Coaching is making men do what they don't want, so they can become what they want to be — Tom Landry
Good coaching may be defined as the development of character, personality and habits of players, plus the teaching of fundamentals and team play. — Clair Bee
Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. — Timothy Gallwey
Coaching is not how much you know. It's how much you can get players to do. — Bum Phillips
Building awareness and responsibility is the essence of good coaching. — John Whitmore
Coaches win practices, players win games — Pete Carril
The goal of coaching is not in fixing what is broken, but in discovering new talents and new ways to use old talents that lead to far greater effectiveness. — Gifford Pinchot
The nicest thing about coaching is that one day you feel like you can play handball against a curb, and on other days you feel like you can fly to the moon. — Al McGuire
Coaching doesn’t start with X’s and O’s. It starts with believing that players win games and coaches win players. — Bill Courtney
The most important thing in coaching is communication. It's not what you say as much as what they absorb. — Red Auerbach
The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled — Ric Charlesworth
Over coaching is the worst thing you can do to a player. — Dean Smith
The absolute bottom line in coaching is organization and preparing for practice. — Bill Walsh
A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are. — Ara Parseghian
Short Coaching Quotes
Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won. — Bill Bowerman
To be an overachiever you have to be an over believer. — Dabo Swinney
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. — Carl Jung
Never permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure. — Joe Maddon
Don't ever promise more than you can deliver, but always deliver more than you promise. — Lou Holtz
If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you. You haven't done much today. — Mikhail Gorbachev
There are only two options regarding commitment; you’re either in or you’re out. — Pat Riley
If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them day in and day out. — Chuck Noll
Pressure is something you feel when you do not know what you are doing. — Chuck Noll
Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport. — James Naismith
Coaching Image Quotes
Winning is about having the whole team on the same page. — Bill Walton
A good coach will make his players see what they can become rather than what they are.
Bad Coaching Quotes
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. — Satchel Paige
Looking back, I've learned the most from the bad coaches, really, how not to act, how not to coach, how not to treat people. So I always say no matter what situations you're faced with, how bad it is, you can always walk away and learn. You can always rise above it. — Jennie Finch
You have so many games to play, and you can do well in one game but bad in the other ones. The thing you’ve got to be is consistent. — Giannis Antetokounmpo
A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.
If I play a bad game, I know I played a bad game. If I play a good game, I know I played a good game. So I don’t need anyone to tell me if I did good or bad – because I know it. — Paul Pogba
To see the line between being good and bad is really thin. It’s not easy for anyone, not the manager, the players or the staff. — Mikel Arteta
There is no bad time to laugh. I always joke, even five minutes before a game. It’s not bad to stay a little immature. — Kylian Mbappe
A coach is someone who can give correction without resentment.
If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you. — Bear Bryant
Eventually I went back to high school. I went to a coaching center in my neighborhood. I had to leave the homeless situation because it was so bad and I knew that I was falling deeper and deeper. — Luis J. Rodriguez
Mediocre athletes that tried like hell to get good are the best coaches. — Mark Rippetoe
Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad. — Darrell Royal
Life Coaching Quotes
Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game - and life - will take care of itself. — Phil Jackson
Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise — Michael Jordan
What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it. — Dean Smith
I stare out the window and wait for spring. — Rogers Hornsby
Every game is an opportunity to measure yourself against your own potential. — Bud Wilkinson
Throughout my life I have dreamed of coaching at the University of Michigan. — Jim Harbaugh
To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.
