{"id":12388,"date":"2010-09-13T23:09:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-14T04:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artofmanliness.com\/?p=12388"},"modified":"2025-11-16T18:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:09:25","slug":"the-art-of-manliness-podcast-episode-30-a-fighters-heart-mind-with-sam-sheridan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/health-fitness\/fitness\/the-art-of-manliness-podcast-episode-30-a-fighters-heart-mind-with-sam-sheridan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Manliness Podcast Episode #30: A Fighter&#8217;s Heart &#038; Mind with Sam Sheridan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/2f0970d0-e162-4cc9-99a1-bf8870d034af?dark=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Welcome back to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast! In this week&#8217;s episode I talk to Sam Sheridan, author of the book&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0802143431?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=stucosuccess-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0802143431\">A Fighter&#8217;s Heart<\/a><\/em> and his new book,&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B003L1ZYI8?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=stucosuccess-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B003L1ZYI8\">The<\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B003L1ZYI8?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=stucosuccess-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B003L1ZYI8\"> Fighter&#8217;s Mind.<\/a> <\/em>We discuss why kicking ass requires humility, how failure leads to success, what fighting has to do with manliness, and much, much more.<\/p>\n<h3>Listen to the Podcast! (And don\u2019t forget to leave us a review!)<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-art-of-manliness\/id332516054?mt=2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49206 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/07\/available-on-itunes.png\" alt=\"Available on itunes.\" width=\"250\" height=\"92\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49207 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/07\/available-on-stitcher.png\" alt=\"Available on stitcher.\" width=\"250\" height=\"92\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/artofmanliness\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49208 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2015\/07\/soundcloud-logo.png\" alt=\"Soundcloud logo.\" width=\"250\" height=\"127\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pcasts.in:443\/NwCI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49655\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2015\/08\/pocketcasts.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" srcset=\"\" alt=\"Pocketcasts logo.\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/managemusic?t=The_Art_of_Manliness\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-56926 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/google-play-podcast-e1464287132541.png\" alt=\"Google play podcast.\" width=\"250\" height=\"190\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2vJHmWhhcMQRXtTruuFWTJ\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-81682\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/01\/open-graph-default.png\" alt=\"Spotify.\" width=\"248\" height=\"130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/01\/open-graph-default.png 400w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/01\/open-graph-default-320x168.png 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/art19.com\/shows\/the-art-of-manliness\/episodes\/44330cf6-0468-494f-b5bc-4dad9b03abe4\">Listen to the episode on a separate page.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rss.art19.com\/episodes\/44330cf6-0468-494f-b5bc-4dad9b03abe4.mp3\">Download this episode.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omnycontent.com\/d\/playlist\/aaea4e69-af51-495e-afc9-a9760146922b\/6081eee7-c459-4e12-a1ab-aadc000fc4a7\/413a6904-4d72-4be8-9421-aadc000fc4ba\/podcast.rss\">Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Read the Transcript<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. Well, you\u2019ve seen them on TVs Ultimate Fighter, MMA Fighters who pound each other that bloody pulls all for the taste of glorious victory. But what sort of mindset does it take to step into a ring and face down another man whose only goal is to either knock you out or put you in some painful submission hold until you tap out.<\/p>\n<p>Well, our guess today has written two books on this topic, his name is Sam Sheridan, and he\u2019s the author of two books on fighting, The Fighter\u2019s Heart and The Fighter\u2019s Mind. In addition to writing the fighting, Sam has worked as merchant marine, sailed around the world, became a smoke jumper and has worked in Antarctica sounds like earnest to me why you are here. Well, Sam, welcome to the show.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me as I appreciate it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> All right. Well, the first thing I want to talk about is to kind of ask you about your background, you have a really interesting resume, you are merchant marine, right after high school you went to Harvard, you sailed around the world, you study Muay Thai in Bangkok, you are also a smoke jumper, and then you worked in Antarctica as well. I mean, what drives you to take on these different challenges and adventure, I mean, you sound like a really man\u2019s man type of or earnest why you care for them?