Quotes & Sayings About Practice Basketball

Whether you're trying to excel in athletics or in any other field, always practice. Look, listen, learn - and practice, practice, practice. There is no substitute for work, no shortcut to the top. — Frank Robinson

I always stayed on before and after practice. I just think that if you want to excel at anything, be it basketball, dance or the piano, you need to practice a lot. — Dolph Schayes

Once practice starts, we work hard, and that's the best conditioning there is. Everything counts. Every little thing counts. Run hard, play hard, go after the ball hard, guard hard. If you play soft (what I call signing a 'non-aggression pact' with your teammates), you won't ever get into shape. — Pete Carril

Empower the people around you, from the janitor to the athletic director. You do that by being sincere, caring about others, and then putting it into practice. — Sue Gunter

I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game — Jack Ramsay

I'd rather have preparation than motivation. Everyone likes to play, but no one likes to practice. — Bum Phillips

We have a very intelligent team. I've had clubs that when you tell a guy to go back door, he leaves the gym. Or you tell the team you're going to have a closed practice and eight guys don't show up. — Jim Valvano

I believe in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might be commonly overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who don't understand, but they aren't. They are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business, and life. They are the difference between champions and near champions.
For example, at the first squad meeting each season, held two weeks before our first actual practice, I personally demonstrated how I wanted players to put on their socks each and every time: Carefully roll the socks down over the toes, ball of the foot, arch and around the heel, then pull the sock up snug so there will be no wrinkles of any kind. — John Wooden

It's easier to date a football player for sure. Football players have one game a week, and they practice every day, but they're all at home. In basketball, they're on the road all the time. — Khloe Kardashian

Specialists can never practice their specialties too much. The danger is in not practicing enough. Make that mistake, and soon you may not be in the specialty business anymore. — Johnny Unitas

Offense at Indiana is not equal opportunity. Those players who shoot best are going to shoot most. It is important that every player know his offensive limitations. It is also important that a player know who the best shooter is on the team. When a passer has the option of passing to two players, I expect him to get the ball to the best shooter. I continually stop practice and ask players who the best shooter is and I expect them to know. It is important that you get the ball to your best shooter. — Bobby Knight

Basketball doesn't care what color your skin is. It doesn't care what language you speak or what religion you practice. It doesn't care if you're big or small, fast or slow. It just asks you to play, to complete, to lose with dignity, to win humility. — Jim Calhoun

Always acknowledge hustle plays in practice. — Lou Campanelli

For every pass I caught in a game, I caught a thousand in practice. — Don Hutson

My dad was the one who really loved basketball, and he was the one that put the basketball in my hands, and my mom was 'Team Mom' of all my teams. I used to play for three or four teams at once and she would just spend her entire afternoon driving me from practice to practice to practice. — Jeremy Lin

The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game. — Bobby Knight

Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing. — Larry Bird

Make the practices like games and the games like practices. — Don Meyer

In his sophomore year Wilbanks tried out for the high school basketball team and made it. On the first day of practice his coach had him play one-on-one while the team observed. When he missed an easy shot, he became angry and stomped and whined. The coach walked over to him and said, "You pull a stunt like that again and you'll never play for my team." For the next three years he never lost control again. Years later, as he reflected back on this incident, he realized that the coach had taught him a life-changing principle that day: anger can be controlled. — Lynn G. Robbins

Basketball Rule #2 (random text from Dad)
Hustle dig
Grind push
Run fast
Change pivot
Chase pull
Aim shoot
Work smart
Live smarter
Play hard
Practice harder — Kwame Alexander

You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last. — Kobe Bryant

I continually stress to my players that all I expect from them at practice and in the games is their maximum effort. — John Wooden

I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice coach. — John Wooden

To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation — Bobby Knight

I will have no problem coming to practice on time. The locker room is great, but we have to prove ourselves on the court. — LeBron James

It's not about the number of hours you practice, it's about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice — Kobe Bryant

I always designed my practice plans the night before and then made tweaks a few hours before practice began — Bobby Knight

Practice? I mean, listen, we're talking about practice. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. We're talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game. Not the game. We're talkin about practice, man. We're talkin about practice. We're taklin about practice, man. What are we talkin about? Practice. We're talkin about practice, man. — Allen Iverson

