Posted by Everyone loves a good quote. A good quote from a perceived expert can confirm a previously held prejudice… er, idea, or provide an important new insight. Sadly, though, quotes taken out of their original context can intentionally or otherwise mislead the reader.
For example, as reported here, the purported Velasco quote “I am a coach, not a psychologist”, is actually:
“Some things do not work because we do not train them. For instance, we hit, the ball is overdug, it comes directly to us, it falls. Many coaches would say: my players are not focused, they have psychological problem. I coach perfectly, but I am not a psychologist, so I cannot do anything, it is not my fault. Psychology is the great excuse nowadays.”
The lesson is – Beware the pithy quote.
That having been said, I also love a good quote and have collected a few of them here. Most have already appeared on either the facebook page and or Twitter page too (as well as probably dozens of other internet sources). This is the fourth collection. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.
“I need to go where I know it’s going, not where I hope it’s going.” Karch Kiraly on service reception
“The longest metre in volleyball is a high ball set 2m from the net or 1m. The difference is your advantage or theirs. The difference is to be aggressive or passive.” Mark Lebedew
“It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” Bear Bryant
“The more you lose, the more positive you have to become. When you’re winning, you can ride players harder because their self esteem is high. If you are losing and you try to be tough, you’re asking for dissension.” Rick Pitino
“It is not enough to do things well. Things must be done better than the others.” Julio Velasco
“‘It was a difficult decision to fire the coach’, actually means ‘The easiest thing to be seen to be doing something is to fire the coach.'” Mark Lebedew
“The older I get the more I think sport is random… You have to put yourself in a good position, then you need a lot of luck.” Bill Simmons
“Excellence is like a bubble. You can look for it as much as you like but it only appears from time to time.” Pep Guardiola
“By striving for order and predictability in practice, coaches create a practice that appears to be good to observers and leads to immediate practice improvements, but fails to prepare players for the unpredictability of the game.” Brian McCormick
“We all have emotion and reason. We should not let either of them take care of everything.” Bernardinho
“Everybody likes the guy who works hard. Nobody likes the guy who tells you how hard he works.” Lloy Ball
“Sometimes being quiet and letting the player play is much more important than trying to be Mr. Coach and teach him this or teach him that.” Gregg Popovich
“You see it when you understand it.” Johan Cruyff
“Don’t dream it. Be it.” Frank N’ Furter
“When we lost, we did not say anything. We prepared from that day on in order to win again”. Julio Velasco
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” -Sun Tzu
“You have to be willing to fail, to improve.” Al Scates
“Excellence has neither any beginning nor any end. It is not a destination; rather it is a continuous passage….a perpetual voyage……towards infinity.” From ‘Friday Reflections’
“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who wish to learn.” Cicero 75BC
“If you train badly, you play badly. If you work like a beast in training, you play the same way.” Pep Guardiola
“In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… In the real world all rests on perseverance.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
On good teams coaches hold players accountable, on great teams players hold players accountable. Joe Dumars
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Read about the great new Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.
At Home On The Court 
“Mens sana in corpore sano…”
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