Larry Bird's Key to Success


Larry Bird, one of the greatest ever in basketball, had a theory on life:

“I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”

That attitude can be translated into MMA or any other aspect of life. Here are five ways that this theory works.

1. No Regrets

If you give it your all every time your conscience is clear. You have no regrets of not leaving it all there. You did everything you could do and you sleep like a baby.

2. Respect

Regardless of the outcome, people respect those who give it their all; who try their best. People will respect you and you will respect yourself. You will be able to look in the mirror and know you gave 100 percent, and walk a little bit taller no matter what happens.

3. Confidence

If you do everything you can in practice that gives you a strong mentality going into competition. If you did everything right, cut no corners, trained hard, trained smart; then there's a sense of fearlessness because you did all you could do. There's also a sense of peace that comes with that because that's all you can really expect of yourself.

4. This Translates into Competition

Giving your all in practice will lead to giving your all in competition. You are used to putting forth 100 percent effort every time it's not a cataclysmic event when you're required to do that on game day. It's normal. It's what you do.

5. Improvement

If you give your all ever time you will improve vastly. You're trying to find a way to win, you're drilling with all your might, constantly learning, and improving leaps and bounds, all the time.


Below are some MMA picture quotes which go along with this theme. There have images of Chris Weidman and Rashad Evans talking about how winning practice translates into the fight; Anderson Silva noting that if you train 100 percent the results will be the same; and Rick Story comments about how even if you don't feel like training, if you go and do it and give it your all, the results will be amazing.