We know that hockey is where we live, where we can best meet and overcome pain and wrong and death. Life is just a place where we spend time between games. — Fred Shero
I always set my ambitions very high. You want to be the greatest athlete, but I realized that life is not about that. I was a little bit blind. — Joanna Jedrzejczyk
I started my career with a loss, getting ‘slapped’ by life. — Amanda Nunes
I always say to my guys, 'The most important day of your life is today. This very minute is the most important of you life. You must win this minute. You must win this day. And tomorrow will take care of itself. — John Chaney
Positive Coaching Quotes
Wearing a mask wears you out. Faking it is fatiguing. The most exhausting activity is pretending to be what you know you aren't. — Rick Warren
You don’t have to be in charge to lead. Leadership is about making a positive impact, no matter your position. — Michael Abrashoff
I think sport can play a really positive role in young girls’ lives and be great to see as many of them playing sport as possible. — Ellyse Perry
Governor is not the position to have in Oklahoma. It is the head coach of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or Tulsa. — J. C. Watts
Nine or ten, I like playing both. I like to score goals, and I feel in both positions I can score goals. — Harry Kane
I’m absolutely convinced that positive, personal reinforcement is the essence of effective leadership. — Michael Abrashoff
As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has-or ever will have-something inside that is unique to all time. — Fred Rogers
Take a walk outside - it will serve you far more than pacing around in your mind. — Rasheed Ogunlaru
I think what coaching is all about, is taking players and analyzing there ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning. And I hope that I've done that in my 33 years as a head coach. — Don Shula
Basketball Coach Quotes
Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We. — Phil Jackson
There's a misconception about teamwork. Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things; it's the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel. But in the end, it's also the ability to adjust to what is the best for the team. — Tom Landry
Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. — Muhammad Ali
Deep down, your players must know you care about them. This is the most important thing. I could never get away with what I do if the players feel I didn't care for them. They know, in the long run, I'm in their corner. — Bo Schembechler
My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. That's it. I don't have any other goals — Brad Stevens
The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot. — Bill Russell
Work hard, stay focused and surround yourself with good people. — Tom Osborne
To do the right thing at the right season is a great art. — Helio Gracie
Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat. — Dean Smith
Hard work is not punishment. Hard work is the price of admission for the opportunity to reach sustained excellence — Jay Bilas
Inspirational Coaching Quotes
Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her. — Mia Hamm
It's not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters. — Bear Bryant
The team with the best athletes doesn't usually win. It's the team with the athletes who play best together. — Lisa Fernandez
You fail all the time, but you aren't a failure until you start blaming someone else. — Bum Phillips
The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven. — Knute Rockne
It is highly possible that what is called 'talented behavior' is simply a greater individual capacity for experiencing. From this point of view, it is in the increasing of the individual capacity for experiencing that the untold potentiality of a personality can be evoked. — Viola Spolin
You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours. — Herb Brooks
Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer. — Percy Cerutty
Stay focused. Your start does not determine how you're going to finish. — Herman Edwards
I celebrate a victory when I start walking off the field. By the time I get to the locker room, I'm done. — Tom Osborne
Sports Coach Quotes
If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time. — Abraham Lincoln
The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb. — Knute Rockne
Alabama fans love Alabama football. Auburn fans love Auburn. — Pat Dye
When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out. — Casey Stengel
My coach told me, "Larry, no matter how much you work at it, there's always someone out there who's working just a little harder - if you take 150 practice shots, he's taking 200." And that drove me. — Larry Bird
I want you to be forever strong on the field, so that you will be forever strong off the field. — Larry Gelwix
Nobody wanted me. Scouts told me to go to school, to forget baseball. Coaches said, 'You're never going to make it.' I appreciated their honesty, because I think when someone tells you something you may not like, you have to use that as fuel for motivation. — Mike Piazza
My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team. — Don Shula
It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day. — Willie Mays
I liked the energy of cooking, the action, the camaraderie. I often compare the kitchen to sports and compare the chef to a coach. There are a lot of similarities to it. — Todd English
Motivational Coaching Quotes
The only thing you deserve is what you earn — Tom Brands
They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best. — Red Auerbach
Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits. — Mike Krzyzewski
A lot of people think being at the top means you have to be the best at a certain game. You don’t. It’s more about personality. — KSI
I love the game of basketball, and as long as I can do that, keep playing and try to get some more championships with the organization, I’ll be happy. — Kawhi Leonard
I’m in the team to score goals. I try and score as many as I can in the season to help the team out. — Harry Kane
Leadership is about empowering others to achieve their full potential and fostering an environment of trust and collaboration. — Michael Abrashoff
Success is not measured by the number of followers or likes, but by the impact you have on others. — Edward Barber
What I’ve learned mostly is that you have to be ruthless and you have to be consistent and you have to fit every day the culture of the club to create a winning mentality. — Mikel Arteta