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> You know, I never will plan it\u2019s sort of all that way and let me clarify I was never smoke jumper, I was a hotshot and then I\u2019ve got offered a smoke jumping job, but I never was able to it because I started writing. But, you know, it\u2019s a tough question why these things happened, I think a lot of it is, it\u2019s just in a way my life evolved a sort of I like the options that came up and I took some and said no to others and, you know, the merchant marine, I wasn\u2019t ready to go to college, I want to do something else and the opportunity came up, it\u2019s more when you look at my resume makes people laugh because it\u2019s a little ridiculous, but that was never the plan, that was never a goal to sort of set out to do a lot of crazy things, it\u2019s always been just, you know, day-to-day, option-to-option, what looks good in the future, and what seems like a good tone, and part of it is, you know, I\u2019m going to go work in Antarctica that doesn\u2019t sound like a good time, but if you can say, I\u2019m going to go work in Antarctica next year, yeah, what the hell it\u2019s next year, so then, you know, just gets closer, all the sudden you signed up and bought the tickets, and you are going, so you might as well go at that point. So, nothing special just willingness is all.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> Well, so you\u2019ve written two books on fighting and I\u2019ve read both and they are very interesting, kind of their memoirs\/kind of sports writing. You know the first one was called The Fighter\u2019s Heart, in that book you called fighting an anti-videogame, what do you mean by that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> You know when I started sporting and starting fighting it was just, it was the revelation in terms of how exciting it was and how present you had to be. I think a lot of that has to do with consequences, you know, videogames, and a lot in the modern world, but there\u2019s not a lot of consequence for what we do, there is not a lot of, you are never at risk, you are never really putting yourself physically at risk.<\/p>\n<p>And, the thrill and the excitement of doing that, you know, but it\u2019s still very safe and prescribed and civilized manner, I mean, you are wearing a mouth guard and you are wearing headgear, you are wearing big gloves using your boxing. And, more importantly your opponent has agreed to do the same and by the same rule, so you know, it\u2019s a very civilized and endeavor really, I mean, it sort of had some appearances of brutality, but it\u2019s actually extremely fun and it can sort of make you feel alive, I think what really drew me to in the beginning, it shock me kind of maybe out of my stupor a little bit. And, I do think that the videogame world and, you know, is a place that allows you to sleep a little bit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> Absolutely. So, Sam, how do you think fighting relates to manliness, and do you think most men have this desire to fight?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Of course, you know, I think, you know, you are dealing with evolution and your reptilian brain and your genetic, you know, desire to set high, so you are going to have reasons and urges to fight in you, no matter how they manifest themselves, whether it\u2019s ping pong, whether it\u2019s chess, whether it\u2019s in conversation \u2013 I mean to some extent, you know, they are going to seek to dominate and you want to try the express for ideas and control things.<\/p>\n<p>One of the fun things about actual fighting is you are getting back to your much more primal fighter fight responses and an interior kind of and you are getting down into your reptilian brain or whatever, you are getting to the back to the basics on that stuff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> And, do you think, I mean, why do you think it\u2019s\u2026?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> So, anyway, we can just go back to manliness, I think top culture in the way we see, you know, the manly man is fighting is a part of that, but I think, you know, the desire is in everyone, it\u2019s a little suppress to modern time sure, but it is definitely part of, it\u2019s an interval part of being a man and human nature, and you can\u2019t completely suppress, because this manifest itself another way, I mean, I\u2019ve had this crazy discussions with psychiatrist, who are trying to, you know, want up me on radio shows that, you know, fighting is this and that, and what I say to them is, oh, you are fighting me right now just in this conversation, you are looking to dominate this conversation and win social points, and it\u2019s just a different mean, you know, so it\u2019s all definitely part parcel for men.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> So, Sam, you\u2019ve just kind of touched on that a little bit, you know, fighting is both celebrate forced discipline encouraged, but also reviled sorts of violence. How do you reconcile the two, how do you reconcile the morality of fighting?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Yeah, you know, I actually don\u2019t see the conflict, I understand where the problem comes with and some of its semantics, some of its fighting, fighting, I mean, to me violence is about, you know, it happens when one party involved is not willing, right? So, if a criminal attack somebody that\u2019s violence, you know, and fighting in a bar often is violence, because somebody is just trying to have a good night, and somebody else wants to fight, you know, that\u2019s not what I\u2019m talking about at all, and that\u2019s not what I\u2019m interested in, and that\u2019s not what I write about, I mean, for two athletes to compete and to meet each other in a ring or cage in this kind of, you know, primitive combat going back to kind of our earliest most evolutionary old memories of fighting.