No more performance anxiety, sportspeople!

As with soldiers before war, before any sporting event, sportspersons have been traditionally told to abstain from sex. The reasoning behind this has been as obvious as unconfirmed: one shouldn't get tired out before a big day. Whether this folk rule applied to more mental sports such as chess and crosswords has to be left on hold because there's now news hot off the plate that unless one has sex less than two hours before a sporting event, sexual activity "may have a beneficial effect on sports performance". Well, that's what one out of the nine surveys collated in a study and published in Frontiers in Physiology has stated. The other eight surveys show that having sex or not before a sports event makes no difference to one's performance — sporting — at all. And the observation applies equally to both men and women.

This is especially cheery news for members of India's men's national cricketing side who have, on occasions in the past, been scolded for spending a bit too much time with their lady friends before a match. They can now back up their wish to bowl maidens over off the cricketing pitch with science. And yes, our sportswomen too should look forward to their sporting performances. After all, there has to be something physically — and psychologically — stirring that spurs excellence in sports, regardless of it being a contact one or not.