John Wooden Quotes

One thing I did inject was a different work ethic: Guys, no, we don't rehearse once or twice a month, we rehearse every day after work and on weekends, and that's how we're gonna get better. And everybody adopted that work ethic, and it did pay off.

My batting average has been good, so people ask how much luck is involved. I tell them when I work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, I get lucky.

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'

I know that the hard work got me here. And the day I stop working hard, this can all go away.

Talent is cheap. What really matters is discipline.

It's important to work hard - there's no short cut around that.

What gets me upset about with the newer players is their lack of intensity. They tend to go through the motions a little bit. They don't understand that you've got to practice the way you play.

You've got to get good habits of working hard so that when that play comes up during the regular season that you're able to complete it and do it the right way.

When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn't I couldn't do my best.

If success is a habit, it is a hard one to acquire.

Those who are blessed with the most talent don't necessarily outperform everyone else. It's the people with follow-through who excel.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

How long you can continue to be good at something is how much you believe in yourself and how much hard work you do with the training.

At the end of the day, you can have all the talent in the world. But if you don't put in the work, nothing works. The engine doesn't start going. It's a car without gas.

Every day, you have to put in the hard work.

Nothing guarantees a championship. Nothing. Not having the best players, not practicing the most. Your best chance is if you do the right thing every day.

In order to win a championship, you've got to be consistent.

Put in the work in every day, put in the work in training, and it will show on the field.

As a footballer, if you work hard, then everything else falls into place.

All of us, we know, not just in football but in life, that we cannot achieve important things without consistency.

You just have to keep coming to work in order to be the best.

Every training session you take part in, you have to work very hard and train hard because there is no other way to get where you want to be - it's not a secret and not a magic formula - just hard work and application.

I'm talented, but my work ethic has pushed me over the top.

I have no magic formula. The only way I know to win is through hard work.

There is absolutely nothing that beats hard work.