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Welcome to Leading Words!  We have designed this blog as a resource center for coaches (or anyone else) that might be looking for quotes in motivating others or themselves.  We currently have over 125 topics and 1,800 quotes.  You can see the topics by scrolling to the bottom of the page.  Click on the topic you are interested in and it will bring up quotes regarding that topic.  The site is still being built.  We still have nearly 500 quotes to add and will continue to add on as we hear or read great quotes.  We hope you find this beneficial.

WINNING

"Don't worry about making friends; don't worry about making enemies.  Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can't hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can't stand you." –Bear Bryant

"A team wins with the elimination of mistakes and with people who want to win and can't stand losing." -Lou Holtz

"Get the winners into the game." –Bear Bryant

"I don’t get a big charge out of being the leading scorer. The object of competing is winning. I just try to do what has to be done for us to win. That might be anything at the time — defense, rebounding, passing. I get great satisfaction out of being a team player.” -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“Winning takes character and intelligence. It is the most important thing you can do because it’s a reaffirmation of your character.” –Pete Carril

“Don’t worry about losing.  Think about winning.” –Mike Krzyzewski

"The way you get to be really great in this league is to defeat the teams that you’re supposed to defeat, and there are never any excuses about that." -Pat Riley

“I never learned anything from a match that I won.” –Bobby Jones

“To win, you have to lose, and then get pissed off.” -Joe Namath

“I am rather thoroughly convinced that those who have the self-satisfaction of knowing they have done their best will also be on the most desirable end of the score as much, and perhaps more, than their natural ability might indicate." –John Wooden

"If you're going to play at all, you're out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose." -Derek Jeter

“I do love the feeling of a big win. But you don’t have to have a World Series ring to be a winner. A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished. Being able to get the most from their ability. That’s what characterizes a winner.” –Joe Torre

“You can't just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again.” -Mia Hamm

“For me, winning isn't something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.” -Emmitt Smith

“Victory is produced by and belongs to all.” –Bill Walsh

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before." -Steve Young

"Without winners, there wouldn't even be any civilization." –Woody Hayes

"I have one goal with all my decision: to do whatever is needed to win today's game. I'm loyal to my players, and I stick with people because consistency builds confidence. But if I feel I have to make a change in order to win, I'll do it. I don't ask players to like my decisions, only to accept that I'm doing my job with one thing in mind - winning." -Joe Torre

“The quest that we're on is impossible to complete. Because once you win, you've got to win all the time -- and no one wins all the time. The world doesn't work that way." –Bill Parcells

"Winning must be the obsession that determines every decision you make, that guides your thought process, that pushes you to be aggressive when everyone else is hanging back." –Ron Wolf

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” -Larry Bird

"But truth be told, being a winner, in the purest sense of the word, has nothing to do with your performance, your salary, or your earning potential. It has to do with your value and whether or not you have owned it." –John Maxwell

"Each Sunday after the battle, one group savors victory, another lives the bitterness of defeat.  The practice and the hard work of the season seem a small price for having won.  But there are no reasons that are adequate for having lost." –Vince Lombardi

“Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second.” -Bobby Unser

“No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins battles. The battles decides all.” –Vince Lombardi

“You will never hear me tell the players that we should have won a game. You will never hear me quoted as saying, ‘we should have won.’ I do not believe in it. You either do or you don’t. It is as simple as that.” –Bob Stoops

"I never believed in the theory that on any given night, anybody could beat you. I don’t believe in that. I mean if you’re better than the Spurs or the Nuggets or the Los Angeles Clippers, then you should beat them." –Pat Riley

“Overemphasizing winning is bad, but singling out winning as the most important thing you do is good, and you should do everything you can to prepare so you can win. Winning is the only objective measure for a team; all the rest is subjective.” –Pete Carril

"I think the worst thing you can do is play poorly and still win." –Nick Saban

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-the-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.” –Vince Lombardi

"By emphasizing not only winning but winning today, you move every one's thought process away from a general concept and direct it toward something substantial. It makes progress easy to measure. It makes every one's performance easier to measure. It establishes a tempo for the organization, and it blows away any excuse about not understanding what our goal is and what I expect should be done to achieve it." –Ron Wolf

