The vision of a champion by Anson Dorrance. Quotes X

-Maintaining your fitness is not that hard. What is hard is getting fit.
-We don't believe in going more than three days in a row without investing in your aerobic base and more than six days in a row without investing in your anaerobic base. If you go longer than this. you lose some of your conditioning. If you don't do something that challenges your agility at least twice a week, you start to lose some of that.
-The 2000 semifinal and final games were not actually won on a Friday and a Sunday. They were won one year before, when the team made the commitment to work year-around, thus making the decision to win.
-The players must take individual and collective responsibility.
-In coaching schools we talk a lot about the misguided notion of the more the better.
-Coaches should want certain practice sessions to end when players still want to play. Even if players are dying to continue, you send them home. Then, they are so excited about the next practice that they can't wait to come back.
-In our ambition to see our children succeed, I think we are over-scheduling them.
-The power resides in you.
-You have to understand why you play, get at the core reason, and then, revisit that reason regularly. This will keep you excited about playing.
-The absolute critical element is your mental hardness and courage, which comes in the form of seeking out responsibility and taking physical risks.
-Mentality defines the strength of your psychological dimension, which is your capacity to reach down inside yourself and find your inner hardness.
-In any physical duel or combative situation, ultimate triumph doesn't come down to skills or tactics. What it boils down to is your will.
-Being competitive is a decision, not a talent. And we are trying to convince players to make the decision to compete.
-The intense mentality is not an easy choice, but it is one that will separate you from the ordinary.
-Make sure you like what you choose. You are living with your choices.
-In my opinion the motivation has to come solely from within. Coaches can motivate in the short term. They can do long-term goal setting.
-The true art of intensity is to blend it with composure.
-In our system we must, by necessity, learn how to rest injured players in order to get them healthy for crucial games.