Marcus Smart Quotes

A lot of amateurs are terrified of going up against a player who is clearly better than they are. They never play their best, because they aren't comfortable. There's one surefire way to get over that, and it's to ask yourself, 'What if I beat him?' Imagine the possibility.

Athletes have to be confident and I am thinking like that.

Venus told me the other day that champions don't get nervous in tight situations. That really helped me a lot. I decided I shouldn't get nervous and just do the best I can.

I'm confident in all my fights. You have to be. You have to put any negative thoughts aside.

There have been competitions where I got on the line and psyched myself out before I even let myself compete. I was thinking about the other competitors and not giving myself a fair chance. I had to shift to thinking, 'Just focus on yourself and doing what your coach has taught you to do.'

Mental strength is really important because you either win or lose in your mind. And I'm not solely talking about sporting matches, boxing events - anything you do, you do it first with your mental strength. And you can actually train and develop it, and I am responsible for what I'm saying because I have experience with that.

I've always been a firm believer in mind over matter. If you don't believe you can achieve, your body will start to believe this and you'll be stuck.

I'm confident in my own ability. If that wasn't the case you might as well pack it in now. If you think too much, you start doubting yourself, doubting your quality, so you have to train yourself in a certain way.

Sometimes I think I could have got some better results if I had a different mentality; if I could have pushed hard and attacked. But then I would have had a good chance of making a mistake.

Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn't.

However you arrive at the ability to ignore self-doubt - if you can acquire it or possess it or find it or discover it - move beyond self-doubt.

Even though there are a lot of bright tennis players out there, you still have to protect yourself and save all your mental and emotional energies for tennis.

I think what weakens people most is fear of wasting their strength.

I view my pitching on how confident I was out there, period. And if I lose that confidence, I can become a prisoner of my own mind.

Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You've got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.

I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like, 'My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it. I just want to chill.' We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it.

When I got to match point in the final I was afraid I'd be a little nervous, but I just said, You have to stay focused, just think about what you have to do.

If I don't believe it, then they don't need me on the court. I've just got to believe that in my heart.

My biggest problem will be lack of match toughness but I am a positive, optimistic person.

Because winning a gold medal had been a dream of mine since a young age, I needed to empty my mind during the preparation for the Olympics by telling myself that it would be OK not to win a gold medal.

Some days you really don't feel like racing and you have a great performance, some days you feel great and you have a mediocre performance.

The biggest thing I've learned is just to not doubt myself as much as I do. Having self-doubt is definitely necessary, but it's about not letting it get in the way. When it turns into fear, you run into problems.

When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.

Sometimes, my self-doubt became self-limiting.

I never think of who's in the competition. I never let myself get in that frame of mind, worrying about who I'm against.