Everyone has his or her own personal routine when it comes to a match or event. I know I did before tennis matches, but especially the professional athletes would surely do.
Power bands were first used to help increase an athlete’s performance, but the manufacturers admitted that their claim is not supported by science. Yet because the bands were so popular among the athletes and the silicon material felt comfortable, everyone kept the bracelets as a good luck charm, especially the NBA players.
Other athletes such as tennis players would wear the same outfits during a tournament to give them good luck. Every match they won, they would wear the same outfit again until they hit a loss in their tournaments. That is why when you watch a huge tournament like Wimbledon, you would see the tennis professionals in the same dress every single match.
Some particular athletes who have superstitions are Wade Boggs, MLB, Mark Fidrych, MLB, Turk Wendell, MLB, Pelle Lindbergh, NHL, Kevin Rhomberg, MLB, Mike Hargrove, MLB, Patrick Roy, NHL, John McGraw, MLB, Goran Ivanisevic, Tennis, and Steve Finley, MLB.
Wade Boggs was the perfect case study for superstition in baseball. He would eat poultry before every game. He would take exactly 150 ground balls during infield practice. He had a fixation on time; he would enter the batting cage at exactly 5:17p.m. and ran wind sprints at exactly 7:17p.m. During the game, he would write the word “chai” in the batter’s box. He was the king of all superstitions.
Turk Wendell was known for brushing his teeth between innings. He would chew four sticks of liquorices while pitching on the mound, sprint back to the dugout after the third out of the inning (making sure to leap over the baseline), and then take a break to brush his teeth. He would repeat himself every inning.
Former Seattle Mariners manager Mike Hargrove has superstitions as strong as Wade Boggs, if not more. He would walk up to the first-base line and take three practice swings before stepping into the batter box. At the plate, he would have to fiddle with his batting gloves, pants, and sleeves, then wiping perspiration off his lips and pushing down the top of his batting helmet once he was ready to hit the ball. He would repeat this after every single pitch.
Patrick Roy is a special one. He would talk to his goalposts during the game because he says, “they are my friends.” You would be watching him and, oddly enough, during the game majority of the puck would hit the goalposts before him blocking the puck in front of the goal. Who would have thought that these posts would move for him?
Goran Ivanisevic never really had as much success as other tennis players, but he had his own superstitions. He would have to be the second person to get up from his chair after a change over, and would never step on the lines. If he won a match, he would repeat everything he did from the previous day (go to the same restaurant, eat the same food, and try to talk to the same people).
Then there is Ichiro. He was not superstitious, but he definitely had to do the same stretch-and-pull-the-shirt before every swing at bat. He needed this to feel comfortable and right before hitting his great base-liner.
Did you guys ever have a superstitious act to feel good about your swing or hit? Some athletes certainly believe that they became big because of these acts.