"When we lose, I’m not a happy man. It may sound backwards, but one way to create a culture of winning is to make everybody in your organization fearful of, or uncomfortable with, the thought of losing.” -Jim Calhoun

WORK ETHIC

"If you can't out play them, outwork them."  -Ben Hogan

"The only thing wrong with doing nothing is that you never know when you are finishing." -Anonymous

“We had a saying with our team that we used as a reminder on down days: Hard Work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard.’” –Kevin Eastman

“Anything can happen with hard work and dedication.” -Jerry West

"If your health is threatened, work. If disappointments surface, work. If your faith falters, work. If you inherit riches, continue to work. If your dreams are shattered, and the star of hope begins to darken your horizon, work. If sorry overwhelms you, or your friends prove untrue or desert you, work. If you are happy, keep right on working. No matter what ails you, work. Work as if your life depended on it, because it does." -Dennis Kimbro

“The successful man derives more pleasure and real satisfaction from his hard-working life than ever comes to the one who neglects his business and suffers the penalty which such neglect brings.” –Henry Baldwin Hyde

"I've had smarter people around me all my life, but haven't run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good. That's just the way it is. And if you believe that and live by it, you'd be surprised at how much you can have." –Woody Hayes

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” -Anonymous

"I was the first one in the gym, and the last one to leave." –Muhammad Ali

"Nothing will work unless you do." -- John Wooden

"Someone might have a germ of talent, but 90% of it is discipline and how you practice it, what you do with it. Instinct won't carry you through the entire journey. It's what you do in the moments between inspiration." -Cate Blanchett

''We got better yesterday. We got better on Wednesday. We're going to have a better team this Sunday. That really has been a trademark of this team ... to always make improvements over the course of the season. So I don't think we take weeks off. I don't think we take days off. We're always trying to get better.'' -Tom Brady

"If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I'd be out of a job." -Steve Nash

“There’s a simple doctrine: Outside of a person’s love, the most sacred thing they can give is their labor.” -James Carville

"When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team. But what impressed me was that he was always the first one on the floor and the last one to leave." -Steve Alford

“The great ones come back every year with a new weapon or a new counter to one of the things that’s an important weapon to their game because teams are constantly adjusting to them.”  – Rick Carlisle on Dirk Nowitski

“Stop working, and your power, your ability, your endurance, your form will leave you. There’s only one way you can get to the top and stay there, in athletics, and that’s through long hours of hard work.” –Bob Richards

"One of the more important things we look for when we pick a player is that he is a worker, someone who will buy into our program. He has to be willing to lift weights and to condition himself...our experience has always been that the kids that are more self-starter-type guys are the ones who you eventually have more success with. The guys that you’ve got to kick all the time or push all the time, you sometimes fail with them because they get a little bit lazy." -Bill Parcells

“If you think you are working hard, you can work harder. If you think you are doing enough, there is more that you can do. No one really ever exhausts his full potential.” –Pete Carril

“I understand why this organization wins. They work extremely hard. Hard. I mean hard! My first couple of days here, I [would] call my agent and be like, ‘Man, what’d you get me into?’ It’s unbelievable. After that first day, I understood why they’re Super Bowl champions. I understand.” –Corey Dillion on the New England Patriots

"Hard work and togetherness. They go hand in hand. You need hard work because it's such a tough atmosphere. You need togetherness because you don't always win and you gotta hang tough together." -Tony Dungy

“Hard work is never a waste. No one will say, "It is too bad he was such a good, hard worker." But if you aren't they will surely say, "It's too bad he was so lazy—he could have been so much more!" Hard work will leave a grand legacy. Give it your all on your trip around the earth. You will do a lot of good and leave a terrific legacy.” –Jim Rohn

"The way I see it, if I put two hours in by myself, then someone who is working out with somebody else has to put in four hours in order to beat me. That's the way I've always gone about it." -Larry Bird

“Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”-Theodore Roosevelt

“The personal physical exertion of leaders must not be overlooked. It is as important as any strategy or tactic.” -Karl Von Clousewitz

"If you really want something , you can have it if you're willing to pay the price. And the price means you have to work better and harder than the next guy." -Vince Lombardi

"The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night." -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” –Vince Lombardi

"I didn’t just show up for work, as has sometimes been said. I also showed up to work." -Cal Ripken

"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all." –Michelangelo

“The heights by great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight:

