Sports

Before Simone Biles jumped on the balance beam in Paris’ Bercy Arena on Tuesday, she appeared to whisper: “You got this. It’s your time.

”Completing a Yurchenko double pike is hard enough without looping self-criticism. Telling yourself you’re capable can calm your nerves and emulate how you feel in practice. Plus, talking to yourself in the third-person — like Biles telling herself, “You got this” — can actually decrease stress and improve your performance. – Megan Sauer

Give yourself permission to fail or else you will drive yourself crazy, always reaching for the concept of perfection that you will never achieve as a ballplayer. When we stop judging our failures as good or bad, we can finally start learning from them. – Mark Brooks

I have had 36 orthopedic operations, have two fused ankles, my knees, hands and wrists don’t work, I now have a fused spine, other than that, everything is great. – Bill Walton

I threw 78 in high school. I hit 92 during my freshman year in college, and today I can throw 98. If I can name one thing that contributed most to my increase in velocity, it would be long toss. – Billy Wagner

One of the ways you can separate yourself on a field of really good players is by making sure you’re the player that gives the best effort out there on the field. Getting on and off the field. Hard 90’s. Being a leader. Those things matter. There’s no substitute what effort can do to catch a coach’s attention. – Chris Pollard, Duke Baseball Coach