Athlete Psychology Quotes

We're never satisfied with where we are as players.

The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who can perform great feats before friendly crowds.

I think the biggest thing was that I was putting pressure on myself leading up to Beijing. Now I am learning how to take that pressure off and seeing this as an incredible opportunity, but not like, 'I absolutely have to medal.'

When the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2015 NBA Finals to Golden State, LeBron James sat motionless in the locker room, staring straight ahead, still wearing his game jersey, for 45 minutes after the final buzzer. Here was a guy immensely wealthy, widely admired, at the peak of his powers - yet stricken, inconsolable.

I have tremendous respect for both John Elway and Peyton Manning as people and as quarterbacks in the NFL, but I was not concerned one bit with playing in their shadow.

No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, but tennis players talk to themselves-and answer. Tennis players look like lunatics in a public square.

I needed somebody to love me, and the people that I chose were my coaches. I would sacrifice my body to be successful for my coaches because I wanted them to love me, to respect me, to have positive feelings about me.

When you are a player, you don't really understand the criticism when you feel like you played pretty well.

If you look at top players - Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi - so many had a parent who was domineering to the point where you really had to question his sanity. It was nuts.

A player senses when a coach loses confidence in him. That, more than anything, can throw a player.

One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. He stops trying to exceed his limits, and thinks he can keep winning because of his lucky star, or the bad luck of his opponents. You must overcome this negative instinct, which affects all of us, and which is the only difference between the person who wins a race, and those who lose. This is the battle you have to fight every day of your life.

All the players are human beings and need more support to bring their confidence up.

When first starting to work with someone you try to get them in the same mindset that you were in when you were successful, and I realized the best thing you can ever do is realize that they are not you. They have a different persona and mindset, and you have to figure out what works best within your communication with that athlete.

The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play.

When they [court announcers] say, 'This is the world No. 2,' it just doesn't sound right to me because either I'm No. 1 or I'm a grand slam champion. I'm not world No. 2. I just don't like the ring of it when I'm introduced on court because I've been up there for so, so long.

As a competitor and an athlete, you have to believe in yourself. And you have to believe in the people who believe in you.

Almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it; they feel it; they experience it before hey actually do it. They begin with the end in mind.

I played with a lot of great players before. They're all the same. They take a lot of responsibility for their own play, put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to play well.

I'm probably one of the most misunderstood people in the league.

Psychologically, for an athlete to miss a game because of injury, it's tough.

One percent of ballplayers are leaders of men. The other 99 percent are followers of women.

We must condition the players. They need to get into the right frame of mind in the hours leading up the game.

When all you've done is work toward being a professional athlete, and then you injure yourself, and you know that you're going to be out for a while, it's gut-wrenching. It almost feels like your life is over because that's all you've ever worked for.

Durant has developed a LeBron Complex, sounding like he wants to be his best buddy LeBron as well as beat him.

Everyone gets the impression that bodybuilders are narcissistic, and we look at ourselves in mirrors all the time. But that side of the sport doesn't appeal to me.