Quotes & Sayings About Motivation In Sports

You don't have to win to be a winner. If you give 100 percent, getting yourself mentally and physically prepared to play the game, if you look in the mirror and can say you give it everything to win, that's it. You're not going to win every time. — Duke Snider

Set goals for things you can control. In my case, I can't control the marks from the judges, but I can control how I train every day, and I can control my performance. — Claire Carver-Dias

The study of motivation goes back to the Greeks. Their sports were essential to their education. They saw in sports the integration of body, mind and soul, the creation of beauty, the mastering of athletics, and the challenge of competition. A French sociologist points this out. "Sports," he wrote, was part of the education of the citizen. He was expected to engage in exercise for a whole series of reasons that had to do with the shaping of the citizen; the relation between moral good and physical good; and the growth of a person. — George A. Sheehan

In team sports the athletes were bonded by each other, there was an immense peer pressure to keep going. One dared not miss a practice for fear of letting his teammates down. Every time an athlete thought of getting back into bed in the morning he knew he would have to face the anger of his closest friends. But the sculler had to find motivation entirely within himself. No one else cared. — David Halberstam

I get over bad games right away. Sometimes I've let it go even before I've left the mound. That quick. Why? Because it's over. What can you do about it? Nothing. The only thing you can do is fight if you're still in the game. After that you can do nothing. — Mariano Rivera

You're going to make mistakes in life. It's what you do after the mistakes that counts. — Brandi Chastain

I don't know nothing about the sport. Just tune in August 28th and y'all find out how much I know about the sport. — James Toney

I don't think you ever will yourself to win. I think you prepare yourself the best you can, get yourself in the best mindset you can get in, and go after it. — Jack Nicklaus

After I knock out Randy Couture, I'll fight for the heavyweight title, the real heavyweight boxing title in October or November, come back and fight in the UFC in January or February. It doesn't matter, I'm a two sport athlete. The oldest man to ever do that. — James Toney

Single-mindedness. I hate to say it because I don't think it's the best thing for developing a person, but the single-mindedness - just concentrating in the one area - that's what it takes to be a champion. — Chris Evert

To be successful in anything, a person must always want to be better, not only than your opponent but better than your last performance. Done correctly, being competitive is a wonderful way to always try to be a better person by learning from your mistakes and capitalizing on your successes. — Hale Irwin

Success is doing what it takes in spite of one's fear. — Johnny Rutherford

When I stood up there as a pinch hitter, I honestly believed I was the best hitter in the game. That's the only attitude to have. — Manny Mota

Your longevity in the sport is governed by how you live in between the fights. — Carl Froch

We have the misconception that competitiveness means winning at all costs, but that's not what competition is. Competition is just doing your best and not giving up. We all face a moment in a race or in a competition in which we want to give up. We can either give in and not keep pushing, or we can charge forward and work through it. — Lisa Rainsberger

It's not so much what you accomplish in life that really matters, but what you overcome that proves who you are, what you are, and whether you are a champion. — Johnny Miller

I love to work out and really enjoy the outdoors. I like to immerse myself with sport-related activities and spending quality time with people. I find people to be very inspiring, and I get a lot of motivation from listening and interacting with them, sharing stories and similarities - and differences - in our lives, and learning from each other. — Apolo Ohno

I don't want to give anyone an edge in my mind. Every time I walk out on the court, I have to feel I'm the best so I can compete well. A lot of times, my chief rival is just me. — Venus Williams

It's the old story. You might be able to fool your coaches, or your teammates, or your opponents. But, you can never fool yourself in anything. I believe that the more critical you are of your own performance- the higher standards you have-the better you become at what you do. — Don Maynard

No wrong in aiming or applauding the win but always agnize one's efforts. — Mohith Agadi

Money was never the motivation. It never should be in sports. — Katarina Witt

Getting more exercise isn't only good for your waistline. It's a natural anti-depressant, that leaves you in a great mood. — Auliq Ice

I train harder than anyone else in the world. Last year I was supposed to take a month off and I took three days off because I was afraid somebody out there was training harder. That's the feeling I go through every day - Am I not doing what somebody else is doing? Is someone out there training harder than I am? I can't live with myself if someone is. — Marion Jones

