9 Inspirational Sports Quotes To Motivate Your Training

I’m a firm believer in the power of words.

They can lift you up, tear you down, enlighten you, feed you knowledge, confuse, motivate, change the world. Words are powerful.

As an athlete, and former student-athlete, I get a lot of drive and comfort through the inspirational sports quotes of athletes like Prefontaine, Ali and Jordan.

People who have been in the trenches and have led themselves or their team to victory – and defeat – and have lessons to teach and words to preach from their experience.

As in-office team members at NCSA, many of us don’t often get to hear our many recruiting experts and educational speakers first hand; they are most often out across the nation speaking to all of you. Today, we had the unique opportunity of having speaker Charlie Adams in the office giving an incredible talk on the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” US Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team.

Many have seen the movie starring Kurt Russell (which I learned today was a great depiction of the actual events) but like many movies inspired by real life, there is so much more behind the story of this team. I’d argue it’s one of the greatest teams, headed by one of the greatest coaches – Herb Brooks – our country has ever seen.

If you don’t know the story of the 1980 US Men’s Hockey Team, I urge you to watch this ESPN 30 for 30 – or at the very least, watch the movie Miracle on Ice – it’s such an incredible piece of American sports history.

Charlie compiled a list of some of Coach Brooks’ most inspiring words below, and the first thing I thought to do was share them with all of you. If you need a subject for a final paper, need some extra help getting motivated, or need some inspiration to just get yourself to the next level, you may just find it in the words below.

Inspirational sports quotes from Coach Brooks

• “Set goals in life or forever work for those who do.”
• “The name on the front of your jersey is a lot more important than the name on the back.”
• “Form good habits and become slaves to them.”
• “When we come together we can do the improbable, and perhaps the impossible!”
• “Work so hard and become so good that you make it impossible for me to cut you.”
• “We should be dreamers. We grew up as kids having dreams, but as adults become too sophisticated. We stop dreaming. We should always have dreams.”
• “Motivation is the energy that makes everything work. It is clearly the single most critical part of performance.”
• “Don’t be common. The common person goes nowhere. Be uncommon.”
• “You don’t put greatness into people. You pull it out of them.”

We have inspirational sports quotes all over the walls of our office, too. We’d love to give you some of the inspiration that we feel from student-athletes just like you everyday. Get started with a recruiting profile.