This document contains motivational quotes from famous athletes about mental excellence, motivation, overcoming adversity, execution, and mental toughness. Muhammad Ali says champions have an inner desire and dream rather than being made in gyms. Tommy Lasorda says in baseball there are those who make things happen, watch things happen, and wonder what happened. Nolan Ryan says baseball allows you to prove something. Adversity causes some men to break and others to break records. Dick Fosbury was told his technique would not work but he believed he would succeed. Arthur Ashe says the ideal attitude is being physically loose but mentally tight.

1. The Champion’s Quote Book
of Mental Excellence
Motivation and Overcoming Adversity to
Execution and Mental Toughness

2. MOTIVATION
1 The act or process of
giving someone a reason
for doing something.

3. “Champions
aren’t made in
the gyms.
Champions are made from
something they have deep
inside them -- a desire, a dream,
a vision.”
- Muhammad Ali
(World HeavyWeight Champion Boxer)

4. “In baseball and in business,
there are three types of people.
Those who make it happen,
those who watch it happen,
and those who wonder what
happened.”
-Tommy Lasorda (MLB
Pitcher, Manager)

5. Nolan Ryan
“One of the beautiful things
about baseball is that every
once in awhile you come into
a situation where you want
to, and where you have to,
reach down and prove
something.”

6. OVERCOMING
ADVERSITY
2 To defeat a difficult
situation or condition

7. others to break
records.
- William A Ward
(inspirational Writer)
Adversity causes
some men to break;

8. “Experience is a hard
teacher because she
gives the test first, the
lesson afterward.”
-Vernon Law
(Former Pirates pitcher)

9. “Don’t tell me how rocky
the sea is, just bring the
ship in.”
- Lou Holtz (College
Football Hall of Famer)
“You don’t really know who
you are until you’ve faced real
adversity.”
- Dan Gasby

10. EXECUTION
3 The act of doing or
performing something

11. “It’s a round ball
and a round bat,
And you got to hit it square.”
-Pete Rose (Baseball Great)

12. “Slump? I ain’t
in no slump. I
just ain’t hittin.”
-Yogi Berra (Baseball Great)

13. “I was told over and over again
that I would never be
successful, that I was not
going to be competitive and
the technique was simply not
going to work. All I could do
was shrug and say,
‘We’ll just have to see.’”
-Dick Fosbury (Olympic Gold
Medalist)

14. MENTAL
TOUGHNESS
4 Able to do hard work,
dealing with harsh
conditions occurring or
experienced in the mind

15. “The ideal
attitude is be
physically loose
and mentally
tight.”
- Arthur Ashe (Tennis Great)

16. “Luck? Sure.
But only after long practice
and only with the ability to
think under pressure.”
-Babe Didrikson Zaharias
(Golf, Basketball, and
Track and Field Athlete)

17. Now...the real work begins
Quotation source: Univ. of North Texas Center for Sport Psychology and Performance Excellence