<\/p>\n<p>But yet again like I say it\u2019s civilized, you know, there is a referee there, there is rule, you know, mixed martial arts, they call it no-holds-barred, but there is something like 54 holds you can\u2019t do, you know, but basically there is almost no permanent damage done, at least, you know, that\u2019s the theory, of course that is, you know, the brain damage done in concussion to that we can get into that at different time.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of being that, you know, you are fighting without caring somebody\u2019s eyeballs out, you are not face looking people, you are not doing, if they tap, the fight is over, if they submit to you, so it\u2019s really about, you know, you are enforcing your will, it\u2019s really about choosing and being supreme about your willingness. I think that is actually one of the reasons that people go on to fighting, and especially they are watching it, because it\u2019s a little bit of what you are seeing is kind of like fighters valuing their freewill over everything else, you know, that\u2019s what comes down to me all kind of kicking it behind that, you know, because if you get knocked out or I submit you, you\u2019ve given up your will, right, I get to do whatever I want, I\u2019m a victor. The idea that you are willing to fight me to the death, you know, \u201cto protect that freewill it\u2019s kind of admirable and heroic in a way that fighting means for money is not so interesting\u201d, and that\u2019s actually not what\u2019s it about I don\u2019t think either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> One thing I\u2019ve noticed, because it\u2019s really interesting about MMA fighters or any fighter boxers, etcetera, you know, I\u2019ve met and interacted with quite a few and they look ominous, they have tattoos, they got, you know, the shaved head, just huge bulking guys, and in the ring they just look angry and violent, but then outside of the ring these are some of the nice most, you know, humblest guys I\u2019ve ever met in my entire life. What do you think it counts for this dichotomy, I mean, what\u2019s going on there?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s interesting, you know, I think that was kind of what drew me to fighting in the first place when I was living in Thailand, and I sort of realized that the very best fighters in the camp were also the most divide Buddha\u2019s, and the most humble guys in the camp, which I kind of start with understand at the time. And, usually the third tier fighters were cocky and arrogant, and had something to prove, you know, it goes to a lot of things, it goes to a lot of things, but you know, one of them is \u2013 fighting is about identity, you know, you have to know who you are, and when you know who you are, you are more relaxed, you know, you are more comfortable person. You know, Sam, I\u2019m a tall skinny white guy, I don\u2019t fight like Forney weather, you know, I don\u2019t stay into the pocket, I have to know my identity, I have to fight like who I am and make my strengths and weaknesses of strengths.<\/p>\n<p>So, it really forces you to know who you are, and I know that I\u2019m not a world beater, right, I know that I\u2019m not a one punch knockout guy, and I can\u2019t backed that up, because I\u2019ve been with those guys and they smashed me, so you sort of can\u2019t hide in a sense in fighting, you are really exposed. And, I think what\u2019s interesting with professionals and it has success, they are very exposed and you have someone who stands up in front of millions of people essentially in his underwear, his hard, his courage, his ability to think, his character on display and everybody gets to see you can judge it, you know, of course just feeling things, you know, fighting in martial arts is about deception, but he\u2019s hiding in plan inside and a lot of that he can\u2019t hide or she can\u2019t hide.<\/p>\n<p>So, I think that goes to making them more relaxed person. The other thing is often, you know, if you want to be great at something particularly fighting you have to keep growing, you have to keep learning, you have to be able to put yourself underneath new teachers, and observe their lessons, because then they you start getting comfortable, and say, oh yeah I know everything, you are going to get beat and this is, you know, whatever your professional primarily to get tour to \u2013 to all kinds of guys, you know, they say this kind of thing.<\/p>\n<p>So, I used to think all great fighters became humble. And, I think what I realized to was that actually you don\u2019t become great unless you are humble, there\u2019s a little bit of chicken and egg going on there, the guys who can\u2019t suppress their ego \u2013 the feeling in terms of how much their national Muay Thai will take them and you\u2019ll see that in every sport, you know, you\u2019ll see really talented basketball players who can\u2019t keep growing, can\u2019t keep learning and they hit a point, and then the guy who can, all the sudden beating him, and I think that\u2019s just more obvious in fighting.<\/p>\n<p>And, finally the fighting is really, you know, still in professional fighting which is what I was interested in writing about was, you know, it is a way for particularly damage people to kind of find the place in society and find something they can excel out and find the place where their fear and anger can be really used in a positive way to make, you know, to generate a career for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>And, one of the things that what happened was that, you know, once these guys who have these chips on their shoulder start fighting professional, they really have nothing to prove outside the ring, they sort of, they know they are tough now, you know, they don\u2019t have to prove they are tough to everybody at this bar, they\u2019ve gotten up in the cage and they fought really tough guys and proved it on a really high level.