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“It comes down to a very simple saying: There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way.” –Michael Jordan

“If you don’t back it up with performance and hard work, talking doesn’t mean a thing.” –Michael Jordan

VISION

“I want all the players on our team to see themselves through my eyes. They need to know how they really are, not just how they think they are. If they can step outside themselves and watch their performances as I see them, then they may internalize both their shortcomings and their strengths. That’s why videotape is very important in my business. Because any way you cut it, when a player sees himself on videotape — as the coach sees him — you can bet your life, he’s going to try to improve. And the helps not only individual performance, but overall team effectiveness." -Mike Krzyzewski

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Anonymous

"All we do is done with an eye to something else." -Aristotle

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find the way." -Abraham Lincoln

“Vision isn’t enough—it must be combines with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.” –Vince Abner

"The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did when he was twenty has wasted thirty years of his life." –Muhammad Ali

“You must have a long-range vision to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.” -Charles Noble

"A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are." -Ara Parseghian

"All things are created twice. All things. Vision is the first creation. For a house it's called the blueprint. For a life it's called a mission. For a day it's called a goal and a plan. For a parent it's called a belief in the unseen potential of a child. For all, it is the mental creation which always precedes the physical, or second, creation." -Stephen Covey

"Where there is no vision a people perish." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Vision will ignite the fire of passion, which fuels our commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve excellence. Vision allows us to transform dreams of greatness into the reality of achievement through human action. Vision has no boundaries and knows no limits. Our vision is what we become in life.” –Jim Tressel

“'You see things and you say 'Why?' but I dream things that never were and I say "Why not?'"-George Bernard Shaw

“See the picture…sell the picture…paint the picture.” –Dick Benntt

"Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of energy and genius to draw upon of which do not dream." -William James

"Vision: the art of seeing things invisible." -Jonathan Swift

"No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise." -Woodrow Wilson

"I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision." -Henry David Thoreau

UNDERSTANDING

"There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it." -Charles F. Kettering

"He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words." -Elbert Hubbard

"Understanding is a two-way street." -Eleanor Roosevelt

"Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others." -John Locke

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
-Carl Jung

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”
-Dale Carnegie

“Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.”
-Aaron Burr

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
-Galileo Galilei

“You don’t need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.”
-Guy Finley

“Everyone hears only what he understands.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.”
-Kahlil Gibran

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
-Marie Curie

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.”
-Richard Bach

“Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.”
-H.H Williams

“If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.”
-Lyndon Johnson

“A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

“The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather what he does not say.”
-Kahlil Gibran

TRUST

“To live by relying on one another implies a risk, but without some trust in humanity, life would be unlivable." –Dale Brown

"You can't have success without trust. The word trust embodies almost everything you can strive for that will help you to succeed. You tell me any human relationship that works without trust, whether it is a marriage or a friendship or a social interaction; in the long run, the same thing is true about business, especially businesses that deal with people." -Jim Burke

“Trust becomes the glue that binds us together.” –Herman Boone

“Trust is then enhanced when people know you care about them and you are looking out for their interest as much as your own. The minute someone thinks you are out for yourself rather than them, their internal alarm goes off, trust waivers and the relationship deteriorates.” –Jon Gordon

“In leadership, there are no words more important than trust.” –Mike Krzyzewski

“You can develop a trusting relationship only with people who believe in you, the program, the team, and themselves. A coach must lead his team with truth and honesty to confront the untruth, the half-truths, and all the baloney that others may throw at him.” –Bo Schembechler

“The answers to these questions will determine your success or failure.

1) Can people trust me to do what's right?

2) Am I committed to doing my best?

3) Do I care about other people and show it?