Great Coach Quotes
I'm a football coach. I'm not a doctor ... They don't call plays, I don't do surgeries. We have a great deal here. — Bill Belichick
A good football coach needs a patient wife, a loyal dog and a great quarterback - but not necessarily in that order. — Bud Grant
I'm busy. Thank you very much. Have a great day. — Les Miles
I'm the head coach at LSU. I will be the head coach at LSU. I have no interest in talking to anybody else. I got a championship game to play, and I'm excited for the opportunity of my damn strong football team to play in it. Please ask me after. I'm busy. Thank you very much. Have a great day! — Les Miles
On good teams coaches hold players accountable, on great teams players hold players accountable — Joe Dumars
The more honor and self-respect among players, the greater the team. — Frosty Westering
The labour party is like a stage-coach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next. — Harold Wilson
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand — Vince Lombardi
I try to be the best and give the maximum so that people can say I’m among the top players. — Antoine Griezmann
People get too big to do the little things and then wonder why they don’t have the big results. — Isaac Mashman
Football Coach Quotes
The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do, in order to achieve what they've always wanted to be. — Tom Landry
True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise - the other, loyalty. — Fielding H. Yost
There's no substitute for hard work and effort beyond the call of duty. That is what strengthens the soul and ennobles one's character. — Walter Camp
I am who I am. In the end, I feel that what I'm accountable for is doing a good job as a football coach. — Bill Belichick
I've got a Championship game to play and I'm excited about the opportunity of my damn strong football team to play in it. — Les Miles
They ask me what I'd like written about me when I'm gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach. — Joe Paterno
Our strength is that we don't have any weaknesses. Our weakness is that we don't have any real strengths. — Frank Broyles
Football is something like war. Whoever behaves too properly, is lost. — Rinus Michels
You don't have to flaunt your success, but you don't have to apologize for it, either — Gene Stallings
I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game. — Bear Bryant
Good Coach Quotes
A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are. — Ara Parasheghian
I don't even know what a traditional producer is or does. I feel like the job is like being a coach, building good work habits and building trust. You want to get to a point where you can say anything and talk about anything. There needs to be a real connection. — Rick Rubin
I don't apologize for anything. When I make a mistake, I take the blame and go on from there. I just despise to lose, and that has taken a man of mediocre ability and made a pretty good coach out of him. — Woody Hayes
I was in the right place at the right time. — Mel Allen
If you see players who hate practice, their coach isn't doing a very good job. — Bill Walsh
The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy. — Jerry Tarkanian
When we're playing a good scoring center, we tell our team that it is not our defensive man's job to stop the center. It's the responsibility of our perimeter people to stop the ball from going inside. — Bobby Knight
The country is full of good coaches. What it takes to win is a bunch of interested players. — Don Coryell
Goal-line technology is a good thing. The ref gets the signal and can decide based on that. — Didier Deschamps
I try to help developing junior chess. When I lived in USSR, I got a lot of free help from very good coaches - now I am trying to repay that debt. — Boris Spassky
Coaches Quotes
Breathe, believe, and battle.' My former coach, Troy Tanner, told us that before each match. Breathe-be in the moment. Believe-have faith that you can rise above it. Battle-you gotta be prepared to go for as long as it takes. — Kerri Walsh
Teamwork is the foundation of success. The three universal questions that an individual asks of his coach, player, employee, employer are: Can I trust you? Are you committed to excellence? And, do you care about me? — Lou Holtz
Each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen. — Pete Carroll
You can be angry and pissed off at the coach and put your head down and pout. Or you can rise above it, respect the decision, but also know that you're going to go and work that much harder and prove everybody wrong. And that's the road that I chose. — Carli Lloyd
You can't make people smarter. You can expose them to information, but your responsibility stops there. — Mark Rippetoe
I'm not thinking about coaching, I'm thinking about heading to Washington, watching the world champions and my brother coach — Jon Gruden
Nothing can drag you down if you're not holding on to it. — Tony Robbins
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory. — Herbert Kaufman
It always amazes me that spectators want to coach, coaches want to officiate, and officials just want to watch the game — Lou Holtz
Whatever we refuse to recognize about ourselves has a way of rearing its head and making itself known when we least expect it. — Debbie Ford
Soccer Coach Quotes
More girls are taking up sport and realising it’s a legitimate option for them to forge a career. — Ellyse Perry
I’ve always been working hard on my speed for the last few years. Obviously I’m not slow, but as a striker, the more speed you have, the better you are. — Harry Kane
I’m just living in the moment, trying to win every game. That’s all I’m focused on. — Kawhi Leonard
I tell you that the coaches are like cardiologists – they have to enter the player in their hearts so that the message reaches them. — Mikel Arteta
Every day is important, every act is important. The secret is that the people, players and staff have to believe what you are trying to deliver. — Mikel Arteta
Criticism is part of being at a club like Arsenal. You always have to win and when you’re not winning you have to be prepared for that. It’s part of your job. — Mikel Arteta
I play cricket. I’m a professional cricketer and I guess my job is to hopefully help Australia win games of cricket. — Ellyse Perry
After an international break you do not know if they are in the frame of mind to come back and do the things necessary to win this league. — Mikel Arteta
