#sportsman

This is what it means to be a fanatic - but a fanatic, that is to say, in a very special sense. It has little in common with the obsession of the politician or the artist, for instance, for both of these understand in a greater or lesser degree the impulse which drives them. But the sportsman fanatic - that is another matter entirely. His thoughts fixed solely on a vision of that mounted trophy against the wall, the eyes now dead that were once living, the tremulous nostrils stilled, the sensitive pricked ears closed to sound at the instant when the rifle shot echoed from the naked rocks, this man hunts his quarry through some instinct unknown even to himself. Stephen was a sportsman of this kind. It was not the skill needed that drove him, nor the delight and excitement of the stalk itself, but a desire, so I told myself, to destroy something beautiful and rare. Hence his obsession with chamois. ("The Chamois") ↗

— Daphne du Maurier

#hunting #sportsman #trophy #beauty

Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning. ↗

— Fred Perry

#ability #adaptability #experience #necessary #sportsmanship

Technique is the basis of every pursuit. If you're a sportsman or you're a singer or a swimmer, well that comes under sport but you have to develop a basic technique to know what you're doing at any given time. ↗

— Joan Sutherland

#basic #basis #comes #develop #doing

I tell the players: You'll hear a lot of applause in your life, fellas, but none will mean more to you than that applause-from your peers. I hope each of you hears that at the end. ↗

— Andre Agassi

#tennis #life

A sportsman is a man who every now and then, simply has to get out and kill something. ↗

— Stephen Leacock

#get #kill #man #now #now and then

One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it. ↗

— Knute Rockne

#better #far #hundred #man #practicing

When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him a vandal. When he destroys one of the works of god we call him a sportsman. ↗

— Joseph Wood Krutch

#call #destroys #god #him #man

Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory. I believe we were more mature then...Maybe it's because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it's also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport...In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it. ↗

— Louis Zamperini

#sports #sportsmanship #track #love

Tennis taught me to take chances, to take life as it comes. To hit every ball that comes to me no matter how hard it looks, to give it my best shot. ↗

— Thisuri Wanniarachchi

#life #life-lessons #sports #sportsmanship #inspirational

The sportsman knows that a sport is a recreation, a game, an amusement and a pastime, but his eyes are fixed on a higher goal, on the most important thing in his life, which is his education or his vocation. ↗

— Avery Brundage

#education #eyes #fixed #game #goal