If the answers to these questions are yes, there is no way you can fail.” –Lou Holtz

“If you set up an atmosphere of communication and trust, it becomes a tradition. Older team members will establish your credibility with never ones. Even if they don’t like everything about you, they’ll still say, ‘He’s trustworthy, committed to us as a team.’” -Mike Krzyzewski

“Trust is even more important than love.” -Jeffrey Gitomer

“Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.” -Booker T. Washington

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” -George MacDonald

“A person will not buy from you until he is convinced that you are a friend and are acting in his best interest. You must make this clear.” -Brian Tracy

“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.” -Indira Gandhi

"Truth right now! This creates trust -- the foundation of success. Cannot have jealousy and dislike -- these are traits of negative people." -Mike Krzyzewski

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.” -Frank Crane

“One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.” -E. M. Forster

“A man who doesn’t trust himself can never really trust anyone else.” -Cardinal De Retz

“I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

TOUGHNESS

“Let me say at the outset that a team will never be tough when they are coached by a staff of coaches who are not.” –Don Meyer

“A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That's where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It's having backbone.” -Robert Kiyosaki

“Players play, tough players win.” –Tom Izzo

“There’s a widely held assumption that if players can’t perform at 100 percent, they shouldn’t be asked to perform at all. All I can tell you is that in the National Football League there are very few people at 100 percent three weeks into the season — and that the teams that overcome their collective bruises and sprains are the ones that win.” -Bill Parcells

“Your team is never as tough as they can be and you can never assume they are tough enough.” –Don Meyer

“Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.” -Alex Karras

“A tough player fills his tank on the defensive end, not on offense. A tough player is not deterred by a missed shot. A tough player values his performance first by how well he defended.” –Jay Bilas

TOMORROW

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes in to us at midnight very clean.  It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands, and hopes we've learned something from yesterday."  -John Wayne

"It's a never-ending struggle, which is great. You can always get better! You can never get there. It's a journey with no arrival. And that's the beauty of it -- that you can always become better the next day. It's pretty cool to think about it in that sense. Tomorrow I will be a better player than I was today." -Tiger Woods

TODAY

"I always say to my guys, 'The most important day of your life is today. This very minute is the most important of your life. You must win this minute. You must win this day. And tomorrow will take care of itself.'" -Coach John Chaney

“Neglect enough todays, and you’ll experience the ‘someday’ you’ve wanted to avoid.” -John Maxwell

"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't." -Jerry Rice

"What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference - the precious present moment." –Nick Saban

"At night when I go to bed, I ask myself, 'If I don’t wake up tomorrow, would I be proud of how I lived today.'” -Muhammad Ali

“The greatest of all insights is that we cannot do tomorrow what we do not do today.” -John Maxwell

“The first choice we make each and every day is, ‘Will we act upon life, or will we merely be acted upon?’” –Stephen Covey

"At night when I go to bed, I ask myself, 'If I don't wake up tomorrow would I be proud of how I lived today.'" –Muhammad Ali

"Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now." -Proverbs 3:28

“People create success in their lives by focusing on today. It may sound trite, but today is the only time you have. It’s too late for yesterday. And you can’t depend on tomorrow. That’s why today matters!” -John Maxwell

“The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” -John Maxwell

“Successful people make right decisions early and manage those decisions daily. The earlier you make those right decisions and the longer you manage them, the more successful you can become. The people who neglect to make those decisions and to manage them well often look back on their lives with pain and regret — no matter how much talent they possessed or how many opportunities they once had.” -John Maxwell

“One today is worth two tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming.” -Benjamin Franklin

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. You see, success doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life. For that matter, neither does failure. Each is a process. Every day of your life is merely preparation for the next. What you become is the result of what you do today.” -John Maxwell

“The way you live your life today is preparing you for your tomorrow. The question is, ‘What are you preparing for? Are you grooming yourself for success of failure?’” -John Maxwell

“The only adequate preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.” -John Maxwell

“Everyone wants to have a good day, but not many people know what a good day looks like — much less how to create one. And even few people understand the way you live today impacts your tomorrow.” -John Maxwell

"One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write on your heart every day is the best day of the year." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing is worth more than this day.” -Goethe

“Today will never happen again. Don’t waste it with a false start or not start at all.” –Dennis Kimbro

TIME

"The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least." -Goethe

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of." –Benjamin Franklin

"Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed." –Peter Drucker

"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time." -Henry Ford

“A large part of using time efficiently is creating a clear sense of expectations.” –John Wooden

“If you want to be good at something you must spend time on it. If you want to be "the best at it" you must spend more time on it than others do.” –Kevin Eastman

“Time management has nothing do with the clock, but everything to do with organizing and controlling your participation in certain events that coordinate with the clock. Einstein understood time management is an oxymoron. It cannot be managed. You can’t save time, lose time, turn back the hands of time or have more time tomorrow than today. Time is unemotional, uncontrolled, unencumbered. It moves forward regardless of circumstances and, in the game of life, creates a level playing field for everyone.” -Myers Barnes

