Motivational Sports Quotes

Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't. ~ Jerry Rice

Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do. ~ Lin Yutang

I cannot for the life of me see why the umpires, the only two people on a cricket field who are not going to get grass stains on their knees, are the only two people allowed to wear dark trousers. ~ Katharine Whitehorn

Only through training will a person learn his own weaknesses ... He who is aware of his weaknesses will remain master of himself in any situation. ~ Gichin Funakoshi

Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

You're going to feel good. But no matter how much you rehab you do, you can't speed up the healing process. I would rather see a guy come back in 14 months and pitch seven, eight or nine more years then come back in 10 months and get hurt again. You cannot mess with mother nature and father time. Nature will heal it if you give it time. ~ Tommy John

It's really impossible for athletes to grow up. On the one hand, you're still a child, still playing a game. But on the other hand, you're a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are. ~ Billie Jean King

Play every game as if your job depended on it. It just might. ~ Casey Stengel

The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters. - Cus D'Amato ~ Cus D'Amato

Discouraged?
As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-baseline, I asked one of the boys what the score was.
"We're behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile.
"Really," I said. "I have to say you don't look very discouraged."
"Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet. ~ Jack Canfield

I have an uncompromising relationship with my goals. ~ Diana Nyad

Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done the best way it can be done, and do it that way every time. ~ Bobby Knight

My job is to call attention to the things that I think are the difference between winning and losing. If I can't do that then I have failed as a coach. ~ Bill Parcells

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result. ~ Vince Lombardi

The most prepared are the most dedicated. ~ Raymond Berry

If there has not been such a thing as gymnastics, I would have had to invent it because I feel at one with the sport. ~ Olga Korbut

Look, when you are starting to put something together, you want the pudding to come out good. You're trying to put in the right ingredients. ~ Bill Parcells

I only want my team to play to its potential, as I perceive it to be. I really don't have any regard for anyone else's perception. ~ Bill Parcells

In sports, you simply aren't considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best. ~ Althea Gibson

In football as in watchmaking, talent and elegance mean nothing without rigour and precision. ~ Lionel Messi

Just when you think you know the answers, I change the questions. ~ Roddy Piper

I don't think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You've got to keep pushing. ~ Larry Bird

You don't really see a muscle as a part of you, in a way. You see it as a thing. You look at it as a thing and you say well this thing has to be built a little longer, the bicep has to be longer; or the tricep has to be thicker here in the elbow area. And you look at it and it doesn't even seem to belong to you. Like a sculpture. Then after looking at it a sculptor goes in with his thing and works a little bit, and you do maybe then some extra forced reps to get this lower part out. You form it. Just like a sculpture. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

I talked to the team a lot about staying power. You never find out if you have that until you've been beaten down a few times. ~ Bill Parcells

No one has ever drowned in sweat. ~ Lou Holtz

When I go out there, I have no pity on my brother. I'm out there to win. ~ Joe Frazier

Everyone wants to win, but not everyone is willing to prepare to win. ~ Bobby Knight

Sports is human life in microcosm. ~ Howard Cosell

I always have on my headphones to block out all of the other distractions and I'm just focused on doing the best that I can ... There a few of them ... DMX Party Up ... Mack 10 BC and Ice Cube Connected for Life. I also listen to the Eminem CD ... whichever song really gets me going that night ~ Michael Phelps

I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing ... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team! ~ Lou Holtz

In football you always get judged on your last game. Whoever you are, or how amazing you are, it's the last game that everyone has seen. ~ Thierry Henry

Success is not forever and failure isn't fatal. ~ Don Shula

The Coach does not play in the game, but the Coach helps the players identify areas to improve their game. ~ Lord Byron

The most important thing about motivation is goal setting. You should always have a goal. ~ Francie Larrieu Smith

A refined ability to learn from failure and to grow through losses is necessary to achieve excellence in any human endeavor. ~ Terry Orlick

Be cool to the pizza dude. ~ Steele Stanwick

You've got to go through hell ... Before you get to heaven ... Let's do 10 more ~ Frank Giampaolo

It's hard to beat a person that never gives up. ~ Babe Ruth

Certainly we're not satisfied with just winning games. We've been playing some pretty good hockey, but we think we can play much better. ~ Mario Lemieux

If you are ever going to achieve as much as you can in a sport, you are going to have to be willing to make a leap of faith to learn how much your body can handle. ~ Meredith Rainey-Valmon

I miss all the shots I don't take. ~ Wayne Gretzky

When you're prepared, you're more confident. When you have a strategy, you're more comfortable. ~ Fred Couples

Failure is the foundation of success: success is the lurking place of failure. ~ Laozi

The more time you put into practicing, then, the greater the payoff. ~ Daniel Goleman

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today. ~ Lou Holtz

You don t get the breaks unless you play with the team instead of against it. ~ Lou Gehrig

As a coach, your high standards of performance, attention to detail and - above all - how hard you work set the stage for how your players perform. ~ Don Shula

Every time you compete, try harder to improve on your last performance. Give nothing short of your very best effort. ~ Elgin Baylor

Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true. ~ Honore De Balzac

The football season is like pain. You forget how terrible it is until it seizes you again. ~ Sally Quinn

To dope the racer is as criminal, as sacrilegious, as trying to imitate God; it is stealing from God the privilege of the spark. ~ Roland Barthes