My last year with the Spurs, I was late to practice one time. — Dennis Rodman

I thought we'd be discussing about me not leaving Philadelphia and they just kept asking me about the practice, so I lost it. — Allen Iverson

A basketball diameter is 10 inches and a rim is 18 inches so I made a 14-inch rim I put in to practice on. Few people could do that because it was so frustrating that it drove everyone but me nuts. That led to me shooting very high, which basic physics tells you is the best angle - the hole is bigger from above than from the side. — Dolph Schayes

Play and practice like you are trying to make the team. — Mike Krzyzewski

In 1948, I began coaching basketball at UCLA. Each hour of practice we worked very hard. Each day we worked very hard. Each week we worked very hard. Each season we worked very hard. Four fourteen years we worked very hard and didn't win a national championship. However, a national championship was won in the fifteenth year. Another in the sixteenth. And eight more in the following ten years. — John Wooden

Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I love practice. It is when a coach exercises the most control over the improvement of his or her team. — Mike Krzyzewski

Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living. — Elizabeth Lesser

All great athletes essentially come to a fork in the road where they have to change their approach to succeed. It's a sign of intelligence and character. My college coach, Jack Hartman, made me play only defense for a full year in practice when I became academically ineligible for my junior year at Southern Illinois. Embarrassed, I thought at first about arguing with Coach Hartman over what I felt was a tremendous slight. But instead I started lifting weights and working so hard on my defense that my teammates hated to see me match up against them in practice. That was the turning point of my life, on and off the court. — Walt Frazier

The liturgy is the place where we wait for Jesus to show up. We don't have to do much. The liturgy is not an act of will. It is not a series of activities designed to attain a spiritual mental state. We do not have to apply will pressure. To be sure, like basketball or football, it is something that requires a lot of practice
its rhythms do not come naturally except to those who have been rehearsing them for years. On some Sundays the soul will indeed battle to even pay attention. In the normal course of worship, we do not have to conjure up feelings or a devotional mood; we are not required to perform the liturgy flawlessly. Such anxious effort ... blind us to what is really going on.
We do have to show up, and we cannot leave early. But if we will dwell there, remain in place, wait patiently, Jesus will show up. — Mark Galli

When people ask me now if I miss coaching UCLA basketball games, the national championships, the attention, the trophies, and everything that goes with them, I tell them this: I miss the practices. — John Wooden

Among other things, neuroplasticity means that emotions such as happiness and compassion can be cultivated in much the same way that a person can learn through repetition to play golf and basketball or master a musical instrument, and that such practice changes the activity and physical aspects of specific brain areas. — Andrew Weil

When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece.
Too often we get distracted by what is outside our control. You can't do anything about yesterday. The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away. You can do nothing about tomorrow. It is yet to come. However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today. So make today a masterpiece. You have control over that.
This rule is even more important in life than basketball. You have to apply yourself each day to become a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better. Only then will you will be able to approach being the best you can be. It begins by trying to make each day count and knowing you can never make up for a lost day. — John Wooden

There are different eras and generations, but basketball is still the same. Old school or new school, the fundamentals of the game- passing, dribbling,and shooting- never change. The styles and forms may change,but from 1946 to 2006, there's been a right way and a wrong way to practice and perform these skills and that remains the same. — Walt Frazier

I wasn't as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism. — Dean Smith

Given a full summer to practice basketball, and especially my jump shot, I know that I could play in the NBA and do well. — Tony Gonzalez

My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed. — Bobby Knight

I'm a firm believer in that you play the way you practice. — Larry Bird

Think of new ways to do old things. You must protect against boredom in a practice situation. — George Raveling

In practice, don't just run basketball drills, teach the players how to play basketball. — Don Meyer

We always need to be prepared and work hard in practice so we can be just like the farmer who has put that fourth cutting of hay in the barn. After he does that, he can feel good about what is going to happen the rest of the winter. — Don Meyer

I'm pretty fundamental when it comes to running. A basketball player doesn't practice his free throw shooting by doing slam dunks all over the place. He does it by practicing free throws. That's the attitude I take: You don't get better at running by doing everything but running. You get better by running. — Chris Solinsky

