First Part-
Inside the Mind and Heart of a Champion: An Interview with Sean Sherk
By Dr. Randy Borum
Dan Gable, the famed wrestling coach and Olympic Gold medalist once said: "Raising your level of performance requires a proper mentality and meaning from within. This gives you the ability and drive to work on the things necessary to go to a higher level. When people ask me how to raise their level of performance, the first thing I ask is, How important is it to you?"
Part of what makes Mixed Marital Arts (MMA) such an exciting and dynamic sport is that there are so many different ways to win. This is true of technique, but also of mindset. The "proper mentality and meaning from within" is not the same for every fighter. Focusing on your goals and your motivation can get you through the rough spots on the journey, but everyone has to find their own path. Some take a philosophical approach. Some take a professional approach, seeing fights as "just another day at the office." Some are driven by family honor, while others are motivated by a personal commitment to excellence.
One approach is just to "gut it out." To be tough, determined and persistent. To rely on the power of your own will and the strength of your commitment. To accept that pain and adversity are part of the journey, and that the way to get through is to suck it up, drive on, and never quit. Few fighters in MMA today embody that work ethic better than UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk.
Sherk is no newcomer to combat sports. He began wrestling competitively when he was 7 years old and racked up more than 400 matches over an 11 year period. In the 1990s he got into martial arts, and in 1999 entered the competitive world of MMA. He has since fought in most of the sport's major promotions. In October of 2006 – after a five-round, all-out battle with Kenny Florian - Sherk emerged victorious as the UFC Lightweight World Champion.
Turns out that a week before that championship bout, Sherk suffered a serious tear in his rotator cuff. He knew it before the fight and trained through considerable pain, but he was determined not to let it get in the way of his dream. He fought...and won.
Now, after having surgery for the shoulder injury and allowing time for recovery, Sean is ready to return to the Octagon for his first title defense. This July Sherk faces the incredibly tough Hermes Franca who is just coming off a January UFC win over Spencer Fisher. Sean spoke with us about his recovery and his mental preparation for this fight.
You are well known for your hardcore physical conditioning – when you are preparing for a fight, you're in the gym 3 times a day, 6 days a week – but how important is the mental aspect of the MMA game?
I think the mental aspect is just as important as the physical aspect because mentally you have to be a really, really tough person to endure training six days a week and the diet for 12 weeks ...and when you get in the cage you obviously got to be mentally tough so that you're prepared to fight
This July you are scheduled to fight Hermes Franca in your first UFC Lightweight title defense, is that right?
Yes.
What are you doing mentally to prepare yourself for this fight?
Right now, I'm still 14 weeks out, so my training right now is for maintenance. I have not really stepped up my hard, hardcore workouts yet – About 4 days a week for an hour a day is maintenance for me so I haven't really started yet, right now I'm mostly just trying to get my shoulder ready because I'm coming off a shoulder surgery, so that when I start my hardcore training, my shoulder is ready to go. The mental stuff is probably not going to start for another four weeks.
Does your mental preparation vary with different upcoming opponents?
No I think it's pretty much always the same. I'm always a pretty intense dude. I've never taken an opponent lightly, so I never trained lightly for any fight. Mentally – like I said before – I just train like a maniac and diet – there's no such thing as days off. It doesn't matter if it's your birthday, Christmas, Easter. It doesn't matter. You train regardless. It takes a different kind of person to be able to do that.
What kind of things do you do to relax your mind and body – progressive relaxation exercises, meditation, yoga – anything like that?
Right now the only thing I do to relax is to sit down and watch TV. I don't really have any hobbies or anything of that nature. I just try to sit down relax, watch TV and {get my mind away from the fight game whenever I can.
Quite a few fighters have said that "visualization" is a big part of their mental preparation. How – if at all – do you use visualization or mental practice in your own training?
I use it a lot during training. For one, obviously, if I get put in a position where I don't know how to get out of it. I'll figure out how to get out of it after class is over. Then I'll visualize myself getting out of the position over, and over so if I am in that position again I know how to get out of it immediately without even having drilled it but just a few times. I also visualize before a fight by putting myself in different situations mentally. Whatever my opponent's going to do to me – escaping mounts, avoiding takedowns, boxing, so I visualize that type of stuff as well. I think for the most part visualization is good for training the mind. You train the body to do all this stuff and I think it's good to train the mind as well using repetition in your head.