An Analytical Comparison of Superstition Between Men and Women Paddlers

Sports figures have fallen into routines, habits, and superstitions that they believe will put them in a better position to win every time. Performance routines are followed, behavioral and cognitive strategies which are intentionally used by players of different games and sports in order to facilitate physical performance. Hence, an analytical comparison of Superstition between Men and women paddlers (Table Tennis Players) is used to assess their behaviour and attitude. For this purpose to examine the prevalence of superstition between men and women paddlers, forty five (45) men and forty five (45) women paddlers of different Universities of West Zone were randomly selected to serve as subjects.

On the basis of Superstitious Beliefs and Behavior Scale prepared by Hans G. Buhramann, B. Brouch and Maxwell K. Zaugg on seven areas containing forty items, a new scale was constructed with consultation of teachers and experts in the field of physical education and various aspects of table tennis, psychology and sociology. The questionnaire was administered individually to all the subjects and they had answered the questionnaire separately, without consulting others. The responses of the questionnaire were analysed in percentage and compared with non parametric statistics i.e. chi square between men and women paddlers.

A greater prevalence of superstition was found among men paddlers rather than the women paddlers since the responses have showed significant results.