PART OF THE GAME: Sports rituals and superstitions shared by athletes and coaches

Dirty socks, favourite songs, faithful t-shirts, dyed hair, repetition, and more.

The Tri-County Vanguard newsroom in southwestern Nova Scotia explored sports rituals and superstitions with athletes and coaches in this sports feature. 

People are asked to stand and remove their hats for the singing of O Canada at a Yarmouth Jr. A Mariners game.

As the anthem ends hockey players bang their sticks on the ice. In the stands spectators join in with applause.

Players position themselves at the faceoff circle and the puck is dropped.

Actually, back up. We’ve missed a step. And it happens not only when the Mariners are playing at home, but also on the road.

“After every national anthem I touch the wall,” says Mariners head coach Laurie Barron, who has been doing this since he started coaching hockey. “My lucky number is four, so I touch the wall left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot.”

He can’t tell you what prompted him to start this. And it doesn’t matter if his team won or lost the previous game. It’s just a thing he does.

Barron, like other coaches and athletes, is no stranger to rituals and superstitions in sport. He says he had “way more” as an athlete than a coach.

“It was probably worse in baseball than hockey. If I was hitting a ball well, I wouldn’t wash the jersey, wouldn’t wash the pants. I wasn’t much fun to be around at the end of a three-day tournament."

Barron, a Boston Bruins fan, often finds himself turning to his favourite number 4.

“Whether it’s our team or the Bruins, if an announcer says, or if you came in said, ‘You guys are up three games to nothing, looks like you pretty much have it in hand,’ I’ll knock four times. It’s just a weird thing,” he says. “If I’m at home watching a Bruins game and they say, ‘Philadelphia is 0-for-4 in the powerplay tonight, their power play hasn’t been very good,’ I’ll knock four times. Our dog (whose name, incidentally, is Bruin) starts barking because he thinks there’s somebody at the door. It annoys everyone.”

Asked why he thinks people have sports rituals or superstitions, Barron believes it’s a comfort thing – something familiar amidst the uncertainty of a game.

“As a player I think you’re much more superstitious than a coach, especially when things are going well,” he says. “You get into a routine.”

He admits he’s seen some really strange rituals or superstitions by players he’s coached. “I’ve even had to talk to a few players where I thought that their superstitions were affecting them negatively,” he says. Barron recalls a time he created a team superstition himself. It was a junior B season. His team had won two series and were down 2-1 in another. One of the player’s siblings had a stuffed animal he’d see at the rink.

“I made it up, and said every game this stuffed animal had come to we had won and every game we lost it wasn’t brought to,” he says. “I think it was a pony and the players honestly believed the stuffed animal had to be at the game for us to win.”

Other common rituals tend to surround game day meals – always eating the same thing at the same time, usually surrounded by the same people. In the dressing room a player will want to be the last one to leave the room, or they'll want their visor wiped by the team trainer and no one else. Left gear must always go on before right gear, or vice versa.

A permanent blister on your heel is also a small sacrifice. Or even on both heels. Mariners team captain Matt Barron knows about that. Spectators see him wearing his #44 jersey on the ice (coincidently two 4s) but underneath his hockey gear he’s in tatters. He wears an Under Armour shirt with a hole so large it leaves his back exposed and due to holes, the socks he wears in his skates don't cover his toes or heels.

“Last year I wore it and we won so I decided to keep wearing it this year. It wasn’t ripped like this last year,” he says about the shirt. “That material gets kind of weak over time. I went to put it on one day and my finger got caught and ripped it. Then when I started taking it off it would get caught on my head and it would rip even bigger. Now it’s like two stages to get it on and off – I get to the hole and then I get to the rest of it.”

“And when I had these socks they weren’t this bad, but we won (the league championship) so I said, ‘Well, I can’t switch it up,’ and I kept them and now they’re like this.”

Asked why he thinks players have rituals and superstitions, the younger Barron says, “I think it’s just something you get so used to that you don’t pay too much attention to it, but if it were to get switched up you’d kind of realize.”

Plus, sometimes the line gets blurred between ritual and tradition – like the way the Mariners lock arms during the national anthem on the ice and on the bench during playoffs.

Each year the team also has a season t-shirt for players that always contains a hidden message. Last year it was ‘Run as one.’