By itself, practice does not make perfect. Those of us with a ten-year-old son practicing the trumpet may understand that. — Daniel Hanley

Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions. But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice
perfecting their shooting, dribbling, and passing and running plays over and over again
and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court ... spontaneity isn't random. — Malcolm Gladwell

I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

You better have great practices. — Al McGuire

My spiritual journey really started when I was a sophomore in High School. I came home from basketball practice one rainy evening and a friend of the family was waiting in the living room for me. He said he just wanted to talk to me for a minute or two. We went down stairs and he posed this question to me; "Michael, If you were to die tonight and to stand before God, why should He let you into heaven? — Michael Richard Stosic

In 19 years Stockton never once lost a suicide drill in practice. Well, there was one day. He was sick. But he still ran it — Jerry Sloan

Practice to beat the best. — Dick Bennett

Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can't drive that — John Calipari

The gym teacher's name was Mr. Caruso. Mr. Caruso did
not speak English. He spoke 'Gym.' One day I was playing
basketball and Mr. Caruso told me I would have to get
an athletic supporter. He didn't express himself exactly
that way, though. He said, 'Hey, you, one day you're gonna
go up for a rebound and the family jewels aren't gonna
go with ya.' I had no idea what he was talking about.
Next day I showed up for practice without my watch and
my mezuzah. He said, 'Did ya take care of the family jewels?'
I said, 'I left 'em in my locker.' Took us a half hour to
revive Mr. Caruso. — Tommy Lasorda

If basketball was going to enable Bradley to make friends, to prove that a banker's son is as good as the next fellow, to prove that he could do without being the greatest-end-ever at Missouri, to prove that he was not chicken, and to live up to his mother's championship standards, and if he was going to have some moments left over to savor his delight in the game, he obviously needed considerable practice, so he borrowed keys to the gym and set a schedule for himself that he adhereded to for four full years - in the school year, three and a half hours every day after school, nine to five on Saturday, one-thirty to five on Sunday, and, in the summer, about three hours a day. — John McPhee

Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits. — Mike Krzyzewski

There's a lot of chatter in basketball and, rightfully, you want players to be talking to each other ... But sometimes in practice, it gets too verbose ... so I tried to take things out of the ordinary and make them special so they'd understand the difference. — Phil Jackson

One reason outfielders don't have stronger arms might be they don't practice as much as we did. Most teams today don't take outfield practice. Another reason is baseball has to compete with other sports now - basketball, football, soccer - for the better athletes that might have more skills and stronger arms. — Al Kaline

If a farmer and his family can get up at 5:30 every morning to milk cows, surly we can get up at that time to practice basketball. — Don Meyer

There is generally not any conscious thought; it's all instinct, and practice takes over. — Cindy Nelson

Acting on desire is more like a craft, a science, an art. It takes careful mindful practice. Be patient and quiet. Listen, observe, take notes. Figure out what you want, privately, and then choose to want it, publicly. Put your desire out in the open. I want to go swimming. I want to bake bread. I want to paint a picture. I want to build a chair. I want to write a book. You act and then you fail. Over and over. And it's better to start failing when you're young, when all you lose is an ice-cream cone or a basketball game or an afternoon of fun. When you're older, the stakes are higher. If adults don't know how to want, then they lose a love, a career, a life. — David Barringer

If you do the following three things, you will be successful in major college basketball. If you don't do them, it will be most difficult." He didn't say it would be impossible - typical of John Wooden - but he said it would be difficult. I was scrambling for my pen when he said, "Those three things are fairly simple: Number one, make certain, Dale, you always have better players than anybody you play. Now, with that locked up, make sure you always get the better players to put the team above themselves. And number three - this is very important, Dale Brown," he said, "don't try to be some coaching genius, or give the guys too much information, or too much stuff; always practice simplicity with constant repetition. — John Wooden

I've written in every imaginable location; a repurposed closet, the kitchen table, the bleachers while my kids had basketball practice, the front seat of the car when they were at soccer. In airports. On trains. In the break room when I was supposed to be wolfing down dinner. In the back of classrooms when I was supposed to be paying attention. — Laurie Halse Anderson

We stop practice every time we see one of our players not blocking out. — Jim Calhoun

I would spend almost as much time planning a practice as conducting it. Everything was planned out each day — John Wooden