to be a fighting fan to appreciate them. I'm not, and I certainly did.
What I really enjoyed about the book was that on the surface it's about the mentality of fighting, but it's not really about fighting -- it's about becoming better at whatever you do. It's about finding your purpose in life and pursuing it relentlessly. There are some great life lessons in The Fighter's Mind, and you don't have to be a fighting fan to appreciate them. I'm not, and I certainly did.
February 4, 2011
Entertaining book about the mental game in competition fighting. The authors documents his interviews with top professional fighters and coaches. The book gives insight on the role of mental power and focus in achieving competency in fighting. Most of the interviews were with strikers (boxers); would of been nice to include more fighters of different fighting sports as well.
December 18, 2014
An interesting look into the mental aspect of athletic competition.
A variety of profiles. Mostly MMA fighters. But some boxing stories and even chapters on long-distance running and chess.
Some of the stories I enjoyed. Some I didn't care for.
A variety of profiles. Mostly MMA fighters. But some boxing stories and even chapters on long-distance running and chess.
Some of the stories I enjoyed. Some I didn't care for.
March 19, 2017
Great read not only for people intetested im MMA but in sports in general.
March 17, 2019
When you fight skin-to-skin with another human being you have got some special kind of brave going on. This book honors that brave. There is nothing quite like it.
True, to live is to fight. In one way or another. You don’t need to be in a physical cage – we all have our cages and we all have our demons. But, it is an elite group of warriors who do this kind of fighting. Sam Sheridan might not have written this for the grey-haired, 60-something shrimps out there like me, but dang-it, I really loved this book. He crawls into the headspace of the combatants, where so many raw and relatable truths reside, and he shows us what it’s like…for them. How to win, how to lose, how to train, how to live. You don’t even have to be an athlete to appreciate this book. I did an audio-version and I actually pulled over a few times while driving from NJ to MA to jot down important ideas. My heart pounded with excitement as he described some of the blood baths.
How much of our daily lives are real? Not much. Mostly, it’s fake. What we read in the news is fake, what we watch on TV is fake, what we read on FB, Twitter and IG …all drenched in fake. But, when two men (or women) are facing off in a cage or a ring or a pad, it is real. Someone is gonna get choked or pinned or KO’d. Someone is gonna win and someone is gonna lose. That’s real. Sam Sheridan has delivered 100% real. And, it is like some kind of a wonderful antidote to the fake soup we’ve got to swim around in every day.
I did karate for 15 years, a very very long time ago. Before it was popular. Before there was protective equipment. Before there were a lot of rules. Back when you could easily get a broken jaw if you merely tried to block a punch coming from a guy with 6” and 80 pounds on you. No. As a shrimp without protective padding you had to also get the hell out of the way. I loved it, despite the bruises and fractures. Many people understand the feeling in the thrill of combat; Sheridan has given that feeling a clear voice and a reason, too. And the insights he offers, from the personal, troubled family histories to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow – all superbly detailed. The man can really write.
The stories of the grit in these fighters, who were getting respect in life quite literally through their blood, sweat and tears will fill you with a spirit to get up and do. Try harder. As a mother of four - three of them young men who can fight and do fight and who aren’t afraid to shed their own blood - I have high praise for a book which celebrates and validates man as warrior. Our men need more books like this.
As a mom of men and as a woman who sparred competitively when much, much younger, I give this book high praises all around. And, I agree with Sam. The world is made of fire.
True, to live is to fight. In one way or another. You don’t need to be in a physical cage – we all have our cages and we all have our demons. But, it is an elite group of warriors who do this kind of fighting. Sam Sheridan might not have written this for the grey-haired, 60-something shrimps out there like me, but dang-it, I really loved this book. He crawls into the headspace of the combatants, where so many raw and relatable truths reside, and he shows us what it’s like…for them. How to win, how to lose, how to train, how to live. You don’t even have to be an athlete to appreciate this book. I did an audio-version and I actually pulled over a few times while driving from NJ to MA to jot down important ideas. My heart pounded with excitement as he described some of the blood baths.
How much of our daily lives are real? Not much. Mostly, it’s fake. What we read in the news is fake, what we watch on TV is fake, what we read on FB, Twitter and IG …all drenched in fake. But, when two men (or women) are facing off in a cage or a ring or a pad, it is real. Someone is gonna get choked or pinned or KO’d. Someone is gonna win and someone is gonna lose. That’s real. Sam Sheridan has delivered 100% real. And, it is like some kind of a wonderful antidote to the fake soup we’ve got to swim around in every day.
I did karate for 15 years, a very very long time ago. Before it was popular. Before there was protective equipment. Before there were a lot of rules. Back when you could easily get a broken jaw if you merely tried to block a punch coming from a guy with 6” and 80 pounds on you. No. As a shrimp without protective padding you had to also get the hell out of the way. I loved it, despite the bruises and fractures. Many people understand the feeling in the thrill of combat; Sheridan has given that feeling a clear voice and a reason, too. And the insights he offers, from the personal, troubled family histories to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow – all superbly detailed. The man can really write.
The stories of the grit in these fighters, who were getting respect in life quite literally through their blood, sweat and tears will fill you with a spirit to get up and do. Try harder. As a mother of four - three of them young men who can fight and do fight and who aren’t afraid to shed their own blood - I have high praise for a book which celebrates and validates man as warrior. Our men need more books like this.
As a mom of men and as a woman who sparred competitively when much, much younger, I give this book high praises all around. And, I agree with Sam. The world is made of fire.
January 3, 2020
Trust your body and disbelieve your mind is what I get from this book. We normal human beings probably will never reach physical extremes like these fighters, this means that we probably will always resort to our mind to decide what to do with our bodies when facing challenges. However, we can learn to get more in tune with physical signals, and try to make decisions out of both the physical and the mental signals. It is always better because the body actually knows much more than our mind is capable of, and the bodily experience can generate new lessons and tricks for the mind to use for a bigger challenges down the road.
Some of my favorite quotes and summary,
The physical attributes incurred by feeling excited and anxious are really similar. The only difference is that One makes you close yourself, the other makes yourself open and enjoy what's coming as opportunities to lean and smile at.
'See challenges as a technical maze where there are many hidden places to discover and learn. Challenges are not a fight against something, they are the unique gifts for a learning mind.'
'Success in ultra depends on the abilities to tolerate discomfort in prolonged period. It is winning the battle against the urge to stop. ' This is actually a repeated pattern from different fighters. Fighters who focus on finishing the battle don't get swept off their feet by anger, ear, or other weakening emotions that often occur amidst challenges.
'The ability to make fear work for you is essential. There is no shortcuts, it only takes time and efforts as the only inputs.'
Some of my favorite quotes and summary,
The physical attributes incurred by feeling excited and anxious are really similar. The only difference is that One makes you close yourself, the other makes yourself open and enjoy what's coming as opportunities to lean and smile at.
'See challenges as a technical maze where there are many hidden places to discover and learn. Challenges are not a fight against something, they are the unique gifts for a learning mind.'
'Success in ultra depends on the abilities to tolerate discomfort in prolonged period. It is winning the battle against the urge to stop. ' This is actually a repeated pattern from different fighters. Fighters who focus on finishing the battle don't get swept off their feet by anger, ear, or other weakening emotions that often occur amidst challenges.
'The ability to make fear work for you is essential. There is no shortcuts, it only takes time and efforts as the only inputs.'
November 11, 2017
This book was even better than I expected. It was not just about combat sport individuals from the view point of their training and how they got to where they are but an insight as to why they travelled the road to lead them to where they are.
I liked that it encompassed individuals that competed in many different sports from MMA to Boxing to JiuJitsu to Chess and even an Ultra Marathon runner. All of these individuals the writer showed have a commonality in their love of what they do.
What I also liked was at the end he looked in to the Why. Why go through all this? Why put your body and mind through the torture of the sport? On reflection of the question you realize that it was a spiritual journey for many, those that pursued their path not just to be the best but to further understand how what they are doing is no longer following an art but having become what they now are. What may have been the original reason for starting the journey no longer is as predominant as the journey progresses but at some point there is something that has taken over and once found fills the being.
