Investigation of Superstitious Behavior Tendencies of Professional Football Players and Coaches

Abstract

This study aims to elucidate the superstitious behavior tendencies of professional football players and club coaches. The research group consists of 22 football players and 9 football coaches selected through the "Criterion Sampling" method. The research is considered as basic qualitative research. These are qualitative research studies in which data are collected through documents, interviews, or observation analyses. The research design employed in this study is phenomenology (phenomenological research design) which is a qualitative research design. In this research, “Superstitious Belief” has been selected as the phenomenon and the meanings attributed to this phenomenon by football players and coaches are attempted to be revealed. Semi-structured interview forms have been prepared to identify the superstitious behavior tendencies of players and coaches. In this context, open-ended questions are asked to the participants to determine their superstitious behavior tendencies. The data obtained have been analyzed using the content analysis method. According to the findings, the Superstitious Behavior Tendency comprises a theme, a sub-theme, and six categories. Under the sub-theme of superstitious behavior tendencies among professional football players and coaches are the categories of Clothing-Appearance, Lucky Objects, Pre-match Ritual, In-match Behavior, Team Ritual, Faith and Prayer. The opinions of players and coaches regarding the questions prepared for this theme are presented. Word clouds have been created illustrating prominent codes under the identified categories based on data obtained from interviews with participants. In conclusion, beyond effective preparation and training phases for performance enhancement, it is discerned that some superstitious behavior tendencies exist among players, contributing to elevating their motivation and self-confidence to higher levels.