Woo In Sport

May 7, 2010 at 4:10 pm (Supplements, Woo) (Alison Stokke, Arsène Wenger, Frank Lampard, Horse Placenta, Irrationality, John Terry, Marijana Kovacevic, Robin van Persie, Stuart Sutherland)

Woo in sport comes in many forms. From the array of supplements taken by weightlifters to the horse placenta treatment tried by Robin van Persie.

Robin van Persie prior to his horse placenta treatment

Van Persie said of the doctor and her unorthodox treatment:

She is vague about her methods but I know she massages you using fluid from a placenta. I am going to try. It cannot hurt and, if it helps, it helps.

And did it help? Wikipedia records that on 14 November, van Persie “injured his ankle in an international friendly and was initially expected to be out for six weeks, but further tests showed that he would be out for five months. Van Persie made his return on April 14, 2010, in a 2–1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.”

Frank Lampard, too, went to see the placenta healer but it seems his interest in the unorthodox healer didn’t last long: after an hour with Kovacevic he decided her approach was not for him and decided to return to England immediately.

Of course, there are probably plenty of athletes / sports start who do not use woo and one should be careful not to imply that the available examples of woo in sport are typical of all sportspeople.

John Terry and Alison Stokke, for example, do not appear to have used or endorsed any form of woo (although footballers are notoriously superstitious and it would not be a huge surprise if Mr Terry owned a pair of lucky shorts).

Googling their names along with terms such as “alternative medicine” and “homeopathy” didn’t seem to throw up anything relevant, anyway.

John Terry - probably not wooful

Allison Stokke - not a fan of homeopathy (as far as I know)

Finally, and going back to where we started (with Arsenal’s Robin van Persie), we have Arsene Wenger. At the time of van Persie’s decision to have horse placenta rubbed on his ankle, the Guardian reported on Mr Wenger’s views:

The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, admitted to being sceptical when it comes to alternative medicine, though he recognised the psychological benefits such a treatment may have on an injured player. The Frenchman, who had not previously been aware of Dr Kovacevic, expects his Dutch striker back in the country tomorrow to continue more conventional treatment at London Colney.

“I asked my medical people if there was any danger to the treatment and, when they said there wasn’t, I was happy to let him go,” said Wenger. “Van Persie wanted to go. It’s sometimes psychological as well, for the players to feel that they can be helped. It can be a problem of confidence. But since I’ve been in sport a muscle problem takes 21 days [to heal], a damaged ligament is four weeks, and I’ve never seen it any shorter. You can only play with injections and there’s always a recurrence of the muscle injury.”

How refreshing – someone in football who can be rational. Well, except when it comes to ignoring evidence that contradicts his beliefs.

Arsene Wenger - sceptical of CAM

Sceptical of CAM, he may be – but when it comes to one of his players committing an offence on the football field, Arsene Wenger “didn’t see it”. But then, we are all irrational. One might be tempted to offer a few words of advice for Arsene to consider next time one of his players commits a foul:

• Search for evidence against your own beliefs.
• Don’t distort new evidence: consider carefully whether it could be interpreted as disconfirming your beliefs rather than supporting them.
• Be wary of your memory: you are likely to recall whatever fits with your current views.

[All taken from Stuart Sutherland's Irrationality.]

However, Mr Wenger may not be guilty of irrationality. It appears that “not seeing” incidents in which his players are guilty may have been a deliberate tactic: selective myopia. Perfectly rational, if somewhat dishonest.

More

I found the horse placenta nonsense rather interesting, but I do wonder whether it’s worth looking at what treatments players generally take or are given.

I’m considering putting together a questionnaire and sending it to each of the 92 English league clubs. I think as a first step, I might ask whether the club provides any complementary or alternative (i.e., unproven or disproven) treatments.

I might approach this by listing treatments I consider to be unproven or disproven, but given the amount of woo available it might prove impossible to include all forms.

If anyone has any thoughts on surveying football clubs to find out whether their treatments are evidence-based, please feel free to comment below.

Edit, 8th May:

The 21st Floor have today blogged on Rock stars and woo.