“The very worst use of your time is to do what need not be done at all.” –Brian Tracy

"There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing." –Brian Tracy

"Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted, this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time." –Peter Drucker

"There are certain things in this world we all have in common such as time. Everybody has sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty-four hours to a day. The difference is what we do with that time and how we use it." -Lou Holtz

“Time is your most precious resource. It is the most valuable thing you have. It is perishable, it is irreplaceable, and it cannot be saved. It can only be reallocated from activities of lower value to activities of higher value. All work requires time. And time is absolutely essential for the important relationships in your life. The very act of taking a moment to think about your time before you spend it will begin to improve your personal time management immediately.” –Brian Tracy

THINKING

"Trust is like the air we breathe. When it's present, nobody really notices. But when it's absent, everybody notices." -Warren Buffett

“Every now and then we should just sit and think. You never know what you will come up with.” –Kevin Eastman

 “The ancestor of every action is a thought.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We try to get our players to play intelligently. A key to that is getting them to understand not just that something works but why.” –Bob Knight

“You’ve got to think about ‘big things’ while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” -Alvin Toffler.

"Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." –George Bernard Shaw

“Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts.” -Anthony Robbins

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -William Shakespeare

"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."  -Voltaire

"Too often we...enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -John F. Kennedy

"Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it."  -Viriginia Woolf

“Thinking is one of the toughest things a leader has to teach.  To be able to think on the run has been a key to Duke basketball success.” –Mike Krzyzewski

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” -George S. Patton

“I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through—then follow through.” –Eddie Rickenbacker

"As he thinks in his heart, so is he" -Proverbs 23:7

"A man is always better than he thinks." –Woody Hayes

"If we can become quicker mentally, if we can recognize things quicker, anticipate quicker, then we automatically become quicker physically." –Bob Knight

“More gold has been mined from the thoughts of man than has ever been taken from the earth.” –Napoleon Hill

“Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.” –Albert Einstein

"I was insisting that all employees not only raise their level of “play” but dramatically lift the level of their thinking – how they perceived their relationship to the team and its member; how they approached the vagaries of competition; and how willing they were to sacrifice for the goals I identified.” –Bill Walsh

“Think! If you don’t think, you deserve to be a failure. Perhaps you say you haven’t time to think — you have too much work to do. But heedless work is profitless. You must think or fail. Take your choice.” –Henry Baldwin Hyde

“You are trying to get players to understand that how they play is a hell of a lot more important than whether or not they win.” –Bob Knight

TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT

“If you’re mining gold, you better give your miners the best shovels and picks out there—or you won’t get much gold out of them.” –Bo Schembechler

"If the competition has laptop computers and you're still using yellow legal pads, it won't matter how long and hard you work -- they're going to pass you by." -Bill Parcells

“How much I speak to the players on our team is important, but they’ll forget a lot of what they hear.  It’s also important to make sure they watch and observe through action and videotape.  Usually, the team will remember more of what they see.  But the most critical aspect of our team training is what they guys actually do and what they understand.” –Mike Krzyzewski

“I want all the players on our team to see themselves through my eyes.  They need to know how they really are, not just how they think they are.  If they can step outside themselves and watch their performances as I see them, then they may internalize both their shortcomings and their strengths.  That’s why videotape is very important in my business.  Because any way you cut it, when a player sees himself on videotape — as the coach sees him — you can bet your life, he’s going to try to improve.  And the helps not only individual performance, but overall team effectiveness.” –Mike Krzyzewski

“We make it a habit to view videotapes after practices and games because we want our players accustomed to dealing with the truth that the cameral reveals.” –Mike Krzyzewski

TEAMWORK

"One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence wins championships." –Michael Jordan

"For me, the fact that your game plan and strategies worked out — that’s incidental. For me the satisfaction is that 12 guys have listened and absorbed, and found a way to band together to win.” -Phil Jackson

"Nobody is a whole team...We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands we're not. To make this thing called life work, we gotta learn and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive. And reach out and embrace and rely. ..Since none of us is a whole, independent, self-sufficient, super-capable, all-powerful hotshot, let's quit acting like we are. Life's lonely enough without our playing that silly role. The game is over. Let's link up." –Chuck Swindoll

