Quotes & Sayings About Coaching Sports

No matter how you total success in the coaching profession it all comes down to a single factor - talent. There may be a hundred great coaches of whom you have never heard in basketball, football, or any sport who will probably never receive the acclaim they deserve simply because they have not been blessed with the talent. Although not every coach can win consistently with talent, no coach can win without it. — John Wooden

I try to find more education in the sport while helping people who are trying to be better at whatever they are trying to achieve. That is probably the thing I love most about coaching. — Robin Farina

I've been coaching the sport for a number of years. And I went through many athletes. Some athletes stay with your program for a long, long period of time. Some athletes, they have a different approach as far as coaching style or your philosophies. I totally respect their own opinions - they have the right to choose their own coach. — Liang Chow

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious. — Al McGuire

It's hard for these athletes to stay healthy. They are constantly being bombarded with unhealthy advertising. Peer pressure can override the body's demand for health. Being healthy goes beyond 'not being sick' (where all lab reports indicate health), to feeling optimistic, energetic, strong and happy with their bodies. Teaching them to take charge of their bodies is a job of coaching. Help them gain discipline in conditioning, nutrition and attitude/emotional control. — John Kessel

The coaching profession doesn't hand you any gifts. — Randy Carlyle

Sports programs are an important part of young people's lives but should never over-shadow the true purpose of high school and that is to earn a diploma. So often today sports have become more important than an education. This must be remedied because the true focus must always be toward the student's academic development. — George M. Gilbert

Whenever I think of baseball, the first name that comes to mind is Babe Ruth. What the Babe was to baseball, Shula is to football coaching. There are certain figures in sports who are larger than the games they play or coach, and Don Shula is one of those. — Marv Levy

The common belief that coaches must be abusive to be successful is a myth. Research shows that if you find a task fun, you'll perform better. If more coaches took ... a Golden Rule approach to coaching, treating their players the way they themselves would like to be treated, fewer athletes would drop out of sports in their teens, and more athletes at every level would be happier and more satisfied. — Ralph Nader

Coaching is something that takes place only when learning does. No matter what you are doing in your practices, if your players are not learning something significant, you're really not coaching. If a player fails in a game, the coach may have failed in practice. — John Kessel

I never drop a player I only make changes. — Bill Shankly

When I was younger I only read sports books. I loved the biographies that told how athletes developed. When I got into coaching, I did start to read more instructional books, but I was always more interested in the people behind the ideas. — Tony Dungy

As much as I love coaching the masters, junior cycling is obviously the future of our sport. — Robin Farina

We know the principles of coaching. The art is knowing when to apply them. — James Counsilman

I love to promote our sport. I love grass-roots tennis. I love coaching. I love all parts of the sport. I love the business side. — Billie Jean King

I have coaching friends, and when we get together, we often talk more about what we're doing to get players' attention than we do about the fascinating X's and O's of our sport. — Tony La Russa

While THE NEW COOL takes the reader inside a season, limns a team and coaching staff, and masterfully recounts a gripping competition, this is anything but your conventional sports book. And not simply because the 'big game' is ... a curious robotics contest. Like the kids he vividly captures, Neal Bascomb has himself performed a masterful bit of engineering here. — L. Jon Wertheim

Be fair. Play hard. — Dan Venezia

One of the great myths in America is that sports build character. They can and they should. Indeed, sports may be the perfect venue in which to build character. But sports don't build character unless a coach possesses character and intentionally teaches it. Sports can team with ethics and character and spirituality; virtuous coaching can integrate the body with the heart, the mind, and the soul. — Joe Ehrmann

On coaching the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers: Nobody likes us. Nobody outside Philadelphia, that is. In fact, the nicest thing people say about us is that we are a bunch of muggers. — Fred Shero

A successful coach is one who is still coaching. — Ben Schwartzwalder

The single most important thing in coaching is turning out educated kids who are ready for society. — Allen Newell

All I know is, I don't want to stop coaching, and I don't want to stop winning, so we're gonna break the record unless I die. — Bear Bryant

My general rule, which I have followed throughout my coaching career, is that everyone doesn't necessarily get treated the same way, because I'm not sure that's possible. But everyone has to be treated fairly. Moreover, they have to know and trust that they will be treated fairly. Dennis Green, NFL Coach There's nothing worse than the feeling of wishing you had another chance at a play because you weren't ready. Every athlete has those feelings to mull over, and over, and over ... Don't even expose yourself to the possibility of being caught off-guard. — Karch Kiraly

In 10 years, I'm gonna be all over. I'll still be doing mad music, I'll be doing a couple movies, maybe some TV. Hopefully coaching some of my son's sports teams and be in heavy daddy mode. — Shwayze

Attitude is the whole thing in football. Every team has the talent and the coaching. Motivation makes the difference. The teams that win stay healthy and interested. — Sid Gillman

The metaphor ( coaching) with sports is meant quite seriously ... the coach stands back , observes the performance, and provides guidance. The coach applauds strengths, identifies weaknesses, points up principles, offers guiding and often inspiring imagery, and decides what kind of practice to emphasize. — David Perkins

I once said coaching a first-year team was a religious experience. You do a lot of praying - but most of the time the answer is NO. — Bill Fitch

Every season is a journey. Every journey is a lifetime. — Mike Krzyzewski

You are the real teachers. You have these children when they are at their emotional peaks and lows. That's when they are the most pliable. It doesn't take any intelligence to send a kid home with his head hanging between his knees. But to send him home with his head up every night might show a little coaching. — Morgan Wootten

I think as far as any kind of pressure on a football team or on an individual in professional sports really depends not only on that individual but the leadership they have on the team and the leadership they have on the coaching staff. A lot of times, they can divert some of those pressures off of the individual and off of the team. — Jimmy Johnson

It ain't what you eat but how you chew it. — Delbert McClinton

And I would be the first to admit that probably, in a lot of press conferences over the time that I have been in coaching, indulging my own sense of humor at press conferences has not been greatly to my benefit. — Robert Montgomery Knight

A champion always prepares to win. — D.C. Gonzalez

The meaning of volleyball, is to give meaning to volleyball, as the meaning of coaching is to give meaning to coaching. — John Kessel

Things that aren't important, that have nothing to do with winning and losing, don't have to be a rule. — Peter Richmond

We have to move the meter in sports in Africa, especially basketball. With the growth of the NBA globally, we have to figure out more ways to develop facilities, coaching, leagues, and youth development in Africa. The talent is incredible. Especially physically. How do we get the youth to start playing at an early age just like in soccer? The future is bright. We now have an NBA office in Africa, we have legends and Hall of Famers, we have African assistant coaches, front office members, and some prominent African players over the last 10 years. So we must plan well for the next 10. — Masai Ujiri

Greatness, whether athletic or otherwise, doesn't come from those content on just being but from those who seek being the difference. — Kirk Mango

The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled — Ric Charlesworth