Read Online Fighter's Mind, A by Sam Sheridan - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sam Sheridan
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more you watch, the more you can convince yourself of something else. You clutter your mind. When I was a fighter, the more tape I watched, the more I’d be surprised by stuff.” Mark breaks into a surprised voice, playing the confused fighter. “He didn’t look like he had power but he hits hard! I never saw him throw a left lead kick but he’s been doing it all night!” He laughs. “So I watch enough tape to get an understanding, then I shut it down.
“With MMA these days, everyone’s traveling. So I find out where he’s preparing, who’s in his camp. Is he in Thailand? Or is he at Team Quest? If everyone at whatever camp he’s at has a great single-leg takedown, we’ll work on defending that.
“Always, there is the individual you’ve got. Like Kenny Florian, he doesn’t do well if you overbuild his confidence. His brother helped me understand that. He relaxes too much. Jorge Rivera is similar, but he’s also nervous, so I keep him relaxed, telling him ‘you’ll kill this guy’ through training so he’ll sleep well and train hard. But then right at the fight I’ll start making him nervous, ‘You better watch out for this guy he’s really tough,’ because Jorge needs that edge.
“I definitely watch the opponent and his trainer on their way into the cage. How smooth are they operating, how relaxed are they? Are they nervous? Where’s the ice? Where’s the mouth guard? Are they fumbling around? Well, if the captain of the ship is a nervous wreck, there’s a problem on board. And the reverse is important. When I come in, it’s like clockwork, everyone has a job, everything is on schedule. I keep it perfectly organized, like feng shui I know where everything is and everything is right. The fighter gets water the second he thinks of it, he gets his mouth guard the second the referee asks for it. He turns to me, and boom, I slide it in. If a trainer doesn’t know something, or is nervous, it’s the beginning of the end, because it will carry over into the fighter. When you see chaos in the locker room that’s a bad sign.
“I still go to a lot of amateur muay Thai fights, and for a guy’s first fight I just make sure he knows it’s a sport. There are people here, this is a controlled environment, he’s not gonna kill you with a knife! In fact, when it’s over, you guys are going to be best friends for about a month.” He laughs. “I’ve just seen it so many times. I tell my first timers, ‘You may hate it or you may love it, but you’ll learn something. It’ll be a great experience.’”
That night we drove through the frozen streets in a caravan to Legal Seafood. I sat between Kenny, Mark, Patrick Cote (a top 185-pounder), and assorted guests. We all listened rapt to Marcus Davis, another UFC professional with a battered friendly face, tell truly terrifying ghost stories. As we ate I felt the warmth of camp all around me.
THE KING OF SCRAMBLES
Marcelo Garcia (Courtesy: Marcelo Garcia)
If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain
some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something
wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.
—Shunryu Suzuki
Mixed martial arts, the modern-day proving ground for hand-to-hand combat systems, introduced ground fighting into the collective conscious. Royce Gracie proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that fighters who couldn’t fight on the ground were easy pickings for those who could. He used a family variant of the Japanese martial art jujutsu, called Brazilian (or Gracie) Jiu-Jitsu. What the world didn’t know was that MMA fights had been taking place in front of massive crowds in Brazil for fifty years or more, under the catch-all name vale tudo, “anything goes.” The Brazilians knew the value of ground fighting, and the Gracie family knew how to take a good striker out of his element. The philosophy has always been a part of fighting—take your enemy from where he wants to be, make
“With MMA these days, everyone’s traveling. So I find out where he’s preparing, who’s in his camp. Is he in Thailand? Or is he at Team Quest? If everyone at whatever camp he’s at has a great single-leg takedown, we’ll work on defending that.
“Always, there is the individual you’ve got. Like Kenny Florian, he doesn’t do well if you overbuild his confidence. His brother helped me understand that. He relaxes too much. Jorge Rivera is similar, but he’s also nervous, so I keep him relaxed, telling him ‘you’ll kill this guy’ through training so he’ll sleep well and train hard. But then right at the fight I’ll start making him nervous, ‘You better watch out for this guy he’s really tough,’ because Jorge needs that edge.
“I definitely watch the opponent and his trainer on their way into the cage. How smooth are they operating, how relaxed are they? Are they nervous? Where’s the ice? Where’s the mouth guard? Are they fumbling around? Well, if the captain of the ship is a nervous wreck, there’s a problem on board. And the reverse is important. When I come in, it’s like clockwork, everyone has a job, everything is on schedule. I keep it perfectly organized, like feng shui I know where everything is and everything is right. The fighter gets water the second he thinks of it, he gets his mouth guard the second the referee asks for it. He turns to me, and boom, I slide it in. If a trainer doesn’t know something, or is nervous, it’s the beginning of the end, because it will carry over into the fighter. When you see chaos in the locker room that’s a bad sign.
“I still go to a lot of amateur muay Thai fights, and for a guy’s first fight I just make sure he knows it’s a sport. There are people here, this is a controlled environment, he’s not gonna kill you with a knife! In fact, when it’s over, you guys are going to be best friends for about a month.” He laughs. “I’ve just seen it so many times. I tell my first timers, ‘You may hate it or you may love it, but you’ll learn something. It’ll be a great experience.’”
That night we drove through the frozen streets in a caravan to Legal Seafood. I sat between Kenny, Mark, Patrick Cote (a top 185-pounder), and assorted guests. We all listened rapt to Marcus Davis, another UFC professional with a battered friendly face, tell truly terrifying ghost stories. As we ate I felt the warmth of camp all around me.
THE KING OF SCRAMBLES
Marcelo Garcia (Courtesy: Marcelo Garcia)
If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain
some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something
wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.
—Shunryu Suzuki
Mixed martial arts, the modern-day proving ground for hand-to-hand combat systems, introduced ground fighting into the collective conscious. Royce Gracie proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that fighters who couldn’t fight on the ground were easy pickings for those who could. He used a family variant of the Japanese martial art jujutsu, called Brazilian (or Gracie) Jiu-Jitsu. What the world didn’t know was that MMA fights had been taking place in front of massive crowds in Brazil for fifty years or more, under the catch-all name vale tudo, “anything goes.” The Brazilians knew the value of ground fighting, and the Gracie family knew how to take a good striker out of his element. The philosophy has always been a part of fighting—take your enemy from where he wants to be, make
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