"People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them." -Dr. Allan Fromme

“There’s nothing greater in the world than when somebody on the team does something good and everybody gathers around to pat him on the back.” –Billy Martin

“To be the best in the world. Not last week. Not next year. But right now. You are the best. And it’s even more satisfying as a team, because that’s more difficult. If I play well, that’s one thing. But to make others play better…” –Bill Russell

“The fourth dimension that determines success or failure is selfless teamwork and collective pride, which accumulate until they make positive thinking and victory habitual.” –Vince Lombardi

“My driving belief is this: great teamwork is the only way to reach our ultimate moments, to create the breakthroughs that define our careers, to fulfill our lives with sense of lasting significance.” –Pat Riley

"When two people work together to accomplish something that would have been more difficult or impossible individually something special happens." -Dick Devenzio

“I don’t get a big charge out of being the leading scorer. The object of competing is winning. I just try to do what has to be done for us to win. That might be anything at the time — defense, rebounding, passing. I get great satisfaction out of being a team player.” –Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"Each individual player has much greater ability than he thinks he has.  Particularly when he uses that ability in a committed team effort." -Woody Hayes

“The best potential of me is we.” –Dale Brown

"Thee lift me and I'll lift thee and we'll ascend together." -Quaker Proverb

"When I gave up ME, I became MORE. I became a captain, a leader, a better person and I cam to understand that life is a team game...and you know what? I’ve found most people aren’t team players. They don’t realize that life is the only game in town. Someone should tell them. It has made all the difference in the world to me.” –Don Mattingly

“As I’ve stated before, the greatest potential of me is we. Each player must respect one another and give of himself for the good of the team.” –Dale Brown

"Even when you've played the game of your life, it's the feeling of teamwork that you'll remember. You'll forget the plays, the shots, and the scored, but you'll never forget your teammates." -Deborah Palmore

“When I gave up me, I became more.  I became a captain, a leader, a better person and I came to understand that life is a team game...And you know what?...I've found most people aren't team players.  They don't realize that life is the only game in town.  Someone should tell them.  It has made all the difference in the world to me.” –Don Mattingly

"One of the most difficult challenges of coaching, particularly in recent years, has been shifting the attitude of as many players as possible from self-interest to being team-oriented." –Tom Osborne

"Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work." -Vince Lombardi

"Teamwork doesn't tolerate the inconvenience of distance." -Anonymous

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” -Henry Ford

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." -Booker T. Washington

“To be a good player on your team, you have to affect someone else on the team. You have to cause them to play better by the way you play. You affect other players with the character and attitude. To be a great player, you have to affect your entire unit. If you are a great player, every player on that unit plays better when you are on the field.” –Nick Saban

“Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, and a civilization work.” -Vince Lombardi

“Ten strong horses couldn't pull an empty baby carriage if they worked independently of each other.” -John Wooden

“The secret of winning football games is working more as a team, less as individuals. I play not my 11 best, but my best 11.” -Knute Rockne

"The group that can play as one, with spirit and courage, has the best chance to win." -Mike Krzyzewski

"In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." -Booker T. Washington-

“Everybody makes such a big deal today about team play because there’s such a scarcity of it. Greed is a reason. You have to understand the influence of greed. A player has to be selfish in the pursuit of the development of his skills, but he cannot be selfish when it comes time to blend them in with what’s good for his team.” -Pete Carril

“There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren’t willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve.” -Michael Jordan

"Individuals play the game, but teams win championships." –Bill Parcells

“Behind an able man there are always other able men.” –Chinese proverb

"Working together precedes winning together...collaboration is multiplication." -John Maxwell

"Iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another." -King Solomon

“Guys who play together can beat a group of all-stars on any given night.” Team over talent. Collective identity over individual ego.” –Jerry Colangelo

“Team sports are really difficult things. Sometimes your team wins because of you, sometimes in spite of you and sometimes it’s like you’re not even there.” –Don Mattingly

“Most people go into everything looking out for their own ass. They’re looking out for themselves, and they’ll say all the right things and give you a lot of lip service, but they’re taking care of number one. There’s nothing wrong with that but you’ll never be part of something truly significant if that’s going to be your attitude.” –Pat Riley

"The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I'd made my teammates play." -Bill Russell