*** Instant New York Times bestseller *** *** USA Today bestseller *** *** Wall Street Journal bestseller *** From legendary Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA master Rickson Gracie comes a riveting, insightful memoir that weaves together the story of Gracie's stunning career with the larger history of the Gracie family dynasty and the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, showing how the connection between mind and body can be harnessed for success both inside and outside the ring. Undefeated from the late 1970s through his final fight in the Tokyo Dome in 2000, Rickson Gracie amassed hundreds of victories in the street, on the mat, at the beach, and in the ring. He has joined the pantheon that includes Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Jackie Chan as one of the most famous martial artists of the twentieth century. Jiu-Jitsu, the fighting style developed and pioneered by his family, has become one of the world's most prominent martial arts, and Vale Tudo, the "anything goes" style of Brazilian street fighting over which the Gracies had a monopoly, was an early precursor to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Simply put, without the Gracie family, there would be no sport of "MMA," no 4-billion-dollar UFC empire, and no "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" at strip malls all across America. In Breathe, for the first time, Rickson reveals the full story of how his father and uncles came to develop Jiu-Jitsu, what it was like to grow up among several generations of world-renowned fighters from the Gracie clan, and the principles and skills that guided him to his undefeated record. From learning to assert himself on the streets of Rio to gaining fame and honor in Japan and emerging through heartbreaking tragedy, the martial arts master shares tales of overcoming challenges, extolling universal virtues and showing readers how pride and ego are the enemies of success. With never-before-seen photos and profound insights into the sport and way of life that only a studied legend can provide, Breathe is an entertaining and magnified view of an enduring legacy as well as an inspiring tale of weathering life's complexities and overcoming them with style and grace.

AB de Villiers is een van Suid-Afrika se grootste sporthelde. Hy is sedert 2011 kaptein van die Suid-Afrikaanse eendagspan asook ’n lid van die nasionale span sedert hy op 20 Desember 2004, op 20-jarige ouderdom, sy buiging vir die Proteas gemaak het. AB het reg deur sy lewe op die sportveld uitgeblink én word vandag as een van die beste kolwers ter wêreld, in alle aspekte van die spel beskou.

AB: Die Outobiografie, sal insig bied oor die man agter die kolf en onder die kopskerm, asook oor deurslaggewende oomblikke tydens sy loopbaan en sy verhoudingsbande met verskillende mentors. Die leser sal teruggeneem word na die agterplaas van AB se ouerhuis waar hy as kind die eerste keer saam met sy broers leer krieket speel het, en sal voorgestel word aan al die kleurvolle karakters en sportlui wat paaie met AB gekruis het.

AB se belangstelling in musiek en in die sakewêreld word ook onder die loep geneem asook hoe hy hierdie belangstellings van hom saam met sy internasionale krieketloopbaan uitleef.

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE ICE-SKATING DUO WHO BECAME THE NATION'S FAVOURITES - NOW THE SUBJECT OF A MAJOR ITV BIOPIC. When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean collapsed to the ice at the climax of their routine to Bolero in the 1984 Winter Olympics, the judges could find no fault, awarding them 12 maximum scores of 6.0, while 24 million viewers watching at home in Britain simply looked on in amazement. Suddenly, we were all experts in figure skating, and we wanted to know more about the couple at the heart of it all. Despite intense interest in them, Torvill & Dean kept their lives private, with many still wondering if the pair were really a couple. They turned professional and would eventually spend eight years working on ITV's Dancing on Ice, but still much of their story remained unknown. Now, in Our Life on Ice, Torvill & Dean finally open up about the challenges they have faced and the pressures of life in the public eye: Jayne speaks candidly about her struggle with husband Phil to have children, while Chris reveals the heartache in his family story. And of course, there is the skating, and the stories about what inspired their famous routines, and what the pair hope to achieve in the future as the approach their fortieth anniversary working together. It is the book their millions of fans have been waiting to read.