Laurie Barron says the year he was an assistant coach with Team Canada East for the World Junior A Challenge held in Yarmouth, a fishing town, he remembers a slogan the head coach, a fellow from Toronto, had suggested. It was a rally cry that meant no turning back.

“The head coach wanted to do the slogan he had had success with, which was, ‘Burn the boats.’ I said to him, ‘I don’t know if this is the right town to have the kids going around saying, ‘Burn the boats,'" Barron says, laughing. “I told him, ‘I just don’t think that’s a good idea.’”

The Tri-County Vanguard invited some people involved in sports to share some thoughts about rituals, routines, superstitions and such. They covered a pretty wide range, from motivational music to inspiring self-talk to lucky socks.

Phil Mooney (golf): Four tees

Athletes always have pre-game rituals or superstitions. And you can ask any sports participant, they always have an idiosyncrasy. As for myself, when it comes to starting a game of golf, I always put four tees in my pocket. If I break one, I always replace it to keep the number at four, and if I find an unbroken one, it will go in my golf bag, to keep the number of tees to four in my pocket. I also keep two coins in my pocket to use for ball markers. 

Jack Dease (basketball): Special socks

It was 1970 and they were my game socks for basketball. My mother had knitted a maroon stripe around the top. So I wore them every game I played in high school. The game I remember most is a game against the Road Kings that visited at the Yarmouth high school. They were like the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Julien Boudreau (hockey coach): The mighty pen

Obvious I have ones that everyone does, I don’t utter the words shutout. I don’t say, ‘We got this,’ with 2 minutes left. Weird ones I have are a lucky tie and lucky shirt, which changes every season. And I have a thing for pens. If I have a pen that we are on a winning streak with I will ensure it stays in my jacket. As soon as we lose I throw it out! 

Chuck Smith (basketball): Repetition the key

My ritual before each game was to try to think about what situations the game might present and how I would handle each one. So mental preparation was very important to me. Another pregame ritual for me was getting in the gym before each game, working on shots that I would get in a game, and to work on foul shooting. I also did have a ritual at the foul line, doing the same routine each time. Making certain my feet were square to the hoop and my elbow was touching my side and always picking a spot on the rim before I shot my foul shot. I would do this every time I went to the foul line. I would to do this a least a half-hour before a game and also the day before in the gym by myself. I always prepared that way before the game. So for me, it was always about practice and more practice, doing the same thing over and over, but trying do it better each time.

Abbey Wickens (softball): Too lucky to part with

Before every ball tournament I eat bread with peanut butter because we won regionals when I did that and I’ve had the same ball cleats all my years because I think they’re lucky even though they’re falling apart.

Gerry Digout (BMHS rugby coach): Barons on three!

My rugby girls do their chant before every game – it has never NOT been done. I cannot imagine how badly things would go if they did not do the chant. They form a circle, bent over and arms around each other like a big group hug, start whispering "who, who, who" and slowly get louder until they are shouting, and then the captain yells "Barons on three!". Everyone shouts "One, two, three Barons!" And then we go play formidable rugby.
Even now as a coach, just as when I was a player, I have to tie my left shoe before my right shoe, before a game.

Cindy Robicheau (triathlon): Words of wisdom

My race buddy (Kathryn) and I began a ritual we started the night before our first long-distance triathlon.  A mutual friend had sent us what we have called “our words of wisdom” in an email and we have read it so many times since that first long-distance race that we have a shortened version memorized. It has always helped me stay in the moment and not worry about the long hours and km I need to complete. We began this ritual in 2002 and have raced together in various places around the world, and even if we don’t attend the same races, we always send each other our “words of wisdom.”

When I coach athletes and prepare them for their own races, I always share these words: Swim: buoy to buoy. Cycle: aid station to aid station. Run: water stop to water stop.

Coach Jevon Doane (BMHS basketball coach): Always leave on a high

One thing I do always encourage the boys to do before a game or after a practice is to make sure their last shot goes in – never leave on a miss. In terms of pre-game, I think it depends on the team. Some kids have secret handshakes they like to get in before tip off and some kids like to sit in a specific spot on the bench – but other than that, nothing too specific.