My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces. ~ Wilma Rudolph

I was scared to death, but I made fear score points for me. Fear is right behind me, fear is six inches off my back, that's where fear is. I can feel its presence. But it's not going to catch me ... I'm going to take fear and use it to my advantage. ~ Bruce Jenner

Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We. ~ Phil Jackson

Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win. ~ Nadia Comaneci

To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body. When you can't make that commitment, they don't call you a champion anymore. ~ Rocky Marciano

I have been visualizing myself every night for the past four years standing on the podium having the gold placed around my neck. ~ Megan Jendrick

All sports are games of inches. ~ Dick Ritger

Plane Ride -
In our sport it is natural and necessary to set up goals to inspire us. We all want to achieve the next level, the break-thru performance. What we (all of us) must not forget is that the journey to these goals is the best part. The daily process of obtaining success takes up the majority of our time and effort throughout our lives. Remember to appreciate what you've done in the past and what you are doing in the present on your way to higher goals. This will allow you to always strive for something more without missing out on the fact that your path to success is as much a starting point as it is a finish line. ~ Matthew Alan

If you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want will automatically take over ~ Gordon Attard

I have no regrets because I know I did my best - all I could do. ~ Midori Ito

If football taught me anything about business, it is that you win the game one play at a time. ~ Fran Tarkenton

You have to find it. No one else can find it for you. ~ Bjorn Borg

I've never tried to hide the fact that it is my intention to become the best ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication just like any pro sport. Especially for beach volleyball you don't have to be tall or as fast as other sports. You just have to have the skills. ~ Misty May-Treanor

This is a sport (wrestling) that has turned many boys into men and many men into leaders. And it is a sport in which you can be a giant regardless of how big you are. ~ Carl Albert

I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on. ~ Muhammad Ali

Number four, we're going to play like winners, play the game the way it's meant to be played. Don't get full of yourself if something good happens. Don't get too depressed when something bad happens. ~ Steve Spurrier

High school sports: where lessons of life are still being learned, and where athletes still compete for the love of the game and their teammates. ~ Michael Powers

If everything had already been done, there would be nothing left for young people to accomplish. There are always going to be people who run faster, jump higher, dive deeper, and come up drier. ~ Darrell Royal

Any time you can get up there and scare a few people, throw up some decent times, it builds up your confidence and also sends a message to other people. ~ Marianne Limpert

Success is failure with the dirt brushed off. ~ Mamie McCullough

Sports ideally teach discipline and commitment. They challenge you and build character for everything you do in life. ~ Howie Long

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball. ~ Mickey Mantle

Going into that race I was going for the world record, just quietly, but I wasn't feeling at my best all week so it was hard to determine what would happen. I could not believe it, I went into shock, I'm still in shock. ~ Leisel Jones

The time your game is most vulnerable is when you're ahead; never let up. ~ Rod Laver

Rhythm is everything in boxing. Every move you make starts with your heart, and that's in rhythm or you're in trouble. ~ Sugar Ray Robinson

You never lose a game if the opponent doesn't score. ~ Darrell Royal

Somebody will always break your records. It is how you live that counts. ~ Earl Campbell

Practice works because practice gives us a chance to relax enough to make smart choices. ~ Seth Godin

Concentration is born on the practice court ... you must mentally treat your practice sessions as matches, concentrating on every ball you hit. ~ Martina Navratilova

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined. ~ Henry David Thoreau

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded. ~ Mark Twain

They say football is America's greatest game, but it's not. The greatest game in America is called opportunity. Football is merely a great expression of it. ~ Joe Kapp

We count on winning. And if we lose, don't beef. And the best way to prevent beefing is - don't lose. ~ Knute Rockne

I'm just taking advantage of good pitches. I am seeing the ball well and my confidence is high. ~ Jose Bautista

I was told over and over again that I would never be successful, that I was not going to be competitive and the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do was shrug and say "We'll just have to see". ~ Dick Fosbury

It's never been easy. But I've always wanted to play hockey. I love hockey. I'd rather play hockey than do anything else. If you have that kind of desire, I think you can achieve what you want to achieve. ~ Manon Rheaume

The unique thing about bodybuilding is that when I compete it is just me on a stage alone. There is no field, no bat, no ball, no skis, no skates. All other athletes have to use equipment, like a football. But I don't use anything in competition except myself. It's just me up there. Me alone. No coach. No nothing. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price. ~ Bud Wilkinson

We have a lot of players in their first year. Some of them are also in their last year. ~ Bill Walsh

Don't dwell on mistakes, because it will only cause more. ~ Ned Crotty

The thing I learned when I was playing was that your best way of winning was to make it difficult for the other team to score in the last three innings. ~ Tony La Russa

I want you to be forever strong on the field, so that you will be forever strong off the field. ~ Larry Gelwix

Any guy who can maintain a positive attitude without much playing time certainly earns my respect. ~ Magic Johnson

It is how you show up at the showdown that counts. ~ Homer H. Norton

I was called Rembrandt Hope in my boxing days, because I spent so much time on the canvas. ~ Bob Hope

I learned this about coaching: You don't have to explain victory and you can't explain defeat. ~ Darrell Royal

I welcome and seek your ideas, but do not bring me small ideas; bring me big ideas to match our future. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

I'm trying to keep my own house from burning down. I can't worry about someone else's house. ~ Bill Parcells