Inspirational coaching quotes can provide an emotional boost for coaches during a long season. We know that athlete development includes endless practice, strategy sessions and competitions. Throughout this long road coaches are there to help shape an athlete’s performance and perception.
The impact a good coach can make on their athletes is immeasurable. That’s why we’ve included quotes about a coaches influence in this collection as well. However, coaches also need a dose of encouragement too, and that’s what this collection provides in abundance.
These motivational quotes for coaches will help coaches reset before a long training session. And of course, we’re not just talking about the early morning training sessions. We’re also talking about the endless strategy sessions that play out in a coach’s mind!
Skip to Inspirational Quotes for Coaches
Coaches never stop trying to find a better way to improve their athletes’ performance. Some coaches aim for a major shift in health and nutrition. While others aim for the aggregation of marginal gains. Whatever approach you may use, we know it’s important to keep your athletes motivated. That’s why we also included inspiring quotes from star athletes to supplement our inspirational quotes for coaches.
“Make sure that team members know they are working with you, not for you.” – John Wooden
In all, we’ve collected 57 inspirational quotes for coaches, below. If you’d like to jump down to a specific set of quotes, you can click one of the following links:
Quotes about Coaches influence
Motivational Quotes for Coaches who want to inspire training
Quotes for Coaches who want to instill a winner’s mindset
You can use these quotes to inspire your athletes or to get inside the head of some of history’s greatest coaches. Enjoy and good luck!
Quotes about coaches influence:
1) “Coaching is taking a player where they can’t take themselves.” – Jose Mourinho
2) “Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answer.” – Phil Dixon
3) “My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team.” – Don Shula
4) “A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” –Ara Parseghian
5) “I found out that if you are going to win games, you had better be ready to adapt.” – Scotty Bowman
6) “Coaching is people management – getting people to do what you want them to do and like doing it.” – Unknown
7) “Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen for what they don’t want to hear.” – John Madden
8) “Make sure that team members know they are working with you, not for you.” – John Wooden
9) “I’ve never felt my job was to win basketball games – rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.” – Bobby Knight
10) “The effectiveness of a leader is best judged by the actions of those he guides.” – Bill Courtney
11) “A good coach passes on information quickly. They do not hold back information that affects my job.” – Catherine Pulsifer
12) “The best coaches never tell their athletes that they are wrong. They rather focus on creating awareness.” – Abhishek Ratna
13) “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence…If you’re in control, they’re in control.” – Tom Landry
14) “Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.” – Bill Gates
15) “It should always be about the kids. Everything you do should be to make sure the kids you coach have a positive experience and learn all the great life lessons that sports can teach.” – Helen Williams
16) “The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled.” – Ric Charlesworth
17) “Competitive sports are played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch court, the space between your ears.” – Bobby Jones
Motivational Quotes for Coaches who want to inspire training:
18) “No one’s ever gotten better by practicing less.” – Ron Jaworski
19) “No matter who you are, we’re creatures of habit. The better your habits are, the better they will be in pressure situations.” – Wayne Gretzky
20) “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” — Jimmy Johnson
21) “Everything is practice.” ― Pele
22) “Think about your dream. Then, put your head down and go to work.” – Dabo Swinney
23) “I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year. It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.” – Lionel Messi
24) “It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.” ― Jackie Joyner-Kersee
25) “Nothing will work unless you do.” – John Wooden
26) “Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment.” – Novalis
27) “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” – Pat Riley
28) “I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind.” – Peyton Manning
29) “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammed Ali
30) “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” – Jerry Rice
31) “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard
32) “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” – Jerry West
33) “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” –Larry Bird
34) “Making a change in your life is as easy as making a decision and acting on it. That’s it.” – Ronda Rousey
35) “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke
Quotes for Coaches who want to instill a winner’s mindset
36) “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.” – Serena Williams
37) “Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
38) “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” — Lou Holtz
39) “The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.” – Mia Hamm
40) “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
41) “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele
42) “You have to be able to accept failure to get better.” – Labron James
43) “You have to free your mind to do things you wouldn’t think of doing. Don’t ever say no.” – Carl Lewis
44) “Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.” ― Amit Ray
45) “A champion isn’t made of muscle; a champion is made of heart.” – Liang Chow
46) “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” – Vince Lombardi
47) “You fail all the time, but you aren’t a failure until you start blaming someone else.” – Bum Phillips
48) “Learning the mind is as important as understanding the body.” – Usain Bolt
49) “You should never stay at the same level. Always push yourself to the next.” – Marnelli Dimzon
50) “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps
51) “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” – John Wooden
52) “I always tell kids, you have two eyes and one mouth. Keep two open and one closed. You never learn anything if you’re the one talking.” – Gordie Howe
53) “Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.” – Brian Tracy
54) “You become what you think about and focus on the most.” – Dwayne De Rosario
55) “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” – Dean Karnazes
56) “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
57) “Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And the rent is due every day.” – LeBron James
Why Uplifter Helps Coaches
Coaches have one of the most important jobs in the world. They are experts in their field. Years of knowledge and experience are collected in a coaches mind and their sole job is to distill that expertise to their athletes when they need it most. We believe that coaches can provide life changing inspiration for today’s youth. So, our focus is to streamline sports club and association administrative tasks so that coaches can eliminate as much paperwork as possible, and focus on enriching the lives of today’s youth.
For more inspiring quotes, see our 31 Motivational Quotes by Female Athletes!
