Coaching Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old coaching quotes, coaching sayings, and coaching proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

All coaching is, is taking a player where he can't take himself. Bill Mccartney
To be successful in coaching you have to treat your team like a family. The leader needs backing from everyone. Morgan Wootten
Selecting the right person for the right job is the largest part of coaching. Phil Crosby
Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired. Lou Holtz
I learned this about coaching: You don't have to explain victory and you can't explain defeat. Darrell Royal
Coaching helps you take stock of where you are now in all aspects of your life, and how that compares to where you would like to be. Elaine Macdonald
The better the coaching has become, the worse the game has become. Scotty Bowman
Coaching really is an individual philosophy. Mark Messier
Coaching is a profession of love. You can't coach people unless you love them. Eddie Robinson
The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit. Morihei Ueshiba
It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained. Queen Elizabeth
The best training program in the world is absolutely worthless without the will to execute it properly, consistently, and with intensity. John Romaniello
Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body. Arnold Schwarzenegger
An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual. Sir Robert Baden-Powell
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. Mark Van Doren
Training is all-encompassing and should be related to everything a unit does, or can have happen to it. Arthur Collins
Training is such a vital part of preparation for a game, you really do train to play. It tops up your ability, like sharpening a carving knife. You can get away with not doing it for a while, as long as you have reached a certain standard of fitness. Graeme Le Saux
Coaching is an action, not a title and actions result in successes! Byron & Catherine Pulsifer
Coaching doesn't start with X's and O's. It starts with believing that players win games and coaches win players. Bill Courtney
Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. Timothy Gallwey
Good coaching may be defined as the development of character, personality and habits of players, plus the teaching of fundamentals and team play. Clair Bee
Does coaching work? Yes. Good coaches provide a truly important service. They tell you the truth when no one else will. Jack Welch
By not providing coaching to people after providing them with behaviorally-based skill training, we set them up for failure. Thomas Crane
Coaching is the most important servant leadership element in helping people accomplish their goals. Bill Hybels
Coaching is effective self-expression in the coach/client relationship so that you catalyze your clients' manifestation of their own desired outcomes. Patrick Williams
Coaching isn't an addition to a leader's job, it's an integral part of it. George S. Odiorne
Coaching is helping people grow without telling them what to do. Tony Stoltzfus
Coaching is not a natural way of life. Your victories and losses are too clear cut. Tommy Prothro
Coaching is people management- getting people to do what you want them to do and like doing it unknown
Coaching does not permit democracy. Jeff Brown
[Coaching is] helping people discover what they could not discover on their own, so they can become what they want to become. Aubrey Malphurs
Coaching isn't a great mystery. It's Just hard work, determination, and inspiration at the right moment. Bob Zuppke
By instructing students how to learn, unlearn and relearn, a powerful new dimension can be added to education. Alvin Toffler
The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled Ric Charlesworth
Coaching doesn't make sick people well...it helps healthy people become extra-ordinary. Thomas Leonard
Coaching is the art and practice of guiding a person or group from where they are toward the greater competence and fulfillment that they desire. Gary Collins
Coaching is not how much you know. It's how much you can get players to do. Bum Phillips
Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. John Whitmore
The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it. The intangibles, the motivational parts of the game are the most important facets of it Rick Pitino
It doesn't matter where you coach, it matters why you coach. Don Meyer
Good coaching is about leadership and instilling respect in your players. Dictators lead through fear--good coaches do not. John Wooden
My coaching philosophy? Determine your players talents and give them every weapon to get the most from those talents. Don Shula
The goal of coaching is not in fixing what is broken, but in discovering new talents and new ways to use old talents that lead to far greater effectiveness. Elizabeth And Gifford Pinchot
The single most important thing in coaching is turning out educated kids who are ready for society. Allen Newell
We know the principles of coaching. The art is knowing when to apply them. James Counsilman
Coaching is like being a king. It prepares you for nothing. Herb Brooks
I define coaching as launching the salesperson on a voyage of discovery by asking questions. Chris Lytle
It's all about training smart. Tyson Gay
The only side effect of too much training is that you get into better shape. There is nothing wrong with that. Mark Spitz
Good coaching is good teaching and nothing else. Pat Conroy
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. John Wooden
Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. Atul Gawande
The coaching process is unique in how it accomplishes leadership development. The coach works not by providing answers per se but by asking questions through which the leader gains new insights and takes new actions. Aubrey Malphurs
All I know is, I don't want to stop coaching, and I don't want to stop winning, so we're gonna break the record unless I die. Bear Bryant
A great way to test the conditioning of your team is the two-mile run. Bobby Knight
To be as good as it can be, a team has to buy into what you as the coach are doing. They have to feel you're a part of them and they're a part of you. Bobby Knight
Coaching is one thing and one thing only. It is creating an environment so the player has an opportunity to be successful That is your job as a coach. When you teach him to do that, get out of his way. Chip Kelly
Coaching is like flying an airplane, there is going to be a lot of turbulence, but your job is to land the plane safely. Chuck Daly
Coaching sets the pace to get the best out of others while giving the best of yourself. David Cottrell
The metaphor ( coaching) with sports is meant quite seriously the coach stands back , observes the performance, and provides guidance. The coach applauds strengths, identifies weaknesses, points up principles, offers guiding and often inspiring imagery, and decides what kind of practice to emphasize. David Perkins
With good coaching, proper motivation and the right club structure with organic growth, you can achieve an awful lot in football. Gary Neville
Coaching is about finding a system that works for your players. There are some underlying principles which are applied in any coaching situation but it's about picking the lock to get this group of players to play the best volleyball they're capable of playing for a long period of time. Hugh McCutcheon
The meaning of volleyball, is to give meaning to volleyball, as the meaning of coaching is to give meaning to coaching. John Kessel
Coaching is something that takes place only when learning does. No matter what you are doing in your practices, if your players are not learning something significant, you're really not coaching. If a player fails in a game, the coach may have failed in practice. John Kessel
When you're a coach you've got to go up the ladder, you've got to be ready to travel. That's the nature of coaching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven. Knute Rockne
You have to have a passion for your work. How can we expect people to be passionate if you, as their coach, does not have a passion? Coaching has to be something that gives you passion and energy. Lord Byron
Coaching is about helping young people have a chance to succeed. There is no more awesome responsibility than that. One of the greatest honors a person can have is being called Coach. Lou Holtz
To get the best coaching outcomes, always have your 1-on-1's on your employee's turf not yours. In your office the truth hides. Marcus Buckingham
I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball. Mike Krzyzewski
College coaches measure success in championships. High School coaches measure success to titles. Youth coaches measure success in smiles. Paul McAllister
Coaching is salesmanship. Coaching is winning players over and convincing them they have to play together. It takes a team conviction to play together to make things work. Phil Jackson
I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing. You have to be a salesman and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you're trying to accomplish on the basketball floor. Phil Jackson
As the field of coaching finds its way to becoming a mature discipline, James Flaherty's dedicated field research, study, and sound articulation offers a definitive ground and a sensibility of genuine care. At the core this book offers a way of thinking about human beings that makes action and practice central to learning. This is a no-nonsense, generous, pragmatic book that belongs on the shelf every coach, novice or veteran. Richard Strozzi-Heckler
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
The further I get away from coaching, the more I know I made the right decision. You almost forget how wonderful family life is. Tony Dungy