I picked up A Fighter’s Heart by Sam Sheridan at the airport on the way back from VA. I’m nearly through it already, a quick and easy read.
Sheridan has fought in several different styles over the last decade or so. He attaches himself to an intensive gym in Muay Thai, MMA, Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, or whatever … trains for three to six months … and then tries to convince his trainer to find him a money fight at the appropriate level. He funds this habit by writing for the Men’s Journal, Sports Illustrated, and so on. It’s sort of a one-man Human Weapon.
I like his writing style, as well as his stated reasons for stepping into the ring again and again. A few of his off-the-cuff comments are totally dead on with my experiences to date. One that I keep coming back to is his description of grappling, the “ground game:”
There is nothing so frightening as being on the ground with a guy who really knows what he’s doing; it’s like being in the water with a shark. You’re struggling, desperate, trying to escape, and suddenly you can’t breathe, you’re smothered, and you can’t see, your arms are getting twisted off, and you “tap” and then it’s all over.
That, broadly speaking, has been my experience rolling with any of the skilled guys at the judo school.
