Athletes, coaches and sport fans often mistake the difference between superstition, rituals and routines. If you’ve ever watched Rafael Nadal serve, you’ve probably noticed his methodical repertoire of hand gestures and movements. From touching the back and front of his shorts, then his shoulders, nose, ears, and eventually his thighs. In his autobiography, Nadal writes, “Some call it superstition, but it’s not. If it were superstition, why would I keep doing the same thing over and over whether I win or lose? It’s a way of placing myself in a match, ordering my surroundings to match the order I seek in my head.” In sports it is critical for athletes and coaches to understand and distinguish the difference between superstitions, rituals, and routines.
“It’s a way of ordering my surroundings to the order I seek in my head.”
Rafael Nadal
Superstitions
Superstitions are false beliefs that athletes hold which ultimately have no impact on the outcome (Lodato, 2022). Superstitions are typically created by athletes from happenstance, instilling a belief of “cause and effect” which ultimately has no bearing on the result. Examples of superstitions can include hearing a certain song on the radio prior to competition, wearing a particular color sock, or avoiding stepping on the lines of the court.
Rituals
Rituals are extremely rigid, lack flexibility, and as a result can be counter-productive to the athlete or team (Lodato, 2022). An athlete with strict rituals may find it difficult to play away matches in environments that do not offer their at-home comforts. An example of a ritual in volleyball is a team cheer in between service points regardless of the situation. The insistence on maintaining the cheer between every point may at times increase the players momentum (positive impact) or distract the athletes from strategic conversations about making changes on the court (negative impact).
Routines
Routines are a “sequence of task-relevant thoughts and actions an athlete systematically engages in prior to performance of a self-paced sport skill” such as serving in volleyball (Mesagno & Mullane-Grant, 2010). Routines are repeatable, consistent, comfortable, and purposeful and yet flexible as needed in the face of obstacles based upon the environment or situation (Lodato, 2022).
One of the most effective strategies that an athlete can learn to increase their confidence, improve concentration, and compete consistently is to develop and integrate routines into their preparation and training protocols (Vernacchia, McGuire, & Cook, 1996). Routines have been proven to help athletes achieve a state of performance readiness by increasing feelings of self-efficacy, or a sense of control, in pressure situations (Hazell, Cotterill, & Hill, 2014).
Pre-Performance Routines
Routines can be broken down into three distinct categories, pre-performance routines (PPRs), in-performance routines, and post-performance routines. Pre-performance, also referred to as pre-competition routines, are actions taken prior to the start of competition to prepare the athlete for psychological readiness for competition. Pre-performance routines should prepare the athlete to expect and overcome adversity in competition, whether it be distributions to their warm-up, weather delays, hostile fans, or negative internal dialogue.
In-Performance Routines
In-performance routines are actions that an athlete does while competing either in-between plays or during timeouts. Athletes should ideally execute during-performance routines during short breaks in competition and before they perform specific skills such as a free-throw in basketball or a serve in tennis or volleyball. During competition athletes have severely limited time, therefore during-competition routines need to happen quickly and effectively. Recalling the athlete’s belief cue, or focus cue, is an example of during-competition routine.
Post-Performance Routines
Post-performance, or post-competition, routines take place after the competition has finished either in the locker-room, on the bus, or at home when the athlete has time to reflect alone. During a post-performance routine, the athlete should attempt to learn lessons from the recent competition (Orlick, 2016). Reflecting upon key plays, player matchups, decision making, connection with teammates, and the effectiveness of game strategies are examples of factors that athletes should consider focusing on during their post-performance routines.
Here’s a free downloadable worksheet to develop competition routines. For more information to distinguish the the difference between superstition, rituals and routines, and ideas on how to integrate routines to improve performance on the road, check out my article on using routines to prepare for competition on the road.
References
Xygalatas, Dimitris (2022, September 14) The Real Magic of Rituals. https://nautil.us/the-real-magic-of-rituals-238960/
Lodato, Vincent A. (2022). Being Prepared: Routines for Readiness [PowerPoint Slides]. Canvas@UWS. https://canvas.uws.edu/courses/2345/assignments/29357?module_item_id=206390
Burton, Damon & Raedeke, Thomas, D. (2008). Sport Psychology for Coaches. Human Kinetics.
Stewart Cotterill, Neil Weston, & Gavin Breslin. (2017). Sport and Exercise Psychology: Practitioner Case Studies. Wiley-Blackwell.
Hazell, J., Cotterill, S. T., & Hill, D. M. (2014) An exploration of pre-performance routines, self-efficacy, anxiety and performance in semi-professional soccer, European Journal of Sport Science, 14:6, 603-610, DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2014.888484
McCann, Sean. (2009) Routines, rituals, and performing under pressure, Soccer Journal, 40-43.
Mesagno, C., & Mullane-Grant, T. (2010). A Comparison of Different Pre-Performance Routines as Possible Choking Interventions. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 22(3), 343–360.
Orlick, T. (2016). In Pursuit of Excellence: How to win in sport and life through mental training. (Fifth Edition). Human Kinetics.
Vernacchia, Ralph, McGuire, Rick, & Cook, David. (1996) Coaching Mental Excellence. Warde Publishers, Inc.