One possible explanation is that a target that seemed to look larger increased the confidence of the putters, and confidence improves performance. Silly Sports Rituals? Think Again If you wear lucky underwear, grow a playoff beard, listen to pre-game pump-up jams, do the Haka dance or a slow clap, the science shows that observing these rituals will actually help you improve your game. Research published in Psychological Science demonstrated that activating superstitions by either saying something -- like break a leg or keep your fingers crossed -- or using a personal lucky charm really does lead to improved performance in golfing, memory games, anagrams and motor dexterity. Researchers found that the lucky charms help to boost our ability to believe that we can master a certain task. That belief does wonders to help us set higher goals, work more persistently and succeed. But if you don't believe in luck, carrying that rabbit's foot won't help you. Don't Give Yourself a Pep Talk, Just Follow Your Own Instructions If you catch yourself saying "you can do this!" when you're tackling a fine movement, be sure to spell it out. Researchers made distinctions between motivational talk, in which participants would tell themselves "Let's go!" or "I can do it!" as opposed to instructional self talk. In this version, participants' silent conversations with themselves would focus on a specific task like "Focus", or "Raise the elbow" or "Follow through." They found that pumping yourself up for a task by using motivation was not