The artful pitcher must take the inevitable peaks and valleys of pitching in stride and never give in to the batters or lose sight of his/her own strengths. — Tom Seaver

When everything seems worse, impossible to achieve, thinking about giving up, quitting? Remember why started first? Trust yourself, tap yourself and say if you cannot make it, no one is going to. Look back, the whole team believes in you, go for it and be a CHAMPION. — Vivek Thangaswamy

One of the most awesome things about sports, particularly team sports, is that everything you need to do to be successful on the playing field carries over directly into life. In a team sport you have to learn how to work together, to set goals, and then work toward those goals in a productive way. You learn to be responsible and you learn how to not only depend on others, but also be independent so you can support others. — Sheila Cornell-Douty

Having the chance to play sports growing up teaches you all kinds of life lessons. It gives young people confidence and instills in them motivation and drive to be the best one can be. It's absolutely invaluable, — April Ross

There is a scene in one of the Rocky movies where after the match Apollo Creed and Rocky are waiting for the scoring of their brawl all beat up and battered, obviously both fighters gave all they had to win, and Apollo Creed says to Rocky - "Your not getting a rematch" and Rocky says "I don't want one".
I love that scene.
That's when you know that you left no doubt - that your opponent, win or lose, never wants to compete against you ever again.
That's fighting. — JohnA Passaro

I want my legacy to be that I was a man of character, I was a God fearing man and somebody who bettered the sport in terms of the way I represented the sport. But also that fact that I was a fierce competitor and fought the best in the world and was able to come out on top, so if those things could be said about me, then I look at it as a job well done. — Andre Ward

A good coach must celebrate in private. He cannot gloat to the press after a victory or criticize heavily after defeat ... His game is of such motivation and strategy that only a few people understand his craft. — Bill Bradley

Maintaining concentration depends on what I call tunnel vision; nothing else in the world exists but the catcher's target, the hitter and my perfect delivery. — Nolan Ryan

I think that there's only one nationality and one language in the sport, and you call it performance. — Wladimir Klitschko

We spend 8 hours a day, for 10 months a year, for nearly 17 years sending our kids to school to prepare them for life.
In all of that time there is never a course in overcoming adversity, goal setting, sacrifice, perseverance, teammates, or family.
I guess that's what wrestling is for. — JohnA Passaro

I love football. I love the aesthetics of football. I love the athleticism of football. I love the movement of the players, the antics of the coaches. I love the dynamism of the fans. I love their passion for their badge and the colour of their team and their country. I love the noise and the buzz and the electricity in the stadium. I love the songs. I love the way the ball moves and then it flows and the way a teams fortune rises and falls through a game and through a season. But what I love about football is that it brings people together across religious divides, geographic divides, political divides. I love the fact that for ninety minutes in a rectangular piece of grass, people can forget hopefully, whatever might be going on in their life, and rejoice in this communal celebration of humanity. The biggest diverse, invasive or pervasive culture that human kinds knows is football and I love the fact that at the altar of football human kind can come worship and celebrate. — Andy Harper

A coach has to worry not so much about creating motivation, esprit de corps, as about destroying it. The true competitor has it; he wouldn't be a star if he didn't. So you have to mold all these egos together and make sure in your selection of people that you don't destroy the feeling of togetherness or morale, because it is a fragile thing. — Dick Motta

Have confidence in yourself and don't let people put you down or make you feel weak or worthless, because the more they put you down, the more you need to get back up and prove how wrong they are. — Layne Beachley

I'm not afraid to take a step and if I fall, I fall. I pick myself up and move on. If we can all learn one thing in life, it's don't be afraid to take on something that you believe you're capable of achieving. — Michael Jordan

Years of concentration solely on work and individual success meant that in his retirement [Lyndon Johnson] could find no solace in family, in recreation, in sports or in hobbies. It was almost as if the hole in his heart was so large that even the love of a family, without work, could not fill it. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

Everybody thinks this is a tough man's sport. This is not a tough man's sport. This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport. — Mike Tyson

Some pitchers want to be known as the fastest throwers that ever lived. Some want to win 30 games in one season. Some want to pitch a no-hitter. All I want to do is the best I can, day after day. In other words, I want to prove I am the best. — Tom Seaver

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