Don Drysdale Quotes

I used to come out and say I was targeting certain players in the opposition team, particularly players I had had success against in the past: Gary Kirsten, Brian Lara and Michael Atherton, for example. It is a mental part of the game.

If a pitcher sees you fiddling with the bat, he'll stall until your arms are tired before you even get a chance to hit.

I lull them into a false sense of security by watching me pitch... If overconfidence can cause the Roman Empire to fall, I ought to be able to get a ground ball.

A lot of the high-level sports are really in your mind.

When I was a player, it was important to target the first few friendlies and plant a seed in the mind of the gaffer.

I reckon you have to put a presence in front of your opponent - a bit of confidence and attitude - and then you can change what their next move may be.

Everyone knows how to play tennis, but it's the mind that really controls everything.

The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.

You can't just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again.

Never let up. The more you can win by, the more doubts you put in the other players' minds the next time out.

For me, making my intent clear to the batsman before he stamps his authority is important. Playing with his mind is a way of attacking rather than setting attacking fields.

Everybody gets all worked up about trash talk but it is what it is - it's talk... You ask any player, honestly, if trash talk's gonna affect how hard they play, because if a little trash talk affects how hard they can play, it just lets us know that they were holding back or weren't playing harder or as hard as they could.

A sight game is that I am hurt, but I aim to make you believe I am not even hurt, and with this confidence appearing on my face, I don't panic, otherwise your opponent will know that you are hurt. That's the whole art game in boxing.

I mean I don't want to feel inferior to any other golfer in the world. You know if you do that, then you know you're giving them an advantage, you know, right off the - you know, right from the start.

What's important is to get into the pitcher's head: to know what he's made of.

I think rugby is 80 per cent mental.

Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher.

Half this game is 90 percent mental.

The period before the game can be important to influence opinions, characters, personalities, feelings, and, of course, I use that to touch my players, to touch opponents, to touch supporters.

Even now, I still get a bit apprehensive before a game because I am worried about whether I have done enough preparation or if something is going to catch me out. But the fear factor has gone - as it should have done by now, really, after nearly 50 years.

There are at least three kinds of advantages that the pitcher and batter contest. There's the physical advantage, the strategic advantage, and also the psychological advantage. I didn't want two out of three. I wanted them all.

Sports psychology or mental training has been viewed as a weakness, and I think that's a pretty silly way to look at it.

The mental side of sports, it's huge. It's such a massive part of the game.

We used to get into other players' heads mentally and physically. In my day it was me versus you, my future versus your future.

If I'm on my way to play a round of golf there is an anxiety in me, a feeling of 'I can't lose today.'