From a lucky pair of shorts to a special personalized warm-up routine, every athlete has his or her own unique behaviors. For some, these superstitions are so crucial to their routine that it could cause them to perform horribly if one was forgotten.

Do these superstitions really have an effect on how the athlete is going to play? Why would wearing a certain pair of shorts be any different from another? Does brushing your teeth between every inning, like former Mets pitcher Turk Wendell, make you throw better?

“One of the things humans can do well is recognize patterns,” said Associate Professor of psychology Walter Herbranson. “If you do something one game and you happen to do well that day, you are more likely to keep doing that one thing in the future.”

So if an athlete notices that he seems to play better when he is wearing a certain shirt, he is going to continue to wear that shirt because it will hopefully keep him playing well. The specific shirt might not have anything to do with how the athlete plays, but he is not about to risk not wearing it.

These superstitions are mostly about feeling “right” when an athlete is getting ready to play. This is especially true for sophomore tennis player Chris Bailey, who, when getting ready for a match, does everything from putting on his shoes and socks to stepping on and off stairs with his right foot first. It is so habitual that it would feel wrong if he were to do it any other way.

All sports garner this response, too.

“Every time I step up onto the blocks before a race I pause and tap the top of the block twice with both of my hands. If I don’t do it, things just feel weird,” said first-year swimmer Chris Bendix.

However, these superstitions are also performing a duty. By having a set schedule, albeit sometimes an eccentric one, it is much easier for athletes to return to the same level of focus that they need in order to play their best.

“These different warm-up routines perform a relaxation function before a big game,” said Herbranson. “It brings the athlete back to an optimal level of arousal or readiness.”

Having a set pre-game or warm-up ritual can make it much easier for athletes to discard all thoughts except those they need in order to play their sport. In essence, having a routine trains the brain into automatically readying itself for a game or match when the right combination of actions is followed. In effect, it is not necessarily the superstition itself that is helping the athlete, but the routine that the superstition is a part of.

Really, though, it comes down to individual tastes. For some, the whole idea of a superstition is distasteful.

“As a college athlete and coach, I have always tried to reject the notion of superstitious behaviors, as I think they amount to relinquishing individual control. Call me a control freak, but I would prefer to believe I am in control of my own destiny,” said Athletic Director Dean Snider.

That being said, there have been countless superstitions cooked up by every generation of athletes, and they will likely be a part of athletics for the next several generations as well.