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The Fighter's Mind: Inside The Mental Game (2010)

by Sam Sheridan(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0802119352 (ISBN13: 9780802119353)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press

review 1: The crux of the book is that the author is searching for the key to the mental strength all great fighters - and other kinds of athletes - apparently exhibit which drives them to keep pursuing their fights. The stories presented all have pearls of wisdom here and there and the final chapter attempts to tie a lot of it together, but I wouldn't necessarily say this answer is any deeper than the usual vague platitudes everyone tends to throw around when they want to sound deep (or at least not stupid).Even though I study karate, I'm not really big into watching fighting sports (MMA, boxing, etc). Thus I normally wouldn't seek out this kind of book, as the cover and blurb and author all scream "goony MMA pseudoscience" to me. The book was loaned to me from a coworker who is... more also in my karate club, so I figured I'd give it a shot - the worst case scenario would be to read it for a night, validate my owns biases, and politely give it back with some milquetoast "It's not my thing" excuse. I was pleasantly surprised to find I rather liked most of the stories, though the author really got on my nerves at points.The results presented in the book are not very rigourous at all but the core of the method is science at its simplest; a guy wants to understand something so he talks to a bunch of people who do it better than him. It's a respectful approach to what turns out to be an interesting subject, but don't mistake this book for anything more than a bunch of biographies and anecdotes with some overarching narrtive loosely tying it all together.At this point I've left myself wide open to a very big criticism - why would I ever expect a book like this to be scientifically rigourous, and what the hell should it matter? Well, it frankly doesn't matter, except to highlight that this is a book to read for entertaining stories about people who fight or otherwise push themselves, and maybe glean a few insights from their lives and attitudes. You're not going to find life-altering secrets revealed in here, nor will you unlock a winning edge for your own life's fights.... well, with the singular exception which everyone who succeeds at anything will tell you: Practice, practice, practice.
review 2: This book is the sequel to the book "A Fighter's Heart" by Sam Sheridan. I have not read that book yet. This book was an excellent read. It focused on the mental aspect various sporting activities. Although the books speaks on boxing and MMA, chess and ultra-running make its way into the writing. Sheridan writes an amazing narrative and I was glued to the book. I must read for fight fans, those looking to improve their mental drive and casual readers who are curious about the how and why of the fight culture. less

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