Marcelo Bielsa is one of football's greatest eccentrics and greatest enigmas. This will be the first English biography of one of football's most contradictory characters. He has coached some of the greatest names in world football - Gabriel Batistuta, Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano, Juan Sebastian Veron and Ander Herrera. He has been cited as a mentor by Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino and Diego Simeone. Yet Marcelo Bielsa remains one of the great enigmas of world football - a fabulously innovative and obsessive coach, who has transformed Leeds United, Marseille and Athletic Bilbao. He also lasted two days at Lazio and led Argentina to their greatest footballing disaster. Featuring interviews from across South America, Europe and Yorkshire, The Quality of Madness is a comprehensive and compelling biography, tracing Bielsa's story from growing up as a member of one of Argentina's most remarkable families to his revival of Leeds. Bielsa has long been known as 'El Loco' - the Madman - and yet as Tim Rich's revelatory study reveals, there is mercurial method and audacious logic to the madness.

In Stillness and Speed, one of football's most enigmatic stars finally opens up about his life and career, revealing the things that motivate and inspire him. Viewed by many as one of the most influential figures in Premier League history, and scorer of the goal that Arsenal fans voted the best in the club's history, Dennis Bergkamp is a true giant of the game. As a youngster, Bergkamp learned from the Dutch master Johan Cruyff. By the time the pupil was ready to graduate from Ajax and move abroad, he was ready to spread the word, but in Italy he found few willing listeners. It was only when he moved to Arsenal and linked up with Arsene Wenger that he met someone else who shared his vision for football's possibilities. Bergkamp became central to everything the club did: now he had become the teacher, their creative genius, and the one who inspired some of the wayward old guard to new heights, helping them to seven major trophies. Few footballers' books make you think anew, but in Stillness and Speed Bergkamp presents a new vision for the game and how it might be played. He was a player like no other; his story is told like no other. It is a book that will inspire football fans everywhere, whatever their allegiance.

To understand how the NFL became the sports phenomenon it is today, you can study its history or you can live its history as an active participant. Upton Bell grew up at the knee of the NFL's first great commissioner, his father, the legendary Bert Bell, who not only saved the game from financial ruin after World War II but was one of its greatest innovators. Coining the phrase "On any given Sunday," Bert invented the pro football draft and proposed sudden death rules. Present at the Creation details Bell's firsthand experiences, which started as he watched his father draw up the league schedule each year at the kitchen table using dominoes. There he learned the importance of parity, which is a hallmark of the league's success, and also how to create it. Over the past fifty-three years, Bell has been an owner, a general manager, a personnel executive, a scouting director for two Super Bowl teams, a television commentator and analyst, and a talk-radio host. He has seen the NFL from the inside and has experienced many of the most important moments in NFL history. Bell was player personnel director for the Baltimore Colts when the team played in three championship games and appeared in two Super Bowls (1968 and 1970). At thirty-three, he became the youngest general manager in NFL history when he joined the Patriots in that role in 1971. He left the NFL in 1974 to compete against it, joining the upstart World Football League as owner of the Charlotte Hornets, which lasted just two years. In 1976 Bell began his forty-year career as a radio and TV talk-show host, yet he remains a football guy who was in the middle of the game's most significant moments and knows that half the story has never been told, until now. Watch a book trailer. Purchase the audio edition.

Stoked is an inspiring true story about courage, determination and the power of dreams.

Chris Bertish was a skinny little kid from Cape Town when he started surfing with his brothers. Fiercely driven and constantly pushing his boundaries, Chris was not content with conquering ‘ordinary’ big waves. He wanted more: bigger waves, bigger swells, more adrenaline. What began as a personal quest to prove to himself that he was one of the best in the ‘big-wave brotherhood’ culminated a decade later with Chris being crowned South Africa’s first Mavericks BigWave Champion. Competitors in the 2010 event were faced with the biggest and heaviest waves ever recorded in the history of the sport and Chris, on his own budget, on the back of a 40-hour plane journey and on borrowed equipment, outsmarted and outperformed the world’s best-paid professional surfers.

How did Chris achieve this feat? ‘Nothing is impossible, unless you believe it to be’ is just one of the philosophies he lives by. Out of his passion for big-wave surfing has grown a profound wisdom and an appreciation of a few simple truths, which he shares in Stoked. With his infectious enthusiasm, Chris tells how he pulled off death-defying antics time and again, overcame overwhelming obstacles and fears, and parried every blow that fate dealt him, all without ever losing faith or focus on his dreams.

