When it comes to sports and other competitive events, we always want to win. It doesn’t matter how we get the win as long as it is a win. To this end, we try anything…listening to the same song before the game, eating the same thing before each game, wearing lucky socks or a lucky t-shirt.

We just don’t want to accept the fact that our clothes don’t have the mystical ability to make us win every basketball game. That’s just superstition, right? Honestly, I think superstitions are silly and pointless, but who knows? Maybe superstition has won games and created champions.

I turned to scientific research to find my answer. In reality, my research consisted of the first two links that showed up on my search browser, but in this Internet-based age, that’s like the Encyclopedia Britannica, right?

I discovered that most superstitions start with regular habits done on a regular basis. It just happens by chance that while these athletes were performing regular routines, they had a good season or exceptional performance. Mix that in with illogical human beings, and we have superstition.

However, science is boring compared with people wearing magical underpants or someone with super stinky socks who keeps winning. So who would have known that wearing two pairs of shorts could help you win six NBA championships along with five MVP awards? Turns out Michael Jordan knew this. Michael Jordan wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his NBA regular shorts. Jordan eventually started wearing longer shorts over his smaller North Carolina shorts. This resulted in a trend to wear longer shorts in basketball. Were those Tarheels shorts lucky? Who knows? In Jordan’s mind they were. Nevermind that he had one of the greatest college coaches ever, God rest his soul.

Superstition is everywhere in sports. In more extreme sports such as skateboarding, skaters will often sweep the bottom of a stair set with their feet. The main point of this is to clear the landing area of any small rocks and pebbles. This method of clearing debris out of the way leads to a superstition that if you don’t brush your foot against the stair set, you’ll most likely fail the trick. Personally, I think this superstition is a distraction and a stall tactic. I usually skate much better when I just go for it. Once you think about all the things that can go wrong, you don’t have any motivation to progress and improve your skating.

Baseball has so many different forms of superstition, and it’s amusing. Some players like Kevin Rhomberg had to touch everyone who touched him first. Other players observe exactly the same routine like eating chicken for every meal like Wade Boggs. This all sounds like a waste of time to me but if it works, it works. You gotta respect the streak.

My research tells me that regular habits help you feel more relaxed and prepare you mentally for the big game. So if drinking a pint of pickle juice upside down work for you, it’s okay. As long as your superstition keeps other people out of harms way and you continue to stay mentally stable, I don’t have a problem with it.