That's what I took away from this book. Definitely greatful for having read this and will no doubt read it many more times going forward.
I liked that it encompassed individuals that competed in many different sports from MMA to Boxing to JiuJitsu to Chess and even an Ultra Marathon runner. All of these individuals the writer showed have a commonality in their love of what they do.
What I also liked was at the end he looked in to the Why. Why go through all this? Why put your body and mind through the torture of the sport? On reflection of the question you realize that it was a spiritual journey for many, those that pursued their path not just to be the best but to further understand how what they are doing is no longer following an art but having become what they now are. What may have been the original reason for starting the journey no longer is as predominant as the journey progresses but at some point there is something that has taken over and once found fills the being.
That's what I took away from this book. Definitely greatful for having read this and will no doubt read it many more times going forward.
December 1, 2024
这本书跟访了十���位格斗界的高手，包括选手和训练师。作者自己也多年实践各种格斗术，算是“圈内人”，所以有机会和被访对象一起训练和生活。这些高手来自不同领域，包括摔跤，拳击，泰拳，巴西柔术，MMA。书里也对这些格斗门类的特点与异同，做了简单的介绍。
因为从来没听说过这些高手，我对访谈部分，也就是大部分的内容，兴趣不大。最后两章，跳出来讨论了竞技格斗选手的动机和心理状态，可以独立成篇，涉及了不少我感兴趣的话题。
格斗的特殊性，在于以伤害对手的身体为目的，所以经常被贴上野蛮的标签。从另一个角度想，很多竞技项目都有大量身体接触，足球、篮球、橄榄球里，利用身体优势碾压对手都是比赛的一部分。对于健身房里的爱好者来说，选择拳击或者桑巴，很可能取决于自己是否擅长，能不能看到进步与正反馈，甚至一起上课的小伙伴是否宜人。
当然，进绳圈比赛和健身房训练是两回事。作者试图解释格斗者的动机，但他自己对此就很悲观，认为Why是一个非常困难的问题。表面上的生计，名声，财富，都是合理和真实的动机。聊更高大上的自由，意义，爱，自我实现，也未尝不可。或者，相比于干瘪或冗长的回答，不如怼上一句：Why not？
不管动机如何，拳台都是对性格的试炼。现代社会里，多数人没有机会面对在身体上意图伤害自己的人，除非对方是个凶手。在挨上一拳一脚之前，我们无法预知自己对疼痛和伤害的反应。拳台给了一个真诚面对自我，以及拳拳到肉真诚交流的机会。经历了这些，渡过了恐惧，同互相伤害的对手握手之后，就可能得到来自自己和他人的尊重。
格斗家们在拳台上的心理状态，是这本书试图一探究竟的重点。那些格斗高手，有完美主义的追求卓越者，也有追求无我之境的禅宗大师。有人认为禅宗思想在现代格斗的语境下是个唬人的噱头，也许事实不止于此。有西方人把禅修解释成去除大脑里理性滤网的过程，目的是让直觉进入主导地位。理性和直觉，可以对应于[[Thinking, Fast and Slow]]里的慢和快两个系统。快系统所擅长的模式识别和瞬时反应，正是格斗里的制胜法宝。在[[The Inner Game of Tennis]]里提到的抑制思考和相信身体，背后也是类似的逻辑。
书中还提到一个神经科学的实验，证实了人的信念可以影响大脑对外界信号的处理。很难说，必胜信念可以加快视觉系统的采样率，从而达到时间变慢的效果。但是，排除对失败的恐惧，增加专注度，进入the zone或者flow，是被反复证实有效的方法。
格斗被称为Martial Arts，是“武艺”这个词汉译英的结果。把格斗称为一种艺术，不失恰当。它和技艺与创作有关，从重复到精通，再形成自己的风格和特点。一场精彩的拳赛，是可以创造美，带来感动的艺术品。
这么说，UFC是当代艺术与资本和娱乐媾和的典型例证。在这里，最受欢迎的不是顶尖的格斗家，而是最能吸引眼球和话题的娱乐大咖。
因为从来没听说过这些高手，我对访谈部分，也就是大部分的内容，兴趣不大。最后两章，跳出来讨论了竞技格斗选手的动机和心理状态，可以独立成篇，涉及了不少我感兴趣的话题。
格斗的特殊性，在于以伤害对手的身体为目的，所以经常被贴上野蛮的标签。从另一个角度想，很多竞技项目都有大量身体接触，足球、篮球、橄榄球里，利用身体优势碾压对手都是比赛的一部分。对于健身房里的爱好者来说，选择拳击或者桑巴，很可能取决于自己是否擅长，能不能看到进步与正反馈，甚至一起上课的小伙伴是否宜人。
