Sam Sheridan's Blog, page 4

I hate to say it

Concussions. You know where this is going. Another NFL player just shot himself in the heart, so that the NFL could analyze his brain and all the trauma and protein breakdown that concussions caused. This guy was smart, something like an Academic All-American, and his life fell apart, marriage, job, everything, because of the breakdown of proteins in his brain.

Good story: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...

Somebody just wrote me about sparring, about going home at night with a headache, not being able to sleep. That is a concussion. Take at least two weeks off. The experts are starting to think that it's not necessarily the concussion but the repeated trauma that is really damaging. Everybody I know who played high school football has at least one game where they don't remember half the game, and kept playing, and "had a great half!"

Definitely in sparring, you get dropped, you want to get up and fight through it. Get back in there, I'm not a pussy.

All I am going to say is, unless you think you can be champ, don't go pro. Unless you think you have a legitimate shot at being Champion of the World, do not turn pro. It's not worth it. Sparring is wonderful and critically important, but it's also important to know when to stop or lay off for a few months. Professional boxers don't spar every day. They spar in preparation for a fight, and usually a fixed number of rounds, 40 rounds, 50 rounds, whatever, over an 8 week camp. MMA guys will spar hard for 10, 12 rounds twice a week for years, and that's just way too much.

Spar sparingly, I guess…

Emerson

In what prayers do men allow themselves! That which they call a holy office is not so much as brave and manly. Prayer looks abroad and asks for some foreign addition to come through some foreign virtue, and loses itself in endless mazes of natural and supernatural, and mediatorial and miraculous. Prayer that craves a particular commodity, —any thing less than all good, —is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends. Caratach, in Fletcher's Bonduca, when admonished to inquire the mind of the god Audate, replies,—

"His hidden meaning lies in our endeavours;

Our valors are our best gods."

(And by the way, I'm a fairly hard-core atheist. God Bless)

BJJ/MMA for kids

I think that studying BJJ and or MMA is great for kids.

Yes, of course you need strict supervision, and good parenting–that's true for any sport.

The thing about BJJ is, it's Anti-Bully. What's the first experience you have when you go into a BJJ class? You get humbled. You get dominated. The skinniest kid in there wrecks you; because grappling is about knowledge. Even a kid with six months training will pretty much destroy a bigger kid (that has no training). So the first experience everyone has in there is humbling. You learn to submit. To fight hard, to struggle, but then to submit when you have to. If you can't control your ego, you won't last long, and you won't learn much. Controlling the ego is hand in hand with improving.

That lasts until somebody new comes in, somebody greener than you. Now, there is one guy in there you can crush! But you don't. You know why?

You remember. Because just a few weeks ago, it was YOU getting hammered, getting tapped and stacked up and pushed around. And people were nice to you about it. They helped you understand the rookie mistakes you were making. So you can't wait to help out the new guy.

In my experience, this has been how grappling classes usually work, and in this sense, they destroy bullies and make men.

Of course, little kids shouldn't be getting hit in the head. Nobody should, really. But I think grappling and MMA related stuff is terrific for kids, because of the mental discipline involved.

Dominica and the Kalinoga…

Funny story, a British production company called Tigress cold-called me, and asked me if I would be interested in being a "presenter," a host for TV show. While I've never wanted to be on TV, the project sounded cool (I don't think I can talk about it, but it's a kind of social anthropology) so I said "sure."

So tomorrow I fly to Dominica, which is a beautiful, remote island in the Southern Caribbean, one of the few with real mountains and jungle. Just for a couple of days, to shoot what they call a "taster." So maybe I'll end up on the BBC, mates! British Telly! Cheerio!

I have realized that I hate writing, so this comes at a nice time…

…I'm kidding. I'm about 2/3rds done with the new book and now comes the hard work, the grind of pulling it all together and making something great (or trying to). I dread this part.

What would y'all like to see?

I know that my blogging record is terrible, some of that is deliberate and some of it is happenstance. I don't really like blogging, I don't do it well. I think what I bring to the table as a writer is hard work and research, something that blogging doesn't really deal well with.

I'm sure there aren't many readers to this blog anyway, but if anybody out there has things they want to discuss or hear about, let me know.

Status on the third book is good, I'm writing for a new publisher, Rodale Press, and hopefully delivering in 2012. The book is about surviving the end of the world, learning and mastering the skills that might be called upon. Unfortunately, I can't really write about it as most of the stuff goes into the book, and Rodale has paid for it!

But anyway, if there was something going forward to discuss, let me know. Thanks

S

Shield's stand-up

Yes, Jake Shield's stand-up looks particularly bad, he's awkward, he boxes like a wrestler. BUT it's not that bad, because it just doesn't need to be. It just needs to exist, to be enough to keep somebody honest, because the takedown threat is so imminent, so real, quick, and relentless, that Jake isn't fighting the same stand-up fight as everyone else. You can't fight Jake like a kickboxer or boxer, you'll end up on your back. So in his style, in his world, his stand-up is really good–and he'll keep you honest because he will hit you if he can. He's so quick and attacking with his takedowns that if you really stand and try to trade with him he's going to get the single leg and run it.

As far as fearing the takedown, did anybody see how easily he was reversing Phil Davis when Davis took him down? Scary. By all means, take me down, says Jake.

All that being said, I would make GSP 3:1 favorite.

Yikes

Who wants to fight Jon Jones? NOBODY.

Just got back

Hey guys, I was in Nunavik, in North-Eastern Canada on the Hudson bay for a bit, studying Sea-Ice-survival with the Inuit. It was cold, got a little frostbit and so forth. Interesting story: So these guys are the Inuit, which just means "The People" in their language, Inuttitut. They had a written language before Europeans came, they're more like the Mongols than Indians, the word "eskimo" or "esquimeax" was what the Indians to the South called them and means "eaters of raw meat," which is how they got introduced to the white man.

And yes, I did eat plenty of raw meat! Slept in an igloo, sled-dogs, the whole deal.

And I'd be lying if I said I thought Shogun has a chance this weekend–can't see Jones losing!

Got to take the belt

My thoughts on the judging of the recent title fight, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard…draw was the right decision, and that means Frankie wins and retains the belt. "You got to take the belt from the champ," and a any close fight should by default go to the Champion. That's why I didn't think Shogun got robbed in the first fight with Machida, either. You can't give somebody the strap for eking out a razor-thin decision.

Watching that second round, I had goosebumps, that was an amazing moment, I fell in love with Frankie Edgar right there. I think the miracle of that survival and comeback swayed the judges, the fans, and the world.

getting spammed like crazy

Hey guys, I'm getting tons of spam so if you have a real message to me, or comment, make sure you make it clear and specific to me. Thanks, and happy holidays.