THE FIGHTER’S MIND By SAM SHERIDAN

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Jeffrey Newman

I happened on this book in an airport bookstore on my way back from Baltimore and think it worth reading for anyone endeavoring to evolve. In it, the author interviews coaches, boxers, mixed martial artists and other atheletes to examine the mental aspects of winning. Although it is about sport, I think the lessons distilled apply to most endeavors including science, medicine, law and the creative professions like art and writing. The inner concept of will and the struggle to succeed and learn and the detriments of ego to the concept of deeper learning are all, for example, part of learning. For example, one master of jiujistu explains how a person must have sufficient ego to believe they can dominate once in the ring but that ego must be jettisoned once the bout is over in order to examine what was done poorly and engage in the kind of constant learning and training that will allow a greater understanding of the nuances of fight. Daily learning through total immersion without ego roadblocks. This is relevant to the study of science and medicine in which turfwars and ego pervades the present structure of competing laboratories in the U.S. There is one interesting chapter on a well known former boxer turned coach, who now suffers from Parkinson’s disease. His hand tremors are normally so profound that he holds them in his pocket when being interviewed. But when he is in the ring training his fighters with padded gloves for hours, the tremors disappear. This is probably more of a summer book but an interesting one with great diversity and intensity of writing.