Athletic Finesse Quotes

More than specific memories of achievements, for me I remember the feeling you get when you were just at your very best - when you felt like you were floating across the court and could put the ball wherever you wanted.

Lynn Swann - I loved the way he was like a ballerina playing in the NFL.

Baseball is beautiful....the supreme performing art. It combines in perfect harmony the magnificent features of ballet, drama, art, and ingenuity.

Wiggle is kinda like a word that I feel like I coined. It's being able to maneuver in and out, around defenders with the basketball.

Harley Race was eloquent in his moves - everything made sense, like a hand in a glove.

Being thick isn't an affliction if you're a footballer, because your brains need to be in your feet. And Beckham works hard, he's brave and he crosses a ball superbly. He treats a football like he does a wife, lovingly, with caresses.

I'm usually pretty lame when it comes to physical activity, but I'm like a Jedi on the badminton court. It's as if my body was built specifically for it - tall and lanky, with wrists like mousetraps.

The way he was playing, he probably could have scored on Jesus.

Any old coach will say the game was meant for finesse. It's a beautiful game, especially on television.

Tennis is more than just a sport. It's an art, like the ballet. Or like a performance in the theater.

Actually, I tossed it nicely, landed nicely, like airplane. No warning, beautiful. That's the art of throwing racquets.

When I'm doing sports, I always think of how it's related to singing, and when I watch tennis, I learn a lot for my singing: how the players are focused, how they use their technique, and, in the case of Roger Federer, how effortless it is and how beautiful it is to watch - like bel canto, in a way. That's how singing should be.

One answer to why public interest in men's tennis has been on the wane in recent years is an essential and unpretty thugishness about the power-baseline style that's become dominant on the tour. Watch Agassi closely sometime...he's amazingly absent of finesse, with movements that look more like a heavy-metal musician's than an athlete's...what a top PBer really resembles is film of the old Soviet Union putting down a rebellion. It's awesome, but brutally so, with a grinding, faceless quality about its power that renders that power curiously dull and empty.

There is no greater fame for a man than that which he wins with his footwork or the skill of his hands.

I feel like I have everything else as far as being creative and athletic. But it's the little things that's going to push me over, like ball-handling, passing, boxing out when I'm setting screens. Little things like that that you would overlook that can make me a complete player.

Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty.