Abstinence??

[Shi no Tenshi]

Oh, and just to reply to the main topic:

I remember my elder sister telling me when she was playing basketball in college, that the girls had a "13 hour rule". The general belief seemed to be that sex up to 13 hours before the game was good, but if you had sex within 13 hours, your performance in the game dropped. No studies to back that one up, just anecdotal.

[fencerbill]

Originally Posted by Shi no Tenshi

Oh, and just to reply to the main topic:

I remember my elder sister telling me when she was playing basketball in college, that the girls had a "13 hour rule". The general belief seemed to be that sex up to 13 hours before the game was good, but if you had sex within 13 hours, your performance in the game dropped. No studies to back that one up, just anecdotal.

What time of day did they have their games? I am thinking back to the Casey Stengel quote earlier in the thread.

[jBirch]

Some googling:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...12/ai_15295073

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3555734.stm

http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/20...sex-sidelines/

The prevailing scientific literature that I've found (without the login access to the actual articles themselves), seems to imply that sex per se has no affect on sport performance.

What does affect performance, and may be affected in turn by sex/abstinence, is sleep, nutrition and fatigue. Depending on how you go about having sex, and the cultural rituals around it, you may have a positive, negative or neutral affect on your performance.

From a coach's perspective I'll add one other bit of theory and that's the positive reinforcement element of sex and sport. If every time you have a tournament coming up you get laid the night before and, depending on your performance, the night after, then you have a very strong reinforcer for competing.

James.

[D'Artagnan1673]

Here's one for you. If you abstain from engaging in said activity before a tournament, but you will get to sleep faster, and rest better, after having had sex, then having sex would have a positive affect.

[bunbury]

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan1673

Here's one for you. If you abstain from engaging in said activity before a tournament, but you will get to sleep faster, and rest better, after having had sex, then having sex would have a positive affect.

Replace "sex" with "10 shots of tequila" and this theory also works. I like it.

[HDG]

Originally Posted by bunbury

Replace "sex" with "10 shots of tequila" and this theory also works. I like it.

I wish you were my coach...

[Hauptman]

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan1673

Here's one for you. If you abstain from engaging in said activity before a tournament, but you will get to sleep faster, and rest better, after having had sex, then having sex would have a positive affect.

True... I guess the answer to this question lies in where you are starting from.

If you are overly anxious/wired/stressed/etc before a competition then the relaxing effects of sex seem to be right on target. On the other hand, if you have no energy or focus prior to the tournament then sex may leave you even more lethargic.... well... lethargic, but happy.