Lucky Underpants and Candy Crush: These athletes are also superstitious

Ruud van Nistelrooij no longer takes his cap off, because PSV seems unbeatable because of it. You can think of it all you want, but he’s not the only athlete who’s a little superstitious. Many Brabant sportsmen and women have a fixed ritual before a competition. We’ve listed a few for you.

Michael van Gerwen
If anyone has superstitions, it’s darts player Mighty Mike. For example, his arrow box and glass of water are always in exactly the same place, he revealed in a video on his Instagram. He always wears the same black boxer shorts. And every game you see him pull up his socks a few times. “I don’t know why either. Maybe it will help me regain my focus before I throw my darts at the board again. At least I don’t do it consciously,” he said.

Rico Verhoeven
Before entering the kickboxing ring, Rico Verhoeven invariably throws a plastic bottle in the trash. “I will keep doing that until it goes in,” he said in an interview with College Tour. “It often happens just before the game and then I think: it will be fine.” And once he got his superstition from the game Candy Crush: “I had three stars everywhere, except for a level. So until the game day I was busy getting three stars. Because then I would win.” Just before the match he succeeded and won the fight, “probably because of that”, he laughs.

Mathieu van der Poel
Mathieu van der Poel always wants to ensure that he clocks in on round numbers during his training sessions. “When I come home and there is 2:58 on my clock, I drive another block,” he says in conversation with De Telegraaf. “It may also be a round number in kilometers. If there are 117 kilometers, then there should be 120. I don’t know what will happen if I don’t. Probably nothing, but that doesn’t happen, because I make sure it’s always right,” said the European cyclo-cross champion.

Frederique Matla
The striker of Orange has a ritual with her father just before every hockey match. When her parents are in the stadium, Frédérique makes eye contact. And as soon as they have found each other, they both clench their fists, her father said in an interview with Hockey.nl. “Like: we are looking forward to it. We are going to enjoy.”

Roy Meyer
Judoka Roy Meyer from Breda also has a fixed ritual, which gives him more confidence on the mat. He withdraws for a moment and thinks about his past. “By where I come from. From a difficult place,” he said in the TV program De Nieuws BV. “Then I think ‘then I was there, now I’m here, how nice is that?’ I’ve already won. And now I can also enjoy later.”

Those Brabanders can do something about it. But if there’s one athlete king of superstition, it’s tennis player Rafael Nadal. He has a long laundry list of rituals. This way he never walks over the white lines of the field. He always has two water bottles ready with the labels facing him. His socks must always be pulled up at the same height during the match. And when serving he always picks his nose, puts his hair behind his ears and adjusts his pants.

READ ALSO: Van Nistelrooij’s lucky cap should ensure a win over Ajax

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