Canberra Skeptics proudly presents:

May the odds be ever in your favour: Supersitions and Elite Athletes

Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2019

Time: 6:00 to 7:30pm

Speaker: Kristine Dun

Venue: Belconnen Community Service, 26 Chandler Street, Belconnen ACT 2616 (Entry on Swanson Court)

Cost: Free

Elite sport has a healthy dose of uncertainty, and the stakes are high. Athletes train hard to prepare mentally and physically to perform on the world stage. Learning to manage anxiety and get ‘in the zone’ is one way that sport psychologists help athletes. Athletes commonly have routines or rituals that they practice and use to help them perform. Imagine a basketballer before a free throw or a 100m runner before the race. Athletes can also have superstitions, Steve Waugh’s red hanky for example. If you watch sport, you have probably seen athletes do some unusual things and wondered why. Kristine Dun will explore the world of routines and superstitions in elite sport. Why athletes use routines and hold superstitions; whether or not they help; and how sport psychologists work in this space.

Kristine Dun is a sport psychologist working at the ACT Academy of Sport. She has worked in the Australian and British elite sport systems with previous roles at the Scottish Institute of Sport and Australian Institute of Sport.

Kristine has worked with athletes, coaches, and staff across more than 15 sports to prepare them compete on the world stage. This includes delivering psychological services at major events such as the Paralympics, Commonwealth Games, and European Championships.

While Kristine is not, and has never been, an elite athlete herself she loves sport. She grew up playing netball and cricket mostly, and enjoys watching sport. Kristine is currently learning tap dancing, is about to return to cycling, and is considering taking up circus arts.

Dinner will follow the lecture (venue TBC). To RSVP for the dinner please email canberraskeptics@gmail.com.

Canberra Skeptics Inc. is a non-profit association incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory for the purpose of promoting critical thinking. For further information about Canberra Skeptics, please visit our website: http://www.canberraskeptics.org

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Twitter: @cbrskeptics

Event announcements:

Meetup: http://meetu.ps/c/clpg/mmVvH/a

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/canberra-skeptics-18628458762