What do You think about A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey Through The World Of Fighting (2007)?
I was just re-reading the notes I took while I read this book and a 3 doesn't seem fair. Granted, there are some slow points while we travel with Sam from training locale to training locale. However, there are a number of thoughts and reflections, paragraphs here and there, which really gave me pause. I had been bracing myself for the dogfighting chapter, but came away with a better understanding of the aspirational quality of the sport. (I'm resisting using quotes around sport there.) I don't agree with the practice but Sam's logic about the perceived barbarity can be applied to many an animal that I don't happen to keep as a pet helped me hang in there so that I could hear about this idea of gameness. I will say that dogfighting, as he described, is not as I had imagined. Is it vicious? Yes, but it seems, dare I say, less cruel. Anyway, I find the idea of fighting, of conquering fear and feeling physically capable, intriguing, particularly in combination with gender identity.
—Andrea
This book seems to be getting flak for a misleading title. I could see that happening if I’d just saw the title and even then was being vague to myself about it. This isn’t a manual, a how-to. It’s a collection of life experience from a guy in love with the sport. This is a perspective of someone that will never see multi-million dollar pay-per-views or even something that pays. It’s something that other authors that have the same thoughts for other sports could take into reason. Or anything for that matter, it’s “I eat, breathe and sleep about (insert topic here) and I’m going to write about it.” That’s it. It’s fantastic, reminded of a lucky book I read and came across by Robert Anasi “Gloves” or something like that, I’m to lazy to click a link and look. It was similar but Anasi had actually trained and entered the Golden Gloves in New York. It wasn’t a Morgan Spurlock thing though both concepts were about authors wanting to be near the sport and Sheridan did a great job of that. If you are a fan of sweat, training and pushing yourself and also have a soft spot for boxing/martial arts/MMA. Give this a go; you’ll probably like it. At this point it’s a solid 4 stars. Here’s where it goes to 3. Why in the world was dogfighting or even cock fighting in this book? I get the analogy. I get the Thai location and customs; I mean this book isn’t pro- animal fighting. It’s just why was this in the book at all, I read about a fraction of this chapter and skipped the rest, f$%king pointless. One star lost. A strong 3 stars though. If you are on par with my first paragraph though, read this, don’t let the second discourage you. Read on. Format: .mobi
—Wesley
A Fighter's Heart has spent years on my "I need to read this" shelf without me ever actually reading it. Having finally done so, I'm very glad I did.A Fighter's Heart is the story of Sam Sheridan's exploration into what it is that makes competitive fighters tick. Along the way, he explores Muay Thai, Boxing, Brazilian Juijitsu, Mixed Martial Arts, and (of all things) Tai Chi. He also explores dog and cock fighting, spends some time in a Buddhist monastery, and does a little bit of stunt fighting work. At each stage, he comes back to the same burning question "why is it that people like doing this stuff, anyway?".Some of the fun of this book is just the travelogue aspect of it; Sheridan literally travels the world, meeting all kinds of strange and fun people, and his writing style gives the whole book an air of easy conversation. But it also contains some serious introspection into the mind of what drives some people to jump into confined spaces and try to beat each other up for no particularly apparent reason.The only thing I didn't like about this book was, predictably, the section on dogfighting. While Sheridan does an admirable job of trying to find something good and noble in the activity, I just can't get behind it. Despite his best efforts, I will continue to view people who fight dogs as scum--if they are that invested in testing their gameness, they can get into the ring or on the mat themselves. Having someone (or something) else fight for you by proxy does not prove anything.While combat athletes will doubtless enjoy this book (and find a lot of themselves in it), those are not the first people I would recommend it to. Instead, I would recommend it to those people who are close to combat athletes, but cannot, for the life of them, make sense of why they do what they do. For those trying to figure it out, Sheridan's book may offer some insight.Overall, I really enjoy this one. If you have any interest in combat sport, it's worth the read.
—Jake