A cult football figure, Vince Hilaire's career spanned over 600 games and took in spells at Crystal Palace, Portsmouth, Leeds United and Stoke City, playing in every professional division as well as for England at Youth and Under 21 levels. Hilaire shared a dressing room with some of the stars of the era including Kenny Sansom, Mick Channon, Gordon Strachan and Vinnie Jones, and was managed by some of the biggest figures in British football - Malcolm Allison, Terry Venables, Alan Ball and Howard Wilkinson. This book offers a fascinating insight into the methods of these managers - Allison and Venables' desperation to produce a side that rivalled the free-flowing football of the famous `Busby Babes', contrasting with the dourness and rigidity of Wilkinson's Leeds. One of the first black players to break into the professional game, Vince made his professional debut at seventeen and was a member of the famous `Team of the `80s at Palace that topped the First Division table. He details exactly why that team fell apart so quickly and the chaos that subsequently engulfed the club. Vince also outlines the regular abuse that he faced as a young black player making his way in football and the dread he felt playing at certain grounds. This massively entertaining autobiography gives a fascinating insight into the beautiful game as it used to be played.

2018 SABR Baseball Research Award Winner Baseball in the 1920s is most known for Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees, but there was another great Yankee player in that era whose compelling story remains untold. Urban Shocker was a fiercely competitive and colorful pitcher, a spitballer who had many famous battles with Babe Ruth before returning to the Yankees. Shocker was traded away to the St. Louis Browns in 1918 by Yankees manager Miller Huggins, a trade Huggins always regretted. In 1925, after four straight seasons with at least twenty wins with the hapless Browns, Shocker became the only player Huggins brought back to the Yankees. He finally reached the World Series, with the 1926 Yankees. In the Yankees' storied 1927 season, widely viewed to be the best in MLB history, Shocker pitched with guts and guile, finishing with a record of 18-6 even while his fastball and physical skills were deserting him. Hardly anyone knew that Shocker was suffering from an incurable heart disease that left him able to sleep only while sitting up and which would take his life in less than a year. With his physical skills diminishing, he continued to win games through craftiness and well-placed pitches. Delving into Shocker's baseball career, his love of the game, and his battle with heart disease, Steve Steinberg shows the dominant and courageous force that he was. Purchase the audio edition.

John Stockton's autobiography, Assisted, pulls back the curtain on his very personal life to show fans a thoughtful recounting of the people, places, and events that have connected with John along his path of extraordinary success. This book clearly illustrates the importance of his family, his faith, and his unparalleled competitive spirit.

***** Shortlisted for Sports Entertainment Book of the Year in the Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021 'A manifesto to cure modern football's cornucopia of ills.' - i paper 'A brilliant book.' - Ian Wright With diving players, abusive fans, feckless agents and the dreaded VAR, football has taken a wrong turn. Now, Chris Sutton, the nation's most forthright football pundit, takes an un?ltered look at 25 aspects of the modern game that need to be changed right away - and offers practical and, at times, controversial solutions. From the standard of referees to the lunacy of the managerial merry-go-round, from shameful racist abuse to exploitative ticket prices and the shocking treatments of ex-players with dementia, How to Fix Modern Football leaves no stone unturned in. As a former top-level player, Chris knows the game inside out. Now observing from the commentator's perch, his perspective is shot through with passion, humour and occasionally a little anger. Sutton is a man on a mission, determined to get under the skin of the game he loves and to call out exactly what's going wrong.

'A sort of partial British social and political history. It is also memoir and confessional. It is an utterly remarkable book' Conquista The End to End record is the longest place-to-place cycling record in Britain. It is a daunting 842 miles and for the men and women who attempt to break the record, there can be no second place, only the binary outcome of total success or failure. Paul Jones decided to ride from Land's End to John O' Groats in an attempt to understand the relentless physical and mental challenges involved. End to End is a captivating and beautifully written narrative. A lyrical account of the journey sits alongside meetings with amazing cyclists; people like Eileen Sheridan; who covered the distance in under three days in 1954, or current men's record holder Michael Broadwith who did it in a scarcely believable 43 hours. Paul Jones reaches further back to the very first attempts in the 1880s, undertaken on penny farthings, fuelled by Victorian values and patent medicine. For the author, what starts as a simple way to frame the narrative transforms into a deeper search for meaning amidst the ceaseless clamour of life, work and relationships. It becomes a trip through the contours of the mind as well as the map, from Bodmin Moor to Shap Fell, the Cairngorms and the Caithness coast. End to End is a portrayal of hope and ambition, of what happens when things go wrong and how hard it is to make them right. It is about courage, obsession and joy, but above all else, it is a compelling exploration of why journeys matter for all of us.

