Review: The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game

The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game by Sam Sheridan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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.


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