当然，进绳圈比赛和健身房训练是两回事。作者试图解释格斗者的动机，但他自己对此就很悲观，认为Why是一个非常困难的问题。表面上的生计，名声，财富，都是合理和真实的动机。聊更高大上的自由，意义，爱，自我实现，也未尝不可。或者，相比于干瘪或冗长的回答，不如怼上一句：Why not？
不管动机如何，拳台都是对性格的试炼。现代社会里，多数人没有机会面对在身体上意图伤害自己的人，除非对方是个凶手。在挨上一拳一脚之前，我们无法预知自己对疼痛和伤害的反应。拳台给了一个真诚面对自我，以及拳拳到肉真诚交流的机会。经历了这些，渡过了恐惧，同互相伤害的对手握手之后，就可能得到来自自己和他人的尊重。
格斗家们在拳台上的心理状态，是这本书试图一探究竟的重点。那些格斗高手，有完美主义的追求卓越者，也有追求无我之境的禅宗大师。有人认为禅宗思想在现代格斗的语境下是个唬人的噱头，也许事实不止于此。有西方人把禅修解释成去除大脑里理性滤网的过程，目的是让直觉进入主导地位。理性和直觉，可以对应于[[Thinking, Fast and Slow]]里的慢和快两个系统。快系统所擅长的模式识别和瞬时反应，正是格斗里的制胜法宝。在[[The Inner Game of Tennis]]里提到的抑制思考和相信身体，背后也是类似的逻辑。
书中还提到一个神经科学的实验，证实了人的信念可以影响大脑对外界信号的处理。很难说，必胜信念可以加快视觉系统的采样率，从而达到时间变慢的效果。但是，排除对失败的恐惧，增加专注度，进入the zone或者flow，是被反复证实有效的方法。
格斗被称为Martial Arts，是“武艺”这个词汉译英的结果。把格斗称为一种艺术，不失恰当。它和技艺与创作有关，从重复到精通，再形成自己的风格和特点。一场精彩的拳赛，是可以创造美，带来感动的艺术品。
这么说，UFC是当代艺术与资本和娱乐媾和的典型例证。在这里，最受欢迎的不是顶尖的格斗家，而是最能吸引眼球和话题的娱乐大咖。
February 4, 2020
I am going to go against the popular opinion and say that you will only get a true thematic understanding of this book if you have "mindfully" trained in any martial art before. The Fighter's Mind is a unique investigative journey into the routines and belief systems of some of the greatest modern combat athletes. As a student of martial arts and a fighting nerd, this book has been a great supplement for my training camps and has helped me engender several conversations with fellow fighters and instructors in my circle.
The sport of fighting has one put their life on the line every passing day. This forces great athletes to become highly attuned to their own inner talk and understand the role of discipline, repetition and apprenticeship to attaining mastery. So to an extent external damage becomes a forcing function for instilling mindfulness. And you also often reap enlightening insight into human performance that can be generalized beyond any martial art or sport.
There's a reason why some of the greatest ancient swordsmen, military generals and fighters have inked the most insightful philosophy. Must read!
The sport of fighting has one put their life on the line every passing day. This forces great athletes to become highly attuned to their own inner talk and understand the role of discipline, repetition and apprenticeship to attaining mastery. So to an extent external damage becomes a forcing function for instilling mindfulness. And you also often reap enlightening insight into human performance that can be generalized beyond any martial art or sport.
There's a reason why some of the greatest ancient swordsmen, military generals and fighters have inked the most insightful philosophy. Must read!
November 12, 2017
A really nice read for fight enthusiasts.
