athletic concentration Quotes

Our sport is dangerous. We risk the life out there, so we need to stay calm and focused and leave all the rest out.

When I come into a game in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, no one out and a one-run lead ... it takes people off my mind.

When you walk on a court, clear your mind of everything unrelated to the goal of playing the match as well as you can.

I'm just concentrating on my football. I'm not thinking about the length of my contract.

Golf is like acting in that both require concentration and relaxation at the same time. In acting, you can't push emotion. You have to let it rise from you naturally. Same thing in golf. You have to have a plan and a focus; but then you need to just let it happen and enjoy the smooth movement of the swing.

I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious.

The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself--the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent--all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action.