Talisman says the prompt on Sunday Scribblings. A talisman is a physical item with magical powers.
I’ve spent the last two weeks watching the Olympics (to the detriment of everything else in life!) and being amazed by the show of talent by Team GB. I don’t think anyone thought that they’d achieve the grand total of 65 medals! I’ve been interested in the preparations made by each athlete before their performance. There’s been a lot of talk by the commentators and pundits of the routines that each athlete goes through which act as a kind of virtual talisman to their performance. Where have they learnt these routines? Was it something they did at another competition where they ended up with success so it became something they had to do in order to repeat the success? Or was it something they’d seen another athlete do and adopted it as their own?
When I was at university I competed for the university trampoline team and as a team we had a particular routine that we always went through before each competition which we felt had brought us success in the past so we thought it would bring us more. Even when we had a bad result we still had faith in the routine on future occasions, after all it had worked once! I also had the physical talisman of my ‘lucky socks’ which I always wore to compete in!
What talisman do you have and what power does or bring you?
Keeps Me Out Of Mischief! 
Talismans are like a form of religion believing in inanimate objects for guidance and success. Curiously I think that it is weakness in our belief in ourselves but with the antics of some olympians on the way to success I may be wrong. So perhaps it is just a training routine! Thoughtful post.
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A talisman, lucky charm, or lucky routine works because of our belief in it, we bestow the power, and much like placebo pills, often it does the job because we believe it can and will! 🙂
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Hiya Claire,
Nice to meet you.
Wasn’t it an amazing display of talent and perseverence from the GB team. Did you manage to get down [up?] to London for any of it? For me it was mostly about anything on two wheels. Loved the track and the road racing and was so impressed with the courage of the bmx-ers.
I think the routines are part of their coaches’ instructions, as are the methods for healing strained muscles by keeping your legs straight while sleeping , to prevent healed muscles from breaking again when you stretch your legs getting up. As are diet and hygiene instructions. The routine you describe is mental warming up and just as improtant as the new hot pants and physial warming up.
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I loved the trampolining and gymnastics but also enjoyed watching sports that I’d previously had absolutely no interest in like synchronised swimming and dressage- who knew horse dancing could be so interesting!
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I wonder if my life would have been different if I’d had a talisman? I like the idea of lucky socks! Mmm. So, the Olympics are over – it’ll be good to get BBC One back!
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