I am intrigued by the concept of religious belief assisting with sporting performance. I get that it might assist the individual but wonder in a team sport, whether this could actually be negative. If faced with an evangelical Christian in my profession and their beliefs interferred with work, I would find it a challenge to accept their position. I am not religious although I totally appreciate that some people with take succor from their religious beliefs. I read a lot and at the moment I am about 90% of the way through Attar's "Conference of the birds" which is a famous 12th century Sufi Islamic poem from Persia. The interest for me was largely as an ornithologist (the guiding light in this poem is a Hoopoe) but I am finding the mindset of Sufism to be baffling. Attar tends to speak in riddlesand the "parables" in the book are sometimes difficult to understand . (I have never read the Qu'ran and have a limited understanding of Islam.) That said, the whole concept of following "the Way" still has relevance to everyone, Muslim or not, 800 years after this poem was written. It strikes me as a very salient and resonating piece of writing. To me, the mindset outlined in this book would be very useful in sport as well as retaining a focus on life in general. I am not necessarily saying that I fully understand this book or even agree with it, yet it does make you feel that, as a concept, Islam would probably be more appealing and relevant to sportsmen who wish to be focused than Christianity. Not really suprising that Islam recently became a big thing through Paul Pogba at Man Utd and why the likes of Luke Shaw found it appropriate to convert.
