Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Without wishing to sound arrogant, when I was younger, I used to win every single martial arts tournament I ever entered. I used to enter the under 14s and under 16s, win both gold medals in those, and then go in the men's tournament just for experience, and end up getting a silver medal.
The world's most successful tournament competitors - like me, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth, and countless others - like to play small ball poker. It's a style that we use to steadily increase our stacks in no limit hold'em tournaments without having to assume significant risk.
'Freaky Friday' was really fun. They had a ping-pong table on set because Jamie Lee Curtis is really good at ping-pong. She's awesome at it. And they had a tournament, and we would play during filming. Whoever won the tournament would get to keep the table. I think it was Jamie who kept it.
What tournaments want to do, typically, is support charities in their community that need the money and charities that are impactful to their community. The better the job the tournament does for the charities, the better they are able to sell the tournament and raise money for the charity.
The role of a coach is varied. We have many tasks. To be a visionary that always looks a little bit towards the future: How should the team develop? How should it play at a tournament? Of course you also have to be the contact person for the players, where social competence also plays a role.
In days of yore, Opening Day of the baseball season was special, signifying that spring had come at last. Today, however, Opening Day sort of dribbles into existence, and the spiritual start of spring now belongs to the Masters golf tournament, where the azaleas and magnolias and dogwood bloom.
My best years were 2010 and 2011, and the 2010 World Cup was the most incredible experience. Our tiny nation reached the semi-finals, I finished joint-top scorer in South Africa, and my goal against Germany was voted the best of the tournament. I was also named the best player of that World Cup.
I think they need to expand the playoff system. I think the minimum should be 16 teams, but they could easily go with more than that... in other words, I want to see more football. Everybody from rec league softball on down can figure out how to put together a tournament and yet Division I can't.
When you put the sacred Croatia shirt on, you become another person. We have this togetherness, this unique unity - not just in football. We are exceptional in tennis, handball, basketball, water polo. If we were to hold a tournament in ping pong, all of us would be rooting for that single player.
I felt a ton of pressure in '08. A lot of great things were expected of me right out of the gate, and I brought some of that on myself with those great early results. But I wasn't a good enough player to make a run every fourth or fifth tournament. I wasn't as good a player as my ranking indicated.
As far as cities, one of my favorite stops every year is Rome I think it's super fun to play there, because the tournament is really cool and the fans are super engaged, but also you get to walk around going to dinner, and the history - it's truly one of the most amazing cities in the world. I love it.
In tournaments, players typically raise when they enter the pot. In cash games, though, players are more likely to limp in before the flop. That's because cash games are usually deeper-stacked, meaning that players will have a higher ratio of chips in relation to the blinds than they would in a tournament.
When I used to fight in the amateurs, guys wouldn't show up for the finals and I won the tournament. They wouldn't call my name when it was time to get the trophy. They called everyone else's name. Believe me, you remember things like that. I'd say there was disrespect there. It's followed me into the pros.
After the World Cup, the next two or three days there is a lot of celebration, a lot of obligation, towards the country, towards the French Federation, towards the fans. And then, after that, you feel so empty - mentally and physically. It's a long tournament; it demands a lot of energy and a lot of emotion.
I had my first professional fight was in 2001 in Venezuela - it was also my first international trip away from Brazil. It was a great experience. Then in 2005, I went to Finland and won. The next year there was a tournament in Brazil with three fights in one night. I was the underdog and won all three fights.
As tennis players, we work and we sacrifice many things. To lose, that's not a happy thing - I mean sure, I was disappointed. You have to come back strong. But to win the last point in a grand slam tournament, that's the most beautiful and most satisfying feeling you can get as a tennis player. It's worth it.
A tournament pays me to show up because the fans want to see me and I move the needle at the box office? That's amazing. It's good for tennis, good for me and good for the event. If a sponsor wants to pay to put their company name on my shirt because they think I'm a strong ambassador for their brand? Heck yes.
I used to either lose in my first or second match or I would go very far in the tournament. So I've been saying to myself, 'Come on, you've got to get through these first two matches. They're very tough. Because afterwards you feel different.' So I'm really putting my energy into getting through to those later rounds.
I do have a tendency to talk a lot at the poker table, which throws people off because they spend a lot of time trying to read me. But I talk a lot when I have a good hand and when I have a bad hand, too. Sometimes it annoys people so much they can't wait to get out of the tournament. And that can only be good for me.
Like cricket has their 'A' team that plays against other international 'A' teams and get exposure. Hockey should also have a similar development squad, which can play in non-premium international tournament, while the national team plays in bigger meets. This way, we will have players ready with international exposure.
Since young people would much rather play fast-action, rapidly advancing video games, and gambling laws for slot machines and roulette tables haven't changed much since the 1950s, look for casinos to build large video game tournament centers and allow people to bet on the action, similar to betting on college basketball.
In 1955-56, Saint Joseph's won the first Big Five championship, compiled a 23-6 overall record, and entered its first postseason competition ever - the National Invitation Tournament - finishing third. That season's success seemed to vault St. Joe's into the national collegiate basketball scene, and it has been there since.
I wear pink on Saturdays for breast cancer, and I wear blue on Sundays. I'm superstitious. At the Evian tournament in 2010, in which I came in second, I wore baby blue on a Sunday. And ever since then, I've worn it every Sunday. Puma sponsors me, so I wear all their outfits in bright colors. I wear matching hair ribbons, too.
I've stayed calm when I'm winning and I've stayed calm when I've lost. Tennis is a sport where we have a lot of tournaments every week, so you can't celebrate a lot when you have big victories, and you cannot get too down when you're losing, as in a few days you'll be in the next tournament and you'll have to be ready with that.
Golf has been such a gift in my life, and I've enjoyed it so much and enjoyed lots of wonderful times on the golf course with my husband first, and then I got to play in all these celebrity tournaments. I'm often the only female celebrity in the tournament, hence the term 'Token Chick.' So it's been such a great, great gift in my life.
Unlike most youngsters who have school as their 'second home' where they meet and make friends, for me playtime has been at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. When I am not playing a tournament, my days are spent at the Academy with my coaches, physiotherapists and colleagues, who are like family. We laugh and have so much fun.
When I was younger, I'd always forget stuff. I think there was probably 4-5 times where we'd drive 30 minutes to a town for the baseball tournament, and all of a sudden, I'd get to the field and look in my bag, and I didn't have my cleats. So my dad had to race all the way home to get my cleats and get back before the game started so I could play.
I changed my position when I was 16 or 17. I started in midfield or further forward as a number 10, and then in one tournament, we lost two defenders to injury in the same game, and we didn't have any on the bench. So I played at the back, and the manager of the first team saw me, and he said, 'I want this guy in the first team,' and that was that!