The autobiography of the fastest man of all time and a superstar whose talent and charisma have made him one of the most famous people on the planet. Whether you know Athletics or not, and even whether you know sport or not, chances are you know Usain Bolt. The fastest man on the planet, not just now but ever, Usain has won the hearts of people everywhere with his mind-blowing performances and his infectious charisma - uniting supporters around the world. In this, his full autobiography, Usain tells his story in his own words: from humble beginnings in Jamaica, to international stardom at Beijing and on to the new heights of superstardom he has reached since lighting up London 2012. Full of the charm and charisma that has made him the most popular sporting figure of our time and a universal celebrity, this is a book that Usain's millions of fans will love.

'A tragic age and a tragic character, both seemingly compelled to destroy themselves...a chilling reminder of how little control we have over our fates' Damon Hill 'One of the greatest motor racing stories' Nick Mason 'Timely, vivid and enthralling ... it's unputdownable' Miranda Seymour, author of The Bugatti Queen Dick Seaman was the archetypal dashing motorsport hero of the 1930s, the first Englishman to win a race for Mercedes-Benz and the last Grand Prix driver to die at the wheel before the outbreak of the Second World War. Award-winning author Richard Williams reveals the remarkable but now forgotten story of a driver whose battles against the leading figures of motor racing's golden age inspired the post-war generation of British champions. The son of wealthy parents, educated at Rugby and Cambridge, Seaman grew up in a privileged world of house parties, jazz and fast cars. But motor racing was no mere hobby: it became such an obsession that he dropped out of university to pursue his ambitions, squeezing money out of his parents to buy better cars. When he was offered a contract with the world-beating, state-sponsored Mercedes team in 1937, he signed up despite the growing political tensions between Britain and Germany. A year later, he celebrated victory in the German Grand Prix with the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of the founder of BMW. Their wedding that summer would force a split with his family, a costly rift that had not been closed six months later when he crashed in the rain while leading at Spa, dying with his divided loyalties seemingly unresolved. He was just 26 years old. A Race with Love and Death is a gripping tale of speed, romance and tragedy. Set in an era of rising tensions, where the urge to live each moment to the full never seemed more important, it is a richly evocative story that grips from first to last.

Big names have always dominated baseball, and one of the biggest in recent history is Roger Clemens - the Rocket. As a baseball great, he has shown what it means to succeed, both on the field and off, in his near quarter century of major-league service. "The Rocket: Baseball Legend Roger Clemens" journeys from Clemens' humble and sometimes difficult childhood through his illustrious career in Boston, Toronto, New York, and Houston. Clemens rose through the ranks, setting a new example of devoted work ethic and responsibility to team and fan alike. Through it all he remained a dedicated family man, not a trait usually associated with the free-for-all image of a major-league baseball player. Joseph Janczak traces Clemens' career from his high school days; through his University of Texas collegiate baseball (where he was given the pre-Rocket nickname of "Goose"); and on to his minor-league and major-league career. Baseball's image when Clemens first started in the halcyon days of the mid-1980s quickly dissolved into that of a sport saddled with crises and scandals, such as gambling, steroids, strikes, and fan distrust. But Clemens rose above it all and has set an example for the fans, who he says are the reason for his hard work on the mound each game. "The Rocket" includes thoughts from teammates, opponents, and Clemens himself on his legendary career. Janczak also discusses the ongoing steroid controversy and the Rocket's philanthropic endeavors to the community. Written for baseball fans of all ages and all levels of knowledge of the game, "The Rocket" shows why baseball is America's pastime and why some stars still deserve to be idolized.

'I WANT TO INSPIRE PEOPLE. I WANT SOMEONE TO LOOK AT ME AND SAY: "BECAUSE OF YOU I DIDN'T GIVE UP".' Goals is a very personal and deeply-moving collection of life-affirming and inspirational real-life stories from which Chelsea and Italy football legend Gianluca Vialli has drawn great strength and resolve during his battle with pancreatic cancer. The stories and the individuals involved have been selected by Vialli because they have offered him comfort and inspiration at the time of his greatest challenge, and he feels that they can do the same for many of us, whatever it might be that we are facing. The result is a beautifully-written and touching narrative which is by turns vital and poignant, spine-tingling and heart-rending. The very last story in Goals is Vialli's own, bravely and movingly chronicling his battle with this cruel illness.

