David Shields Quotes

When I was a teenager, my dad used to put a lot of pressure on me to be successful, and I'd really beat myself up about things like losing martial arts competitions.

I play football, and most football players are camera shy. We just want to be left alone; we just want to stick to what we do.

You see so many different personalities and mind-sets in the world of sports, just like you do with actors.

People expect that I'll be just perfect on ice, and that's not the case. I make mistakes, too. When I review my performance, sometimes I feel I did awful. That's the whole part of the process of what people see when I'm performing.

It annoys me a little when people try to be positive when I don't play my best. I play to win. I'm like that. I'm like any other player. I'm never happy.

I'm used to performing under pressure, but that's playing football.

Never played football, but I'm an athlete. I'm a competitor.

I play with a fear of letting people down. That's what motivates me.

As cricketers we fail all the time. You score a hundred every now and again but you get out between nought and 20 far more often. If you get 50, you feel bad because you should have got a hundred. Even if you get a hundred, you feel you should have got 150. So you're always failing.

I get nervous before every shoot. I'm really jealous of the people that can just rest on their laurels and say, 'I'm good; this is it.'

I can say for a fact, football is definitely my sport, and I can't wait to show the world what I can do.

Sometimes, musicians worry too much about how beautifully they are playing.

I think every athlete is their own biggest critic. That's just who we are. We're so competitive.

That competitive nature comes out when I feel like I'm playing bad and when things aren't going right.

I wouldn't be in football if I was nervous. You have to look forward to games.

Individually, I am very happy because I can play in every game. I can be on the pitch and do what I like to do, which is play football.

The strange thing about the Olympics is that delivering on your potential is always quite difficult.

I've trained since I started walking, I've played sports, I've competed. I've learned how to win, even if I haven't done it as much as I'd like.

I never counted on playing rugby: I was just another fat kid chasing an egg. It has gone pretty well.

You don't have time to think about things that aren't as important as football and the points that are at stake in the games that we have to win and do well in.

You always - as a basketball player, as a competitor - that's where you speak most: on the court.

Personally, I take it really seriously and it bothers me when I don't play well.

As a soccer player you want to perform, whether it's in front of 72,000 or even 1,000. You always want to be your best because you never know who's watching.

In the past, I put too much pressure on myself. I went out there and I tried so hard to get the ball in the hole, I tried so hard to hit the perfect shots.

It would be simpler going to an Olympic Games knowing you had to nail one trick that you've done a hundred times, and if you do it, you'll win. Or if you're a swimmer, if you swim a certain time, you will win. In BMX, there are no guarantees.