competitive stress Quotes

I've seen young guys break down in those situations. They're cruising along, playing great, then their minutes get funky and they fall apart. Some of them never recover.

You can't have mental breakdowns defensively because teams like Golden State and Cleveland will make you pay dearly.

As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.

What was most important to me at the Olympics was going out there and performing my best. When I messed up the first jump combination, which was my big move, it hit me that I messed up the program of my life.

As I got older and started moving up the ranking, the matches got more important, and my emotions ratcheted up. I guess I hid my real feelings behind the anger.

It's a sensitive thing, playing major league baseball.

It's a beautiful sport, boxing, when you're winning and everything is going well but when you hit the lows it really upsets you.

I have a mental coach in Korea, and I talk to her every week before the tournament, during the tournament and try to talk to her and try to get a little bit of the pressure off.

Pressure? Well it ain't hitting in forty-four straight games, because I done that and it was fun. The playoffs are pressure.

I know in the heat of battle, it's hard not to get angry, especially in the 19th inning.

You live for those pressure moments. Through an international career, you have ups and downs, but you always feel you are going to be tested in moments like that. It has taken me years to feel comfortable and to feel like I have good composure in those situations.

I'm very anxious. If you're going to fight the best fighters, you have to be prepared for a war, a highly-anticipated fight.

Everybody had a bad day. It's possible to have two bad days in a row. And in this sport, it's so unforgiving.

I put pressure on myself and feel pressure from my fans to not only win but to look great doing it.

Wrestling is one of the hardest things, and it has nothing to do with the extremely hard physical part of it. It has to do with the psychological part of it.

There is pressure, and I would never complain about that, but as players we put pressure on ourselves all the time. That's one thing I won't miss when I finally stop playing.

One day when a linesman starts to laugh I swear I will hit the guy over the head with my racket. I think it will be the end of my career, but I will be happy.

I've always felt like if I had a bad practice, I could potentially get cut the next day.

It's tough to be a 15- or 16-year-old athlete competing around the country. There's tension, there's media. I had no idea what I was getting into.

Football is a sad game.

When playing for Japan, it means that I carry my country on my shoulders and I feel a different kind of pressure as I am expected to do more when playing for Japan.

Maybe being number one has got to me, because from there you can only go down.

When games get tight in the playoffs, especially in the Finals, there's no space. There's no clean looks.

Golf is the greatest sport of all to see if you can handle pressure.

Learning how to compete is one of the most important things that an athlete can do. You can train as well as you possibly can and go compete and completely choke.