'A powerful and moving book - it's quite a battle he has faced' Nick Robinson, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme 'It really is an interesting read' Dan Walker, BBC Breakfast *INCLUDES A FOREWORD BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON* __________ 'I'm not sure whether life prepared me for football, or football prepared me for life.' Misconceptions have stalked Andy Cole like a hatchet-man defender determined to cut him down to size. Now, in his candid and inspirational autobiography, Cole finally puts his side of the story. In the world of modern-day football, Andy Cole's reserved demeanour, combined with belief in his own ability, was often interpreted as an attitude problem that overshadowed his natural aptitude for goalscoring. Throughout his glittering career, he scored 187 Premier League goals, won 5 Premier League titles and 1 Champions League trophy. Now, two decades on from United's historic Treble, he not only gives the inside track on Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Dwight Yorke and other members of that illustrious side, but also opens up about his fractious relationship with Teddy Sheringham and reveals the prejudices and preconceptions he had to contend with in his twenty years in the game. Compelling in its honesty and frankness, Fast Forward is the thought-provoking story of one man's determination to succeed and survive against all the odds.

Julian Joachim burst onto the scene in 1992 and quickly became one of the most exciting and sought-after young talents in English football. Few players make the immediate impact that Joachim did. In his debut season, he scored in a Wembley final, finished as runner up in Match of the Day's Goal of the Season, won an international trophy and saw off competition from Patrick Kluivert, Robbie Fowler and Clarence Seedorf to win Player of the Tournament award at the under 18 European Championships. Joachim's blistering pace and down to earth attitude made him a fans' favourite wherever he played. One of only a handful of players to score in England's top four divisions, the FA Cup, League Cup and the UEFA Cup, Joachim's journey took him from Leicester City to Darlington, via Aston Villa, Coventry City, Leeds United, Walsall and Boston United. You Must Be Joachim provides an honest account of Julian's life as a footballer; from the goals, the glamour and the glory, to a darker side of the game rarely discussed - dealing with bullying, handling the media and what it's really like for a footballer when they retire.

Confluence tells the uplifting non-fiction story of the Duzi canoe marathon partnership of Piers Cruickshanks, a seasoned paddler who had won multiple gold medals in the Duzi, with Siseko Ntondini, a paddler who had come up through the ranks of the Soweto Canoe Club, whose dream was to win a gold medal in the Duzi.

The two men agree to paddle together and start training towards their gold-medal goal, but in order to get to even the start line, they need to overcome cultural and physical challenges to create a winning combination.

Timed to be released at the same time as Beyond The River, a movie based loosely on their story, this is a book that will have wide-ranging, feel-good appeal.

'AN EXCEPTIONAL READ' - Motor Cycle News 'STUART BARKER IS TO WRITING WHAT VALENTINO ROSSI IS TO RIDING [...] A MUST-READ FOR ALL BIKE NUTS' - DAILY MIRROR 'At high speed everything becomes more difficult and more beautiful. When you're racing at 180mph, the semi-bends become bends, the little holes become big holes, everything becomes extreme and bigger. And then it becomes beautiful.' Valentino Rossi is an icon: the most successful and most loved motorcycle racer of all time, he has transcended MotoGP to become a symbol of courage, risk and daring. To race for twenty-three years at the very highest level of the world's most dangerous sport is unprecedented. But then, there has never been a motorcycle racer like Valentino Rossi. He is a modern-day gladiator, a man who still risks his life every time he throws a leg over a motorcycle. Yet for all his two-wheel talents, it is Rossi's endearing character that has seen him transcend the sport. For Rossi, every race is a home race. He turns MotoGP grandstands across the world a sea of yellow - his traditional lucky colour. In more than two decades of Grand Prix racing, he has seen it all. The deaths of rivals and friends, the glory of unprecedented success, serious injuries, fabulous wealth, the greatest battles ever seen on two wheels, the infamous on and off-track clashes with his fiercest rivals . . . Using exclusive new interviews with those who have been part of Rossi's story from start to finish, critically-acclaimed and bestselling motorsport author Stuart Barker has produced the most in-depth book ever written about the Italian superstar - a tale of speed, love and loss, told in full for the very first time, in all its adrenalin-charged, high-octane glory.