Mikaela Shiffrin Quotes

You can wish as hard as you like but all that really matters is the shape you're in on the day of the race. I've always felt these really big races aren't necessarily won by whoever is the fastest. They're won by the athlete who is the smartest and in the best shape on the day.

Preparedness for a game that usually lasts four-five hours requires good physical condition and also steady nerves.

You play this sport in the mind, not only on the field.

It's all a mind thing, just all mental. You have to know going into the game you have to play at a high level, as many minutes, stuff like that. It's just all mental. You get yourself mentally prepared for it and go out there and play.

It's not easy to play 162 games and be focused the whole time. It takes a lot out of you.

With everything else that would swirl around me when I got involved in it, tennis was my main concern.

My concentration level blocks out everything. Concentration is why some athletes are better than others. You develop that concentration in training and concentrate in a meet.

To concentrate intensely for 4 and a half hours, that's too hard for me. Too tiring. I concentrate 'lo maximo' on the 'golpe,' the stroke, but between strokes I'm interacting with the crowd or laughing with my caddie, talking about the spectators, the cute girls.

Most important was to remain focused and always have presence of mind.

It's always difficult, especially the U.S. Open, the last of the Grand Slams. It's always tough because you know, the season is very long. I really played a lot this year. Sometimes it's really hard to stay focused all the time because you're really tired after the whole season.

The biggest thing was just getting comfortable out there in front of all the people and just the whole major setting and how difficult major championships are, how patient... you have to be.

Every night you have different match-ups, and you have 82 games, so physically you are going to get tired. You have to be ready mentally to bring your energy and bring the juice every night.

When I'm starting a race, I just completely narrow down my vision and focus on what's directly ahead of me.

Golf is 90% mental. Once you know how to hold the club, swing it, it's all in the mind.

In my opinion, the power of the mind in sport is vital. If you can overpower those physical risks mentally, you can get your body round it physically. I've made my body do things because of my mind that it shouldn't have been able to do.

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.

To win Grand Slams you have to be in the right frame of mind, the right physical shape.

I know how to prepare my head.

More than the time, it's about how you feel - you want to be strong throughout the race.

Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.

Every great player has learned the two Cs: how to concentrate and how to maintain composure.

If I am practicing on the wire, and you pushed me, I would not move, and if you take a piece of wood and beat me up on the shoulder and the head, I would not move. You would not put me out of balance. You would not be able to. I am solid as granite when I am on the tight rope, and I should be.

Throughout my career I swam for form. Speed came as a result of it.

Golf is played between the ears and if you are not 100 percent focused on what you are trying to do, then people will go past you no matter who you are.

It's such a psychological and mental game, golf, that the smallest wrong thing at the wrong time can distract you from what you're trying to achieve.