The highly competitive atmosphere of sports can place athletes in search of remedy for the uncontrollable. Aside from physical preparation for competition, many athletes search for ways to shift their mindsets to “game mode.” From specific hairstyles to lucky socks, superstitions play a vital role in helping athletes of any level feel prepared to play their best. While they may seem trivial, these rituals reach past the simplicity of superstitions and serve a psychological impact on athletes.
Many pre-game rituals begin when athletes establish a correlation between game performance and events that occurred beforehand. Once the seed of this connection is planted, athletes can begin to associate this event with playing well. These superstitions are not based on fact, but merely personal belief about correlation.. According to CBS News, “Superstitions can combat anxiety through the placebo effect, meaning someone thinks their ‘remedy’ fixed their problem when in reality, it was something more in their control.” Even though these superstitions are not based on scientific fact, they still serve a purpose, and can boost athletes’ confidence.
To learn more about athletes’ superstitions, I turned to the players closest: Wellesley athletes. Each player described a unique ritual, emphasizing that these superstitions are very common but deeply personal.
For soccer player Anna Mytko ’24, her routine relies on order — she always puts her left cleat on first. When she steps onto the field, she reaches down and rips a piece of grass out. “I’ve done this since club soccer,” Mytko said. “It’s become instinctual, and the repetition gives me a peace of mind before the game.” Similarly, Emily Kulhanek ’27 on the softball team relies on a precise routine to achieve athletic success, every game day she makes overnight oats with frozen fruit and peanut butter .
For volleyball player Caroline Meyer ’27, meditation is key. She dedicates time in the locker room to envision how she wants to play and what her team needs from her. During this time, Meyer always listens to NLE Choppa. “His music gets me excited and ready to play,” Meyer explained. “If I don’t listen to him I won’t play well.”
For some athletes like lacrosse player Mallory Kennison ’27, their superstitions involve rituals happening many hours before a game. “I have to shave my legs the night before a game,” Kennsion shared. “In high school, I didn’t shave my legs once, and we lost a game we shouldn’t have lost. Ever since then, I make sure to never miss a day.”
Although these practices vary in process, the habitual act of these superstitions can give athletes a sense of control. The outcome of a game, match or meet is heavily impacted by skill, decision-making and team performance. Yet chance remains a key factor in athletics: referees vary, players get injured, mistakes happen. Because of this, athletes often desire “controlling the controllables.” With familiar personal rituals, each player has their own way of doing what they can to win the game.
While these rituals may provide a sense of ease to athletes, an over-reliance on them can be detrimental. In situations when an athlete skips their routine, they can feel uneasy or out of control, not because their athletic skill has changed in any way, but because they are so focused on the uncompleted task — they believe they have already lost their chance to play well before the game has even started. This dynamic draws a correlation between skipping a routine and poor performance, not as a result of superstition, but because of a lack of concentration for the game at hand.
At the end of the day, humans are creatures of habit drawn to repetition and comfort. For athletes, this comfort comes in forms on and off the field. Pre-game superstitions will most likely remain a common practice as young athletes search for control and routine.
Contact the editors responsible for this story: Julee Sharma, Finley Tipton, Katie McCabe
