Superstition disrupts athletes’ psychology and exists at the heart of their core beliefs. What caused football pundit Pat Nevin to balk at one of the most surreal experiences he had ever witnessed in the not-so-beautiful game? What left football manager Harry Redknapp skeptical of a pre-match prayer meeting before facing the might of Manchester United F.C? What caused the media to coin the phrase ‘Freaky Fridays’ to describe how elite golfer Rory McIlroy’s supreme performances on Thursdays regularly deteriorated the following day?Is luck merely a figment of imagination despite being integral to how many athletes think? How does the fear of ‘Juju’ magic reportedly experienced by Togo International footballer Emmanuel Adebayor differ from Irish Gaelic football’s ‘Juju’ hex infamously known as the Mayo Curse? Is it purely a matter of demographics, is there such a thing as the Commentator’s Curse, and is God a superstition?How you think can determine whether you are meteoric or mediocre, but this is not quite sport as you might imagine. Instead something far deeper is shaping your unique sporting genius, and that something is core superstitious beliefs. So hold onto your hat and open your mind to an engaging and enlightening exploration of how athletes mentally prepare before a whistle is blown or starting pistol fired.
