Very superstitious, writing's on the wall

An intermediate football coach says: "Way too many of my players are superstitious. I think it does more harm than good. What can I do to make them cut it out and think logically instead?"

We asked renowned sports psychologist Canice Kennedy whether superstitions help or hinder footballers and hurlers.

He said: "In general, superstitions are not a problem. But they can be more of a problem in a team sport rather than an individual one.

"For example Tiger Woods always wears a red top on the last day of a tournament. What happens in the Ryder Cup when they all have to wear the same colour? In a football team what happens if more than one player likes to run last onto the field. What if two players both like to wear the number eight jersey?"

The answer, says Kennedy, is to make the players aware that they are not always in control of the situation. If they cannot, for whatever reason, go through their pre-match superstition they need to get to a point where they think these little rituals are a help, but not a necessity.

"If a superstition helps to settle the mind then that is good, but they should look back on previous performances and credit their good display on what they did that day on the pitch, rather than anything else."

That said, Kennedy believes that a pre-match routine, which may or may not involve superstitions, can help greatly.

"I'm a big believer in pre-match routines: doing things that you can control which focus the mind on the game. During this time it's important that negative thoughts aren't allowed to fester; always focus on the positive," he says.

"If you're about to go out and mark Darragh O Se don't tell yourself he is bigger and stronger than you, and will beat you to every ball in the air.

"Say to yourself, he might win more ball in the air than me, but he won't win one easy ball. Say he may be bulkier, but I can cover the ground faster than him. Have a routine in place where you are not only preparing physically for the game, but also mentally. If this involves certain superstitions that you can control, then there is nothing wrong with that."

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