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Lucky
Drawers TCU football player Robert Dominguez listens to a heavy metal song by Metallica right before he enters the field. He has had the compact disc since the eighth grade, and if he doesn’t hear “Enter Sandman,” he said, it won’t be a good game. From wearing the same undershirt in a football game to spitting on a baseball bat, athletes have superstitions that motivate them and bring them luck.
“Good things happen to a person when you do certain things that are familiar to you,” Dominguez said. “I’m a very superstitious person even outside of football.” Dominguez said if he sees a penny on the ground, and it’s faced heads up, he picks it up for good luck. If the tail end is facing up, it’s a sign of bad luck, and he leaves it there. According to the Hardline, a sports radio show on 1310 KTCK-AM, Cincinnati Reds center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. blames his batting slumps on the cars he drives and buys a new one if he’s not hitting well. The station said Griffey sold his last car before he even made the first payment on it. According to (www.factmonster.com) Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina practice shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls game shorts throughout his career. The Web site also said retired baseball player Wade Boggs ate only chicken the day of a game and drew a symbol that means “To Life” in the dirt before every at-bat. Cedric Owens, a senior finance and marketing major who swam for TCU two years ago, said he has seen and heard of swimmers eating only certain foods before a competition. Owens, on the other hand, didn’t have any particular routine that he went through before a swim meet because he said he didn’t want to have to rely on anything. “I didn’t wear a particular swim suit that I thought made me a better swimmer,” Owens said. “I stayed focused on what I had to do without any distractions like superstitions.” Chris Hall, coordinator of athletic training and sports medicine services at TCU, said part of the reason people are superstitious is because people are creatures of habits. “We establish a routine from a very early age,” Hall said. Athletes are no different in that they get into their routines where they’re in their comfort zone, he said. “There was a golfer here that slept with his putter the night before a big tournament,” Hall said. Small changes in athletes’ routines will throw them off, he said. Since every sport is unique, each individual requires a specific level of concentration. Dominguez said he has been wearing the same under shirt during games since his sophomore year in high school. Dominguez is now a junior. He said that even though he washes the shirt after each game, it still smells, but that won’t stop him from wearing it. Head baseball coach Lance Brown said he has seen players who wear the same pair of socks until their feet can’t take the pain anymore from all the holes. Brown said the only superstition he adheres to is writing out the lineup card when the baseball team is winning. If they’re losing, he tells someone else to do it, he said. “Players have superstitions because they worry about success,” Brown said. “It gives them the feeling of success if they practice certain superstitions.” Owens said he has seen swimmers rub the starting block before an event for luck. “I have a friend who’s a swimmer who doesn’t cut his nails two weeks before a meet,” Owens said. Kristine Gaenzle, a licensed therapist certified in sports psychology, said that since behavior is shaped through reinforcement, either positive or negative, athletes, as well as others, become accustomed to a particular way of doing things, and they subconsciously believe a particular activity will bring them luck. Learned behavior doesn’t have to mean anything, and it can be a hard habit to break, she said. “They are hesitant to give up their actions because they’re not completely convinced that what they do doesn’t actually bring any luck to a game,” Gaenzle said.
Yvette Herrera |
