What to say to motivate an athlete

Need some inspiration and motivation?

If you are playing any sport….

Here are a list of the best positive inspirational quotes for athletes (with pictures and images) along with words of encouragement for training to help you build confidence and give you the perseverance you need so you keep going and don’t give up.

Whether you are a female or male athlete, these sayings, thoughts, phrases, and messages will give you the courage you need to overcome fear of failure and push through hard times.

Lets face it…

Playing sports will be one of the most challenging things you ever do both mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Whether you are going out to practice or play a game/competition, you are being called to put your best foot forward.

Everything starts with your mind and the level of commitment you are willing to make. And it is through this level of determination where your choices will be made.

Will you give up and throw in the towel when the going gets tough?

Or…will you rise up and be the very best version of yourself and take your game to the next level?

Only you can decide each and every day when you wake up.

Whether you are playing football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, hockey, tennis, and so on, these motivational and inspirational quotes for athletes will help take your game to the next level and will cover such topics as courage, strength, overcoming hard times, becoming your best self, health, believing in yourself, achieving your goals, living your dreams, fitness, success, and more.

TOP 10 MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

You are the only one who can limit your greatness. – Unknown

Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up. – Rocky Balboa

Never stop trying. Never stop believing. Never give up. Your day will come. – Unknown

Believe you can and you’re halfway there. – Theodore Roosevelt

You have to be at your strongest when you’re feeling at your weakest. – Unknown

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. – Maya Angelou

It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get back up. – Vince Lombardi

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. – Unknown

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. – Mahatma Gandhi

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

SHORT MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

Look in the mirror. That’s your competition. – Unknown

It never gets easier. You just get better. – Jordan Hoechlin

Success trains. Failure complains. – Unknown

The sweat. The time. The devotion. It pays off. – Unknown

The harder the battle. The sweeter the victory. – Les Brown

It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. – JIllian Michaels

If you believe it, the mind can achieve it. – Ronnie Lott

Tough times don’t last. Tough people do. – Robert H. Schuller

Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. – Lance Armstrong

Focus on your goal. Don’t look in any direction but ahead. – Unknown

SHORT SPORTS QUOTES

Sports does not build character. They reveal it. – Heywood Broun

A winner never stops trying. – Tom Landry

Champions keep playing until they get it right. – Billie Jean King

I’ve never lost a game. I just ran out of time. – Michael Jordan

A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t. – Jack Dempsey

Winners never quit and quitters never win. – Vince Lombardi

Without self-discipline, success is impossible. – Lou Holtz

Passion first and everything will fall into place. – Holly Holm

Kill them with success and bury them with a smile. – Usain Bolt

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning. – Pat Riley

PERSEVERANCE QUOTES FOR PLAYING SPORTS

You don’t get what you wish for. You get what you work for. – Unknown

Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. – George Halas

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.

The comeback is always stronger than the setback.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there. – Theodore Roosevelt

To be the best, you must be able to handle the worst. – Wilson Kanadi

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. – Napoleon Hill

If you don´t fall, how are you going to know what getting up feels like? – Stephen Curry

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. – Confucius

Don’t try to be perfect. Just try to be better than you were yesterday.

Whenever you feel like giving up, think of all the people that would love to see you fail.

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. – Newt Gingrich

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination. – Tommy Lasorda

I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit. – Ken Doherty

The trophy is earned in the hours that no one is watching. – Unknown

If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop working for it. – Unknown

Skill is only developed by hours and hours of work. – Usain Bolt

Losers quit when they’re tired. Winners quit when they’ve won. – Unknown

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. – Tim Notke

The harder the battle. The sweeter the victory. – Les Brown

Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. – Unknown

You don’t want to look back and know you could have done better. – Unknown

If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you wants becomes the sacrifice.

Results happen over time, not overnight. Work hard, stay consistent, and be patient. – Unknown

Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential. – Liane Cardes

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best. – Tim Duncan

There may be people that have more talent than you, but theres no excuse for anyone to work harder than you. – Derek Jeter

There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits. – Unknown

COURAGE & CONFIDENCE QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

Confidence comes from discipline and training. – Robert Kiyosaki

With confidence you have won before you have started. – Marcus Garvey

The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start. – John Bingham

Courage is taking those first steps toward your dreams even if you can’t see the path ahead. – Unknown

The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do. – Swati Sharma

If you are afraid of failure, you don’t deserve to be successful. – Charles Barkley

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ― Winston S. Churchill

You don’t have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great. – Zig Ziglar

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. – Og Mandino

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t. – Rikki Rogers

OVERCOMING FEAR QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

Fear is temporary. Regret is forever.

Your largest fear carries your greatest growth.

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. – George Addair

Don’t let your fear decide your future. – Shalane Flanagan

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain. – Mark Twain

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. – Paulo Coelho

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. – William Arthur Ward

Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears. – Laird Hamilton

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. – Nelson Mandela

When you fear your struggles, your struggles consume you. When you face your struggles, you overcome them.

Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine. – Roy T. Bennett

CHARACTER QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. – Sir Edmund Hillary

The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose. – Ernie Banks

The pain you feel today, will be the strength you feel tomorrow. – Unknown

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning. – Unknown

You will never always be motivated. You have to learn to be disciplined. – Unknown

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. – Confucius

Be strong when you are weak, brave when you are scared, and humble when you are victorious. – Unknown

Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time. – Lou Brock

Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. – Unknown

The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit. – Ken Doherty

My attitude is if you push me towards a weakness, I will turn that weakness into a strength. – Michael Jordan

You cannot afford to live in potential for the rest of your life; at some point, you have to unleash the potential and make your move. – Eric Thomas

There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between. – Pat Riley

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. – Michael Jordan

EXCUSES QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse. – Unknown

Excuses will always be there for you. Opportunity won’t. – Unknown

Success is what comes after you stop making excuses. – Luis Galarza

You can have results or you can have your excuses. You cannot have both. – Unknown

Are your excuses more important than your dreams? – Unknown

Your excuses are just the lies your fears have sold you. – Robin Sharma

An excuse is nothing more than a self-imposed roadblock. – C.C. Chapman

Excuses. They are for people who don’t want it bad enough. – Unknown

Excuses are the nails used to build the house of failure. – Unknown

Instead of feeding myself excuses why I can’t, I give myself reasons why I can. – Unknown

Excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing. – Steven Grayhm

SUCCESS QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

Success doesn’t just come and find you, you have to go out and get it. – Unknown

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, you will be successful. – Eric Thomas

Success is what happens after you have survived all of your disappointments. – Unknown

The path to success is to take massive, determined action. – Tony Robbins

Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day-in and day-out. – Robert Collier

When you find your why, you find a way to make it happen. – Eric Thomas

Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose. – G.K. Nielson

You were born to win. But to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. – Zig Ziglar

Your true success in life begins only when you make the commitment to become excellent at what you do. – Brian Tracy

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrafice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. – Pele

HARD TIMES QUOTES FOR ATHLETES

If you get tired, learn to rest, not quit. – Unknown

I’m not telling you it is going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it. – Art Williams

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. – C.S. Lewis

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error.

A problem is a chance for you to do your best. – Duke Ellington

When you feel like quitting think about why you started. – Unknown

Tough people are not born. They’re made when there’s no one there to dry their tears. – Unknown

Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed. – Bob Riley

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.

The road to athletic greatness is not marked by perfection, but the ability to constantly overcome adversity and failure.

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Resources For Athletes

• How to get motivated
• How to stop procrastinating