Before every Allan Hancock College baseball game, you’ll find shortstop Matt Foley deeply engrossed in his pre-game routine. First, he puts on his dusty Hancock baseball hat, faded and stained with the dirt and sweat of past games. Then, he puts on his right cleat before his left, and if he just so happens to do it out of order, he’ll take it off and do it again.
Across the street, the Hancock softball team prepares for a home game. There, you might find sophomore Deja Camacho putting on her left sock first, then putting in her left earring, and finally checking to make sure that her hair is braided slightly to the left.
From baseball to golf, from high school to the pros, athletes across the board turn to superstition and ritual when it comes to game time— but why?
According to the Journal of Sports Behavior, superstitious behavior in sports is defined as repetitive, formal, or sequential actions that athletes believe are powerful in performance, in controlling luck, or other outside factors. But does it really make a difference?
Some sports psychologists say rituals really do help an athlete focus, and potentially depriving them of that ritual could affect their game performance.
John Katz, licensed psychologist and founding partner of High Performance Associates, a New York-based athletic consulting company, said there’s a fine line between superstition and ritual. Superstition is based on things a player can’t control, such as beliefs that may or may not prove true. Rituals can help athletes because they’re based on something the athlete can control, providing a level of comfort and a means for someone to control a game situation.
“Whether it is the food they eat or how they get dressed, pre-game routines give the athlete a sense of control and consistency,” Katz told the Sun.
Katz added that a majority of good athletes will have a pre-game routine or ritual they perform.
Athletes and their trusted superstitions and rituals may confuse people, but Katz said there’s a functional benefit to the madness.
“These routines and superstitions serve as a distraction and relieve an athlete’s anxiety,” Katz said. “They are important and get the athlete into a game mindset.”
Typically, superstitions and rituals are developed as a coping mechanism to help deal with internal and external pressures to succeed. Katz said because so much of what happens in a game is out of an athlete’s control—whether it’s a pitch or a pass—finding some sort of ritual will help a player get into the right mental frame to perform.
According to the Journal of Sports Behavior, athletes will turn to ritual and superstition after having a tremendous performance. They’ll establish cause and effect, reviewing everything they did that day in order to determine the cause of their success.
Take, for instance, America’s game: baseball, a sport with a long history of superstition from the “Curse of the Bambino” to players refusing to wash after a win. Batters, pitchers, and fielders all perform elaborate, repetitive routines before at-bats and pitches.
Hancock head baseball coach Chris Stevens, who’s been with the Bulldogs for 11 years, has seen his share of rituals and superstitious athletes.
“Some of the rituals include eating the same pre-game meal or getting dressed in their uniform in the exact same order,” Stevens said. “The weirdest ritual I ever saw was during a rain delay when an athlete found an earthworm crawling and a teammate dared him to eat it—and he did.”
When the delay ended, Stevens explained, the player went 4 for 4 in the game, with two doubles, a single, and a home run. Stevens said that from then on, the player always looked for earthworms in the grass to eat.
Athletes will develop routines or superstitions individually or as a team, but coaches agree they all do them for the same reason.
“I think athletes start these rituals after having a tremendous performance in a game. They go back and retrace every step, like eating habits, how they slept, and how they mentally prepared,” Stevens said. “They will repeat the sequence in the hopes that the performance will repeat itself.”
Sophomore Hancock baseball player Tyler Dunsmore is one of those athletes. Dunsmore remembers that before one game, he drank a Monster energy drink and played great. Ever since then, he’s faithfully downed a Monster before every game.
“I have a case of Monsters in my locker right now,” he said with a smile.
Things are no different for the Hancock softball players; the sport is just as full of superstition as baseball. Scia Maumausolo, in her third season as Hancock’s head softball coach, said she sees the same athletes performing the same rituals before a game.
“I think it’s all in the mind, but it’s positive whether it is routine or superstition,” Maumausolo said. “The physical routine will transmit to the mental mind.”
Caitlin Voss, a sophomore catcher, has been doing the same thing before stepping into the batter’s box since she was in high school: She always puts her left foot on the chalk line first, then holds the bat out in front of her, and takes a deep breath. Only then is she ready to swing.
Her teammate Camacho, the left-obsessed player, said she had a great performance after putting on her left cleat first at a game when she was 14, and she’s been doing the same thing since.
But what would happen if an athlete were deprived of a routine? Katz said it might have a temporary effect on their focus in a game, but eventually they would just find something else to focus on.
Hancock’s Dunsmore said he doesn’t want to change things up when he’s doing well.
“If I don’t perform my ritual, I don’t feel comfortable,” he said. “I think it really makes a difference in performance.”
Other players—like Hancock softball player Voss—agreed.
“There have been a couple times where I haven’t been able to perform my pre-at-bat routine, and I felt rushed,” she admitted. “I don’t do well.”
In sports, it’s clear that athletes are most successful when they’re in control. Superstition and pre-game rituals can range from odd ceremonies to continue a winning streak, to disturbing treatment of equipment, and can provide athletes with a sense of consistency, comfort, and distraction from the pressures of the game. Athletes don’t have control over much in a game, but they can control their actions.
In the meantime, everyone else will just have to put up with the smell of dirty socks and sight of unshaven faces.
Staff Writer Kristina Sewell’s superstition is never putting a hat on the bed. Contact her at ksewell@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 19-26, 2012.
