Don’t you agree that superstitions sound childlike? And it’s a rarity to even hear someone credit his or her success to their “beliefs”. Yet surprisingly, study has shown that superstitions can exert a placebo effect on sports performance and help athletes perform better.
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Maybe it’s really time for us to learn from these reputable athletes and their personal rituals.
Cristiano Ronaldo
This Madrid heart throb always insists on being the first to disembark while travelling to a game by plane. And he chooses the back seat and alights last if he’s travelling by bus to the game venue.
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Ronaldo also never fails to style his hair during half time, as he doesn’t fancy playing both halves of the game with the same hairstyle (Vainpot?).
Maria Sharapova
Let us temporarily forget all about Maria’s ban from professional tournaments and her medolnium’s addiction. This Russian superstar does have a well-known sports ritual, and that’s avoiding the lines on the tennis court or any other court markings (at all cost).
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Apart from that, Maria adopts a routine which includes turning her back on her opponents, and walking away from the baseline to fiddle with her racquet strings before serving the powerful shot.
Michael Jordan
If you’re observant, you will definitely notice that This “Space Jam” basketballer’s shorts is way longer than his fellow players. Turns out, Michael Jordon loves wearing his blue North Carolina shorts underneath his Bull skivvy. And he does it for every single game because he truly believes it’s his lucky charm.
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The fun fact here is, Jordan had to customise his shorts to be longer and baggier in order to avoid the risk of looking like a fashion weirdo.
Serena Williams
The 35-year-old tennis player cum actress does have a long list of sports quirks, such that she bounces the tennis ball 5 times before her first serve, and twice before her second. Yet, the weirdest and grossest of all is she will only wear a single pair of socks without washing it during any given tournament.
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We wonder how her opponents tolerate her “unique” foot odour, but she probably doesn’t give a heck about it.
Tiger Woods
How do you associate Sundays and Tiger Woods? Well the answer is definitely RED shirt. In fact, Tiger never fails to don on red every Sunday (if he’s competing). The tradition stems from his amateur days, when he picked red as his lucky colour. Apparently, the idea was reinforced when the university he went to played in red.
