“When ever I am working with athletes or teaching coaches, I challenge them to “define” certain words used about sport that they may hear or say all the time.  I issue this challenge in order for my athletes to really make a connection with and commitment to the word.  What I mean here, warriors, is that until you have decided what a word really means to you and how that word has an effect on your life, the odds are that your character just may be missing what the magic behind the meaning of that word has to offer.

Last night I watched the Strikeforce MMA show on CBS and I have to say I was impressed.   Not only was the show free to the national public and a 4 fight card with some outstanding fighters, but there was one word that stood out to me especially during three of the fights that I felt compelled to address in this blog entry.  That word was Adversity.

If I were to define the word adversity, I would simply describe the term as, “When times get tough.”  Taking this description further, I would say that the adversity that one faces does not define him, but oftentimes it reveals him.  Last night, there were three fighters that were “revealed” to me during their exciting matches.  I will list them in order of the bouts.

Fabricio Werdum

His fight against the giant Antonio Silva was fantastic.  I am sure as Fabricio woke up this morning, although probably sore, he had a smile on his face for he faced adversity and came out a better fighter.   In the first round, Werdum was pounded with some big shots that could almost have had the ref stopping the fight.  Werdum continued to battle and used his superior conditioning and jiu jitsu to eventually take home a hard fought decision.  Times got tough for Werdum and he did what champions do: instead of looking at their weaknesses, they rely on their strengths and battle with everything they have.”

 Martin Rooney

www.trainingforwarriors.com

On a side note; Martin Rooney is one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to working with combat athletes.  His book, website, and seminars are the basis for a lot of my training and I thank him for that.