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Mark Zuckerberg and I have very little in common. My bank account is much smaller, and nobody would ever be tempted to make a film about my life. But we do share two very important things: we're both tech nerds, and we like putting on pyjamas and having people pretend to kill us. Like Mark Zuckerberg – and now Elon Musk, who he is planning to fight in what would be the world's biggest MMA match – I am a relatively recent convert to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And like Mark Zuckerberg, I have found that it has improved my whole life, and changed who I am. My own journey with BJJ began in typically nerdy fashion: my partner described it as "human chess", which was enough to make me intrigued. I joined a local gym, 313 Fitness, in London's Manor Park, about a year ago. Initially, I was confused by the complexities of the sport – the "gi" kimono that you wear, the complex positions you're required to get into, the various kinds of rolls and handstands that you do to warm up – but they quickly became both everyday and absolutely thrilling. This is the game of jiu-jitsu: the winner is the person who makes the other submit, by placing them in a position that would lead to their joints being broken or putting them to sleep. This might sound grisly. In some ways it is. But in that violence can be found some of the most important lessons I have learnt in my life – it is an experience that teaches you invaluable lessons about the world, other people, and yourself. The thing that first becomes clear about jiu-jitsu is that you cannot be thinking about anything else. There is no time for anxious overthinking when someone is sat on top of you, trying to break your arm. If you let your attention drift, your opponent will use it to their advantage; losing focus for a moment can mean losing your fight. It's probably obvious how this applies to the rest of your life. But even in the moment there is a brutal thrill in training your focus in this way, and facing painful consequences if you don't. It is a particularly unsparing kind of mindfulness, which teaches you just how valuable your own attention span is. The raw demand on your attention is just one of the very primal parts of the sport. There is a harsh simplicity in the rules of jiu-jitsu: your opponent wants to submit you, and you want to submit them. But at the same time, it employs its own very specific and particular logic. It is a game of leverage, of positioning, and of anticipating the movements of a person who is right on top of you. As with chess, the best players are not thinking about the thing in front of them, but the thing that is coming a few moves down the track. And just like with chess, the winner is the person who can exploit their own strengths, even if they are in a weaker position. This pitiless logic is perhaps the reason that BJJ has proven so appealing to poindexters: Zuckerberg and Musk are far from alone in the sport, and one of its leading lights is Mikey Musemeci, an athlete who calls himself "Darth Rigatoni" and has happily referred to himself as a nerd. Jiu-jitsu might punish overthinking, but it is a profoundly thoughtful martial art. It is a humbling one, too; jiu-jitsu is actively destructive to any sense of pride. Starting as a beginner means literally being forced to submit to another person, something that happens repeatedly even as you become better at the sport. Without the humility to tap, you can find yourself with a broken arm, and it is only through repeatedly submitting to better opponents that you will learn from them. You very quickly realise that having too much ego will hold you back. All of that means that it is also the ideal situation to make human connections: it's hard to feel shy or aloof after someone has thrown you around, and humbled you by making clear that they could put you to sleep if you wished. My gym, 313 Fitness, is just as important for the physical challenge it gives me every couple of days as it is for the collection of local friendships and guidance I receive in each of those sessions. On its mats, I have made friends and found wisdom of a kind that I would not have discovered anywhere else. There are few cures for loneliness like having someone in pyjamas squish you. And there aren't many more important things to learn that the importance of humility, of focus, of finding your own strengths and weaknesses and the hard work required to deal with them. Jiu-jitsu can change you profoundly, reshaping the way you see yourself and the world. Don't let Mark Zuckerberg ruin it for you. Read More Keke Palmer’s boyfriend isn’t the only one who should stop telling women how to dress The work on men’s issues is happening, but who’s been listening? | Elliott Rae Editorial: The BBC should remain as an independent institution Musk, Zuckerberg and the bitter battle for the future of social media Twitter threatens legal action against Meta over its new rival app Threads I tried Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter rival, Threads – I’m not impressed

As Pep Guardiola sat down to begin working on the “Johan Cruyff box” that has only further released Erling Haaland in the last few weeks, one of the Catalan’s main concerns was the equation of marrying the Norwegian’s movement with maintaining control in the Champions League. They don’t always seem to fit. Even though he is now blessed with the best goalscorer in the world, “maintaining control in the Champions League’’ governs Guardiola’s thinking in almost everything, and has done for the last few seasons. The Catalan wouldn’t publicly admit that, of course, since he feels it feeds into an unhelpful public narrative about his “obsession” with the competition. That is precisely how senior figures at Manchester City have privately described it, though, and some feel it goes even further. They don’t just think Guardiola wants a third Champions League. They believe he wants the record for the most in history, as should befit someone viewed as perhaps the greatest coach of all time. There is also how much emotional energy he has put in, too. You only have to watch the footage of him theatrically crumpling to the ground as Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior tears down the wing after one minor slip in last season’s semi-final. There is naturally a significant amount of ego in this, but that isn’t said as a criticism. The intensity of the job means elite managers must almost by definition be self-absorbed. It’s close to a prerequisite of getting to the top and staying there. An inherent pride is why so many coaches stay wedded to a style even as the wider game moves past them, because it becomes about proving they still have it. It happened to Arsene Wenger. It happened to Jose Mourinho. It happened to almost everyone, except the figure whose record Guardiola is actually chasing. Carlo Ancelotti also happens to be the manager fittingly standing in the Catalan’s way. The Italian is aiming to extend his record with a fifth Champions League, as Guardiola looks for a long-awaited third. You could understand a certain amount of frustration at that, since it all seems to come so easy to Ancelotti at the same time as Guardiola endures so many long nights of the soul in the Champions League. Last season’s semi-final was another. The Real Madrid manager is frequently asked about the secret of all this by football people, and the answer is instructive. “You have to have no ego,” Ancelotti says. “Listen to your players, ask their opinion, trust them.” Even that seems to go against a lot of the system-led management that the Guardiola era has fostered. It is not the only way Ancelotti has defied the supposedly defining trends of the modern game. Far from obstructing managers like Guardiola, the Italian was supposed to be rendered obsolete. That isn’t just tactical theorising, either. It seemed the reality of their last few roles, especially at Bayern Munich. When Ancelotti succeeded Guardiola at the German club in 2016, the players were staggered at the drop-off in intensity and preparation. It all seemed so lax and lacking in tactical ideas. The seams began to come apart, leading to Ancelotti’s early sacking. This was the way of the game. System prevailed, all the more so when it was intensely applied. If you wanted to go to a higher level, you needed an idea that amplified the whole. Any stars had to subsume themselves to that. Ancelotti instead seemed to be following many other managers from the previous era in receding from the top end of the game. His jobs showed that. He went from the Champions League latter stages to just trying to get into the competition at Napoli and then floating around mid-table with Everton. And yet here he is back at the summit, with an historic Champions League record that Guardiola so wants, as well as the trophy itself. That has all come without wanting to leave any greater imprint on the game. All Ancelotti wants to do is get by, as they got past City last year, to ensure he has four Champions Leagues and Guardiola still only has two. It illustrates that, rather than both representing dividing lines in football history, they represent opposite approaches in a game that still has a lot of blurred lines. That applies to the jobs they both came into most recently. They weren’t the same. The current City football project was specifically constructed for Guardiola, according to his ideals. It is almost the perfect football setting for him. There would be a football symmetry if he was to win the Champions League again by finalising the most modern team with “the box” that won Barcelona their first European Cup in 1992. There was none of this lofty philosophising with Ancelotti’s last appointment. There was a grand project, sure, as the Madrid hierarchy decided they were going to play 4-3-3 for the next decade. Far from being the perfect fit for that, though, Ancelotti was brought back because club president Florentino Perez couldn’t get anyone else. It was little more than a compromise. So, while City were made for Guardiola, Madrid had to make do with Ancelotti. It just so happened he was able to work very well within those constraints. He could adapt superbly to what he was given, which was one of the best young squads in the world. This is another area where the picture is clouded. It isn’t completely wrong to say Ancelotti looked left behind. He didn’t excel at either Napoli or Everton. But he didn’t have what he has now at Madrid. It points to one of many contrasts in this game, one that may decide where the Champions League ends up. It is idealist against pragmatist, as well as collective control against individual moments. Similarly, while Guardiola sets a club’s entire identity, Ancelotti just makes it feel better about itself. The 4-3-3 wasn’t his idea so he just works to make it better as and when required. He knows how to talk to players, enabling them and ensuring they always feel involved. Ancelotti is also said to be the best in the world at the timing of substitutions. Some of that comes from an instinctive feel for how a match is going, “the sense of a game”. It could be seen in last year’s dramatic semi-final comeback, not least when Ancelotti consulted Marcelo and Toni Kroos on the sideline. This is exactly what he meant when he spoke about no ego and listening to players. There’s another blurred line here, though. Ancelotti still had sufficient pride to stop a question at a recent press conference and point out that he does a lot more than man-management. His record speaks to that. It is one that Guardiola would love to claim as his own. This semi-final may go someway to deciding that. Guardiola's "box" may actually bring his career full circle, as it could represent the completeness of his tactical idea and bring a first Champions League title since Barcelona. Such sophisticated re-interpretations of the past have moved football into the future. It's just that one of its most historic figures, in Ancelotti, remains a key part of it. Read More Why Man City vs Real Madrid is the ‘real’ Champions League final The six types of Pep Guardiola full-back, and what each says about Man City’s evolution Is Real Madrid vs Manchester City on TV? Kick-off time, channel and how to watch Champions League semi-final

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PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 10, 2023--