It isn’t hard to practise finishing. You can do it on your own: just take a couple of touches and shoot at goal. You can do it with whatever equipment you have. — Harry Kane
Energy is everything, in life, in football and in sports. — Mikel Arteta
I know what sport has given to me in my life, what opportunities I’ve had and the lessons I’ve learned about myself and about life. — Ellyse Perry
Your life is not your own: it belongs to God. To "be yourself" is to be and do what God wants you to be and do, knowing that God created you for a mission and knows you and your mission better than you do. — Leonard Sweet
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. — Bryant Gumbel
I think sports gave me the first place where this awkward girl could feel comfortable in my own skin. I think that's true for a lot of women-sports gives you a part of your life where you can work at something and you look in the mirror and you like that person. — Teri McKeever
Wisdom is merely the movement from fighting life to embracing it. — Rasheed Ogunlaru
I really loved football from a young age. And my only thought, my only objective in life, was to be a professional footballer. — Paul Pogba
I learned early that if I wanted to achieve anything in life, I'd have to do it myself. I learned that I had to be accountable. — Lenny Wilkens
I believe this with all my heart: The greatest coach of all time in my eyes is my mom. She's instilled in me a toughness and a perseverance and just a never-quit mentality, and I thank her every day for providing me, for what she sacrificed her life for. — Scott Brooks
A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning. — Chuck Noll
Coaching Staff Quotes
You need a lot of leaders, but a hockey team needs a voice, not only in the community, but more importantly between the coaching staff and the players. There are always ups and downs in a season; the captain is the guy players look to in those situations. — Joe Sakic
We ask these players to do some very difficult things, for the team, the coaching staff, the school - at risk of injury. And when they do those things, I feel as if I'm in their debt. It's an honor to coach those guys. I want to be of service to them. — Les Miles
We draft mostly high school kids and we have one of the finest, if not the finest, player development programs and coaching staffs and we teach our players the right way to play. We also have a game plan in scouting, and there are certain types of players that we look for. — Roy Clark
The first thing any coaching staff must do is weed out selfishness. No program can be successful with players who put themselves ahead of the team. — Johnny Majors
I had a great bunch of kids. They all hung with us. The coaching staff hung with us. And we played tough every game. If you've got kids that want to play and react to you, it's fun. I'm having a good time. — Joe Paterno
At the same time, it makes me feel like I have to prove myself to the new guys coming in as well as prove myself to the coaching staff, which is a good bit of motivation for me. — Michael Strahan
It was a wonderful experience to play in the NFL, and I have no regrets. I truly will miss playing for the Lions. I consider the Lions' players, coaches, staff, management and fans my family. I leave on good terms with everyone in the organization. — Barry Sanders
I've always respected Coach Frank. I kind of publicly recruited him because I really need him and want him. I'm kind of the college recruiter now because he brings a lot to the table. He's had success here and understands the good and the bad, so I'm recruiting him to join my staff. — Jason Kidd
Never be possessive. If a female friend lets on that she is going out with another man, be kind and understanding. If she says she would like to go out with the Dallas Cowboys, including the coaching staff, the same rule applies. — Bruce Jay Friedman
During the final two weeks of training, our students work simulated game situations in which our staff members role-play as players, managers, and coaches. They are given immediate feedback following each camp game. — Jim Evans
Baseball Coach Quotes
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. — Seneca
You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too. — Roy Campanella
When Steve and I die, we are going to be buried in the same cemetery, 60-feet 6-inches apart. — Tim Mccarver
Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story. — Casey Stengel
What's tough is being good every day. — Willie Mays
What are we at the park for except to win? I'd trip my mother. I'd help her up, brusher her off, tell her I'm sorry. But mother don't make it to third. — Leo Durocher
I just didn't have no edge for baseball. Once special coach Tony Oliva and former Twins coach Al Newman told me what happened, I couldn't function. — Torii Hunter
Baseball is the only sport that lets the managers and coaches go out onto the field and rant and rave — Durwood Merrill
If you can't imitate him, don't copy him. — Yogi Berra
Why are baseball managers the only coaches who dress up like the players? — Jay Mohr
The night before my amputation, my former basketball coach brought me a magazine with an article on an amputee who ran in the New York Marathon. It was then I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say it disabled me. — Terry Fox
The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says I; The leader says WE. The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, GO; the leader says Lets GO! — Harry Gordon Selfridge
People thrive on positive reinforcement. They can take only a certain amount of criticism and you may lose them altogether if you criticize them in a personal way... you can make a point without being personal. Don't insult or belittle your people. Instead of getting more out of them you will get less — Bill Walsh
Perhaps the toughest call for a coach is weighing what is best for an individual against what is best for the team. Keeping a player on the roster just because I liked him personally, or even because of his great contributions to the team in the past, when I felt some one else could do more for the team would be a disservice to the team's goals. — Tom Landry
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of coaching quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about coaching to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of coaching quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