Some times I felt Sam's style is a bit choppy, jumping from a story to a quote to a thought without giving clear "knowledge" or a coherent idea. Sometimes I also felt that spending time with such legendary fighters and trainers could have been presented in a better way. That is the only negative remark I have. Otherwise, the book got better and better. My favorite chapters are those about Greg Jakson and John Waitzkin.
The book covers a variety of mental, emotional and stylistic areas of fighting. Ego, how to prepare, what mind set do fighters have before and during fights.. why to fight and so on.
If you train or fight you will find a lot to relate to in this book and I may say it is a must read considering there are not so many great book about this topic out there.
Some times I felt Sam's style is a bit choppy, jumping from a story to a quote to a thought without giving clear "knowledge" or a coherent idea. Sometimes I also felt that spending time with such legendary fighters and trainers could have been presented in a better way. That is the only negative remark I have. Otherwise, the book got better and better. My favorite chapters are those about Greg Jakson and John Waitzkin.
The book covers a variety of mental, emotional and stylistic areas of fighting. Ego, how to prepare, what mind set do fighters have before and during fights.. why to fight and so on.
If you train or fight you will find a lot to relate to in this book and I may say it is a must read considering there are not so many great book about this topic out there.
November 3, 2021
I just love Sam Sheridan's writing. He's a non-fiction author who writes like a fiction author. That alone does it for me. I often, when reading Sheridan's books, feel like I could go on just reading fighting and MMA literature and still end up smarter, more eloquent, etc. The content is pretty good, too. I particularly like the bits about Marcelo Garcia, Dan Gable and Renzo Gracie. There is some overlap with "The Fighter's Heart" but that in no way reduced my enjoyment of this book. Virgil and Andre Ward are interviewed again. I usually am not a fan of interview books but Sheridan uses the interviews mostly as part of a narrative and of stories he tells; it's quite a different experience from having interviews and interviewees "speak for themselves". It's definitely a good book - not just for fight and MMA fans.
July 13, 2024
An impactful read. If you are considering a career in MMA, or just want to know how and why great fighters put themselves through the training, the pain, the adrenaline, this is a fantastic book. I initially started reading this book because I have been practicing Muay Thai, and some of the things that I learned are the importance of community, focus, commitment, but also purpose. We all go through really shitty things in our life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean, those shitty things make us fighters, everything makes us a fighter – Weather it’s a shit life, or wanting to be a better person, or wanting to achieve some sort of enlightenment, but at the end of all of it why doesn’t really matter, what matters is what the practice means to you. This is an excellent book, and I would recommend this to anyone in any type of sport, not just fighting.
July 18, 2017
Very good book once I got into it. For some reason, it took me a couple of chapters and was one of those books I would put down for a while and pick back up later. Once I got into it though, I really enjoyed the book. Good insight into the lives of fighters I had heard a lot about and watched but never got into the personal side. As a fan of MMA during the early days, most of the chapters covered fighters I had heard of and also added a few I had not heard of. Of particular interest to me was the portion toward the end of that book that compared fighters to artists. Very interesting and referenced a few other books I will check into.
August 6, 2017
Glad this book exists, and some of the essays were illuminating, but I wished that the insights were pulled together a little more by the author, rather than relying on us reading each essay for each fighter/trainer's experience and asking us to make the links. About half way through I found myself skimming chapters and jumping to the fighters I was particularly interested in, because it felt like a bit of a slog and as a result I'm fairly sure I missed some good points. It was likely just not quite the format I was expecting when I picked it up. Overall useful read if you're at all interested in the mental aspect of fighting and training.
January 11, 2019
I loved this book even more than his first excellent book, A Fighters Heart. Sam is a very intelligent writer and his pursuit of truth is spellbinding. He covers so much ground and each topic is more interesting than the last. He tirelessly travels the globe interviewing some of the most distinguished, proven men and women in the fight game today. I never once got a sense of any macho bravado on his part and I am so impressed with what he was willing to put himself through to find his own truth. Sam is a fighter along with being so much more. Writer, art connoisseur, philosopher/thinker and an inspiration to us all. Just a great read from a very impressive individual!
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