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Released in 2007, Sam Sheridan’s A Fighter’s Heart took readers across the globe and inside some of the best camps in the world to access and understand the physical realities of professional fighting. The captivating and often personal tale became a national best-seller, and now Sheridan has followed it up this year with The Fighter’s Mind, which delves into the psychology of competing through conversations with everyone from Randy Couture to top neuroscientists. Sheridan sat down with CagePotato.com to discuss his new book.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: What is this book, A Fighter’s Mind, about to you?
SAM SHERIDAN: Well, A Fighter’s Mind sort of came out of conversations I had with the Victory Belt publishers, Erich Krauss and those guys. They had taken on fifteen or twenty contracts and they were looking for writers to help them. They said, “Hey, do you want to write one of these books?” Like BJ Penn’s “Book of Knowledge,” or whatever. I looked at it and said to myself, “You know, I’m not really interested in doing a technique book. There are plenty of questions I want to ask these guys. But most of these questions have to do with the mental game.”
I’m not really interested in Randy Couture’s Greco clinch trip takedown. I’m not so interested in diagramming the steps to that. I’m interested in Randy’s mental strength, and his ability to gameplan and his ability to stick to a gameplan. He can take a guy and put him the one place that, well, take the Gabe Gonzaga fight. Randy took Gonzaga the one place that he’s going to beat Gonzaga. I mean, anywhere else, Gonzaga is going to have his lunch, pretty much. He’s too big, he’s too fast, he’s too rough. But holding him against the cage, Gonzaga doesn’t know what to do and Randy basically drowns him right there, he just mashes him up. It was an amazing example of how having the right gameplan and sticking to it can allow you to beat somebody that should beat you. Read More
Nice work, Elias. This is a good book!
I interviewed Sam last week as well, my article will be published at Total-MMA later this week.
TH
Thanks Elias, that was an interesting interview...
do these books come out in audio format?...
Saw another thread asking about a Fighter's Mind and got inspired to order both 'Heart' and 'Mind'. Couple days and they should arrive. Looking forward to it.
i hope the book will be about more fighters than just randy. what mind? randy is just a hardoworking fighter thats the first to really use his cagehumping tactics and its just new for almost every fighter. thats it. no tactics.
jlin5490 - i hope the book will be about more fighters than just randy. what mind? randy is just a hardoworking fighter thats the first to really use his cagehumping tactics and its just new for almost every fighter. thats it. no tactics.
Yeah....maybe you should stick to subjects you know. Dressing yourself or chewing food for example.
Old Feller - jlin5490 - i hope the book will be about more fighters than just randy. what mind? randy is just a hardoworking fighter thats the first to really use his cagehumping tactics and its just new for almost every fighter. thats it. no tactics.
Yeah....maybe you should stick to subjects you know. Dressing yourself or chewing food for example.
why would you assume he dressed himself?...
I purchased the book a few days ago, sort of expected more. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it and all but was expecting more from it. I'm only halfway through the book so maybe it will meet my expectations my the end.
BTW, Who's the other fighter on the cover?
Great book guys. It is equally good to 'Heart', but for me I really enjoyed this one a bit more because the subject is something I talk about all day long anyway and it really gets to some very key points and some incredible insight. Every chapter is different, yet the common threads throughout are very interesting. Its not just for fighters either, it translates to all sports and to success in life in general.
love the book read it in 2 days.
just out of curiosity, why is there no table of content?
I don't know why there is no table of contents! good question!
Sam Sheridan - I don't know why there is no table of contents! good question!
Sam, do you know why Amazon is taking 11 - 14 days to dispatch orders that are presumably placed against stock that is easily available through agreements with your publisher? You're probably not in a position to know so I'm not trying to make trouble for you or trying to be an ass, but when I ordered I chose the usual 3 - 5 day delivery. It's now been 5 (working) days since I ordered and no warning of delay was given when I ordered.
I've now checked my delivery status and strangely they say the items I've ordered "usually ship within 11 - 14 days". (Again not trying to be an ass) but I'm thinking of canceling my order. I like to read differing experiences of the fighting obsession other than my own (Krigger's 'Title Shot', Gentry's 'No Holds Barred', Couture & Griffin's "autobiographies" + Jens's well written account etc) and I know I can't go down to the high street and buy your book otherwise I wouldn't have ordered online in the first place.
I might be impatient, but having only been introduced to your writing through the UG, do you find this 'inability' by larger distributioners hurts your eventual recompense? If so, is it something you can help improve?
bn.com says it is available at my local store. I'm buying this book today :)