Abstract
According to popular media, routines and superstitions are commonplace among competitive athletes. While there is a growing body of sport psychology literature focused on pre-competition routines, there is less literature examining the role of superstitions in sport. This study critically examined the integrated role of routines and superstitions among professional hockey players. Through semi-structured interviews with seven former professional male hockey players, three key themes emerged from the data. First, it was found that routines and superstitions were used to manage "butterflies", helping athletes obtain an optimal level of arousal for performance. Second, participants explained how the process of engaging in routines and superstitions facilitated a "sense of comfort", helping to reduce debilitative anxiety while achieving facilitative anxiety. Third, the "importance of the game" was discussed; the more important the game, the higher the need to achieve proper levels of facilitative anxiety. Findings suggest routines and superstitions are essential behaviours for athletes' game preparation and pre-competition anxiety management, despite superstitions often being considered irrelevant (e.g., Brevers et al., 2011). Given participants often used the terms "routines" and "superstitions" interchangeably, future research should focus on further examination, understanding, and definition of each term.