<\/p>\n<p>So, a lot of the chatter falls away, a lot of the kind of radio interference of the statistic of, you know, a tough guy in the bar giving them a glare that might in the past had led to a fight, you know, now they don\u2019t care and they can\u2019t get, they don\u2019t have time, they are too tired, they have to take care of their bodies, because they\u2019re investment now, you know, they owe to themselves and their trainer not to get hurt, so that\u2019s part of it too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> In your second book that just recently came out, The Fighter\u2019s Mind. You interviewed, you go across the world interviewing fighters from different discipline and find out how they approach a fight mentally, what do successful fighters have in common when it comes to the psychological aspect of fighting. I imagine I guess humility is one, you just mentioned, are there any other ones?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Yeah, there was a couple of different things, but certainly the ability to learn and keep growing, was just, you know, you hear it from everyone all the time. When I talked to chess players and ultra-marathoners and you always fear kind of things like that, you know, and I guess there are other few things, but that was one of the big ones that were sort of really ubiquitous. And, I kind of, again, you know, it goes to identity and knowledge, and kind of being unwilling to, you know, you may never be Mohammed Ali, right? But you can be the greatest version of Brett there is, you know, the best Brett fighter there is or I could be the best Sam fighter out there, you know, and that\u2019s an interesting thing as you know, taking your strengths and weakness and see how they can be most effective and that\u2019s kind of something that everybody can get behind, you know, self knowledge, and really fully utilizing your own strengths I think it\u2019s an important interesting lessons from these guys.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> And, you think these lessons that you\u2019ve got from these, you\u2019ve taken from these men, are they applicable to other areas of life, like an average Joe, he\u2019s never probably going to fight?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my wife for instance is director, and she recommends The Fighter\u2019s Mind on the second book to everyone or her director friends, because you know, there\u2019s just things about like dealing with fear and how you get over fear and how you deal with loss, you know, dealing with early success, you know, you get guys who do really well in the beginning and then they get scared to lose. And, what happens when you get scared to lose you start losing, you know, the fear becomes the problem, and you are not doing your things that made you successful in the first place, so you know, there is a lot of lessons I think.<\/p>\n<p>And, fighting again, you know, it\u2019s just like life and that\u2019s why all, you know, you mentioned Hemingway and everybody has been drawn to fighting in boxing and cross fighting and things like that, it\u2019s just like life only more happiest, you know, it\u2019s just everything is right point and kind of out there to be looked at and thought about, which is why I think a lot of writers and filmmakers and, you know, find drama there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> What about failure, I mean, how does, is failure an important part of the success of a fighter?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Absolutely, you know, like Hanzel Gracie very first famous Brazilian fighter would say, you know, you don\u2019t learn anything from victory; you\u2019ll learn something from your failures. And, really what defines your failure is whether you do grow from it, whether you do internalize lesson, you know, invest in the defeat, which is, you know, again it\u2019s sort of skits, you know, almost sounds like self health books and, you know, 10 tips to a successful people, but some of that\u2019s very true, you know, you want the guy to get beat and understand what happens and come back stronger and figure out ways to fix that gap.<\/p>\n<p>Here is one of my little pet peeves is that you watch a lot of fights and you\u2019re all here, fans go, oh, he\u2019s making excuses when a fighter loses, he\u2019s making, oh, his making excuses, and, you know, it\u2019s like what\u2019s to do, this guy is a professional fighter, this is what he does for a living, if he just says, oh, I can\u2019t beat this guy, he\u2019s better than me he\u2019s screwed, you know, I mean, that he can\u2019t do that mentally that\u2019s not a good strategy, he has to have a reason, you know, a reason you\u2019ve lost and a reason you can win the next time, he needs, you know, in his corner men, and his coaches are all giving him reasons even if they are not true, he needs the reason to think he can win the next time or how could he do what he does<\/p>\n<p>So, you know, that\u2019s just a little pet peeve mind that kind of illustrate that, you really, you need to learn from your losses and Hanzel actually has pictures of all his loses on his walls, you know, because like he said, you make a mistake in a big fight or a competition you never make that mistake again, you know, you lose because of that mistake, you learn never like, you know, he let the Sakuraba grab Cameron and when he was checking Sakuraba\u2019s back and Zack Albert broke his arm and he has that picture on his wall and it\u2019s great, because it\u2019s like, he\u2019s not going to take a back like that again, because he learned, you know, he learned a lesson. And, I think, he was in the fight that had 30 after or whatever, you know, internalizing, if you are really understanding and growing from defeat it\u2019s hugely important and I think everybody, you know, has to kind of get on board with that one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> Has fighting changed you as a man?