"A fighter's heart"

[Admin]

I was lucky enough to pick this book up in my local 2nd hand book shop:


I'm really enjoying it.

The author tries to understand why people fight and what makes good fighters. He trains Muay Thai in Thailand, BJJ in Brazil, MMA and boxing in the States and even some Tai-Chi. It appeals to me as he travels around the world looking for different places were he can train and more importantly learn. He seems just an ordinary guy, pretty down to earth with a good writing style.

I've almost finished it over the course of a week or so. Great book to take on vacation.

Simon.

[Admin]

Actually, i'll nick the "blurb" from Amazon:

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.

[The Oracle]

"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."

Sounds interesting.  Pain management is a vital part of any serious fighters training.  Pukulan and Praying Mantis really get deep into the pain management psychology and it forms a vital part of their training. 

In a fight, what matters most is calm and careful confidence, knowing that you are used to, able to handle pain and recycle the pain, certainly helps with these fighting virtues.

[Admin]

I've almost finished it now.

There's a small bit in there as well about a Dog-fighting trip to the Philippines....

About the pain thing the author didn't want to go to a place like "The Lion's Den" (Shamrock MMA) as he disapproved of the "hazing" that goes on there. Having read the book "Inside the Lions Den" sometime back I can see what he means. The book focuses more on "Gameness", to take a beating and carry on or even just to carry on (he talks with a boxer whose opponent died a few weeks later and after that lost his killer instinct for example).

The importance of conditioning comes up time and time again and it was interesting to hear PG Ah Loong discussing this with Master Boy Garcia recently. In the book the author tells a story about how Bruce Lee almost lost a street-fight to a bigger opponent and in the end it was his conditioning that won him through. Definitely gives my "Beer Belly" another prod!

Something else I have taken from the book is that it's better to have a dead-pan expression to relax the face which in turn will relax the body. Makes sense to me. The author also goes on a 10 day mediation retreat in Thailand and that was insightful too.

Good book - one for the "Martial Arts Library" if I had a place to settle for more than just a few years

It will be a "Virtual Library" with ipads and kindles before too long anyway. If only I could afford one!