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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Another must read. . . . Sheridan never gets bogged down in psychology, rendering his book accessible even to non-fight fans. The lessons handed down from the book’s subjects are fleshed out on their own and by Sheridan, painting a complete picture of the pain and joy it takes to get to the top, stay there, and eventually surrender the crown.” ~FIGHT! Magazine
Fantastic! One of the best MMA books I’ve ever read, and I’ve certainly read my fair share.” Eric O’Brien, Way of the Warrior,” ESPN radio
You don’t have to care about fighting, or even know that MMA stands for mixed martial arts, to find insights into human behavior in Sam Sheridan’s The Fighter’s Mind.” ~Bloomberg
In tasking himself with peeling back the layers of a complex and multifaceted activity, [Sheridan is] raising the bar for everyone else. . . . If you want a better grip on a sport even some of its participants may not fully understand, his work is quickly becoming required reading.” Jake Rossen, ESPN.com
The Fighter’s Mind is an entertaining and enlightening read and is a worthy addition to any MMA fan’s bookshelf.” ~Dave Doyle, Yahoo! Sports
Sheridan wrote one of my favorite books of recent times, The Fighter’s Heart, and is one of those writers who could write about getting the oil changed in his car and still make it riveting So it comes as no surprise that The Fighter’s Mind is a terrific read.” ~Jeff Fox, MMA Manifesto
A must-read for fight fans.” ~Evan Holober, The Queensberry Rules
“Tirelessly curious and game, deftly sidestepping pretentiousness and macho posturing and all the other usual traps that snare writers who delve into the form and meaning of fighting, Sam Sheridan seeks out fearsome teachers and comes away with a rare prize: a deep understanding of the mental aspect of the fighter’s craft and what it can teach us about how and how not to live.” ~Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time, An Education at the Fights
Having opened up professional fighting worldwide in the best-selling A Fighter’s Heart, former Merchant Marine and Harvard grad Sheridan here plumbs the mental side of the sport. This should be a knockout with fight fans.” ~Library Journal
As accurate and perceptive an account of what makes top fighters tick as I have seen. Sam Sheridan is a great observer and with his profiles of some the top names in MMA, he cuts through the clutter and highlights what it is about these men’s psychologies and thought processes that has made them so dominant. There is so much valuable information in this book that I read it once and then went back through it again with a highlighter. The chapter on legendary trainer Greg Jackson alone makes the book worth purchasing.” ~Donovan Craig, Editor In Chief, FIGHT! Magazine
Relevant for fighters and non-fighters alike, [The Fighter’s Mind] creates new bridges between the fight community and the rest of the world.”~ Lockflow.com
In Sam Sheridan’s The Fighter’s Mind you are taken on a journey that starts in the mind of wrestling great Dan Gable and meanders through the inner psyche of today’s fighters. Paradoxically, the knowledge illuminated from this fascinating journey remains timeless and true, reflecting the wisdom of the archetypal ancient warrior truly a great contribution to the field of mental athletic peak performance.” Michael Lardon, M.D., sports psychologist and author of Finding Your Zone
A Fighter’s Heart: One Man’s Journey Through the World of Fighting
In 1999, after a series of wildly adventurous jobs around the world, Sam Sheridan found himself in Australia, loaded with cash and intent on not working until he’d spent it all. It occurred to him that, without distractions, he could finally indulge a long-dormant obsession: fighting. Within a year, he was in Bangkok training with the greatest fighter in muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) history and stepping through the ropes for a professional bout. That one fight wasn’t enough. Sheridan set out to test himself on an epic journey into how and why we fight, facing Olympic boxers, Brazilian jiu-jitsu stars, and Ultimate Fighting champions. Along the way, Sheridan delivers an insightful look at violence as a career and a spectator sport, a behind-the-pageantry glimpse of athletes at the top of their terrifying game. An extraordinary combination of gonzo journalism and participatory sports writing, A Fighter’s Heart is a dizzying first-hand account of what it’s like to reach the peak of finely disciplined personal aggression, to hit and be hit.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Sheridan (A Fighter’s Heart) examines what contributes toward a successful mental approach in professional fighting, interviewing people such as mixed martial arts icon Randy Couture, legendary college wrestling coach Dan Gable, and tai chi master Josh Waitzkin. The author gains some interesting insights from his investigation. Losing, it turns out, is a crucial component behind a fighter’s success. Confidence is fine, but ego is an evil thing, with humility being a great equalizer. Those interested in pugilistic psychology may find some value in Sheridan’s reporting; for others, too often the sources’ lessons sound similar, and the book frequently drifts into a lengthy, somnolent discourse on fighting styles. Sheridan also can’t stay out of his own way; his first-person prose is clunky and long-winded. His misguided attempt to merge elements of memoir and sports journalism derails the book, keeping it from succeeding in either genre. (Feb.) ~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
Sam Sheridan joined the U.S. Merchant Marines after high school and then attended Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1998. He has written for Men’s Journal, Newsweek, and FIGHT!