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> You know it\u2019s hard to say, I guess so probably, you know, I think, it\u2019s tough, certainly I\u2019m probably, you know, a lot more athletic and physical than I would be if I hadn\u2019t been doing sports for the last 10 year, you\u2019ll only get out of college and pretty much that\u2019s it for sports, unless you don\u2019t throw. So, for me the key doing things physically was an interesting kind of journey that become much more like, you know, changing as a man, I don\u2019t know it\u2019s hard to say probably, I would say probably I\u2019m a little, you know, more confident and relaxed about concentration than I was. And, part of its mystery is gone, you know, it\u2019s a little bit like sex, you know, before you ever have sex it\u2019s a huge mystery, you know, wonderful and terrifying, oh my god, what\u2019s it going to be like, and then you have sex, oh wow, it\u2019s great. But, it\u2019s not \u2013 it\u2019s not that totally different outside of all other experiences you\u2019ve ever had, you know, you are doing state or whatever.<\/p>\n<p>So, I think getting to that with fighting a lot, you know, there is a lot of misunderstandings about what, you know, having someone punch you in the face until you get it done and it\u2019s sort of hard to understand and it\u2019s not, you know, I\u2019m not saying you are out there and let people beat you up, but I think what really important is just to understand the urgency and the speed which violence can happen and kind of intensity that you need to be at that you do to it a little bit and for everyone to get a feel for and to just broaden their understanding. But, you know, I\u2019m not that kind of guy, I think everybody should do everything because I think, you know, understanding is the key to universal, you are going broaden your understanding by doing basically.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> Well, Sam, if there is a man listening to this podcast, he\u2019s like man I want to start fighting, what steps do you recommend that he take to get started?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> You know I would say find gym, you know, find a gym that\u2019s close, to me, you know, I\u2019m never going to go more than about 15 minutes to 20 minutes to gym that\u2019s the way I am. So, either I have to go live over the gym or I find something very close to home, but you know, there is a ton of MMA gyms out there now, I would shop around, you know, for instance if you live in a big city, I\u2019m sure there is probably 10 MMA gyms that are in your city, and they should all give you at least one free class, go rule around the floor and wrestle some people and, you know, see how the vibe is if the gym gives you a good vibe, you know great and it\u2019s very personal and it\u2019s very much, you know, way experience you have and listener plenty of gyms won\u2019t give you a good vibe and you won\u2019t have a good time and screw those places, you know, don\u2019t go in there, because it\u2019s not the work that you can waste too much time and money and get injured and all that stuff.<\/p>\n<p>So, you know, I wouldn\u2019t \u2013 don\u2019t go in and say, hey, I want to fight, you know, because listen, you know, MMA coaches and trainers they hear that all the time like, oh, I want to fight, I want to be in your seat, you know, it\u2019s who cares, everybody wants to fight, you need to give me six months of getting to the gym everyday and then tell me you want to fight, and then see how you feel and that\u2019ll free you a lot, the first month or two and, you know, some people love it, and some people it\u2019s too tiring and, you know, that\u2019s the way it is, so I would just jump around and try few gyms and get a feel for it and then just sort of goes where it says, go with your intuition on that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> All right. Well, Sam, thank you for your time. It\u2019s been a pleasure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Sheridan:<\/strong> Absolutely, no problem, my pleasure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett McKay:<\/strong> Our guess today was Sam Sheridan. Sam is the author of two books on fighting, his first is called The Fighter\u2019s Heart and his most recent book is called A Fighter\u2019s Mind, and you can pick up both of those books at major book store in Amazon.com. Well, that wraps up another edition of The Art of Manliness podcast. For more manly tips and advice, make sure to check out The Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com. And, until next time stay manly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff Welcome back to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast! In this week&#8217;s episode I talk to Sam Sheridan, author of the book&nbsp;A Fighter&#8217;s Heart and his new book,&nbsp;The Fighter&#8217;s Mind. We discuss why kicking ass requires humility, how failure leads to success, what fighting has to do with manliness, and much, much [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,7,156],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-health-fitness","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2010\/09\/sheridan-320x173.jpg","rpwe-thumbnail":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2010\/09\/sheridan-45x45.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12388"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139216,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12388\/revisions\/139216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12388"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}