strange rituals

Strange rituals - do you have any of them? Sabs, Jaac and I were at dinner last week and the subject of James's hat came up. He had this old Adidas cap that he wore every finals week or something and then he lost it and flipped out. (And by flipped out I mean...sank into a surly depression). He ended up getting a new hat and it was way better than the first (in my opinion) so it was all good in the end. But it does raise an interesting question...what rituals do we make for ourselves in preparation for an important event, and what value do these superstitions have?

I have a couple of pre-fight rituals, myself. M asked me once about them, she said that skaters will get neurotic about putting on one skate before the other. Before an important competition I like to wear my 'lucky pants'. Which are actually just R's pants that are really comfortable, that I borrowed once and accidentally took to a tournament because they look kind of like another pair of Adidas pants I have. And the I won. And I took them to the next tournament, and I won again. And for awhile I was on a streak, so they became lucky. I remember joking around with R once and he said that the magic would go from his legs to his pants to my legs and then I'd win. Back then he was really freaking good, so maybe a small part of me believed that I'd inherit some of that talent. But really the pants were also just something familiar, especially since I went to a lot of tournaments that year by myself and he helped me train a lot that year.

Pre-fight ritual #2 - Sr has to hit me on the head before I go into the ring. He started doing this in Greece last year at Collegiate Worlds, because I was so nervous. I think it stemmed from the fact that they always hit me on the head in practice to get my head back on straight. It's good as sort of a wake-up, kind of like how I used to have to kick E 3 times really hard in the hogu before she would fight. I think he kind of gets a kick out of how I'll go into a ring and then run back for him to hit me, but...that just sorta sums up our relationship I suppose. Tough love, abusive with a purpose. But yeah, can't fight without it.

Pre-fight ritual #3 - have get a pep talk from Jr the night before a competition. I asked him if he was going to give me one in Turkey, and he said of course...even though it won't be any different than any other pep talk. I suppose he's right, they're all sort of the same...but there's something about the act of talking, if even for just a few minutes, that is reassuring. For how much he tries not to baby me and give in to me about everything else, I really value that he goes out of his way to accomodate my dependency on these pep talks, frequently international and across time zones.

Obviously these things don't make an actual difference in circumstances or ability - it's not like wearing the hat necessarily made James smarter (or not wearing it made him dumber) or wearing the pants makes my legs faster or stronger. But it seems that in the end, it's about putting yourself in the right mindset - and if these self-made rituals happen to do that, then they have some value. At least for me, I think these things come down to small acts that remind me that I'm supported...and in the end I think that's what anyone needs going into a challenge.