Nate Wickens (BMHS athlete): Stick with routine

In basketball “make 10 short shots each side of the hoop then 1 three pointer from each corner and the middle.” In baseball “tap the plate 2X then adjust helmet”

Aaron Nickerson (golf): Summoning luck

I don’t really have a ritual but I always say “Al Blades” if I need sum luck on an errant shot. Nancy (his wife) gave me his keychain for good luck when he passed away. He was lucky as a leprechaun at everything. A great man all around.”

Ginny Smith (former longtime swim coach): Set goals, focus

As a coach, I taught the athletes and had them practise regularly these actions. We start goal-setting at the beginning of the season. We encourage athletes to select music that they want to listen to that either calms them  and or helps them focus or excites them. We teach them to count down from 10, breathing in and out with each breath. We ask them to visualize their performance. After the race we ask them to evaluate what they have done well and what they want to improve.

Frank Grant (baseball): Controlling the game

In my pitching days, I was always taught that “you control the game when you have the ball,” so if someone was hitting me well, or was a top hitter, I would try to throw their game off and take my time getting signals from my catcher, walk off the mound, rub the ball up, take my time. I know my fielders behind me didn’t like it because it slowed the game down. PS: I think of the late Allen Nickerson, a longtime great with the Yarmouth Gateways. He loved wearing a dirty uniform as his “hits were in them” and he always dug in the box deep with his cleats and would spit on his batting gloves, which were full of pine tar and tobacco juice!

Chris Newell (hockey): Various on-ice routines

When I was captain of the Yarmouth Oland Exports, I would always wear the same undershirt and only wash it when we lost a game. When the team gathered around the goalie before each game, I would always be behind the goal line leaning on the net and be the last one to tap the goalie’s pads prior to the start of the game. If things were going bad, I would ask teammate Wayne Thibeau to re-tape my stick – seemed to work 90 per cent of the time.  He could tape a stick in under 10 seconds and could complete a Rubik's cube with his gloves on in under a minute. As a referee, at the start of each period, I always approach the centre-ice faceoff spot by skating halfway around the circle and approaching from the left side – just a strange superstition.

Mike LeBlanc (baseball, hockey): Ribbing batters, pre-game music

A couple of things I can remember. Being a catcher, I constantly ribbed the batters, not only before the pitch, but while it was being delivered. Don’t know if it took away their concentration, but it kept me active in the game. Also, prior to hockey games, I liked to have a pregame meal with teammates, usually a couple of hours before game time. Usually consisted of steak. I liked to pump myself up before games with music. Seems strange, but I always felt that a dirty uniform or injury meant I was into the game. Like Allen (Nickerson), I didn’t like to be clean.

Keith Bridgeo (baseball): Lefty precautions

I’d always sleep on my left side. I did everything to avoid getting a kink in my pitching arm. That’s the only quirky thing I could think of, other than visualization stuff. I always tried to protect my arm. I’d change shirts sometimes in the summer three times because I’d soak and get sweaty and then if it was real cold, I’d wear a long-sleeve shirt. When I see guys go out and pitch in the fog with a T-shirt, it makes by teeth chill. As for visualization, I remember saying to myself, ‘I want to be a Gateway someday ... and I want to play senior baseball. Someday I want to stand on the same mound that those guys were on.’ I was lucky in my lifetime to accomplish that on almost every ballfield I played on. I turned out to have a lot of success.

Bryan Hipson (running, triathlon): It’s just another race

For races, especially the really big ones (e.g. international Ironmans or marathons), I try not to let my nerves get the better of me and just say something like "It's just another [… Ironman, marathon, etc.]).” I just remind myself that this is not what defines me and that I just want to do my best and enjoy the event. I do have one practice that's more of a daily routine rather than pre-race or race-day ritual. At the end of a day in the office and whatever training I have to fit in, I always have a hot "sauna" bath (20 minutes) and then ice-cold shower. That's not for everyone. I've been doing this for many years. I think it helps with the many aches and pains that come with high-intensity running training.

Jordan Hamilton (hockey coach): Game face

I guess the only thing, which is weird, is I try to never smile when our team scores because I'm superstitious that somehow my excitement will inhibit us from getting any more goals. So the angrier I look the better we play.

Rituals are okay if kept in perspective, mental performance consultant says

By Eric Bourque

It’s great to have a certain song on your smartphone that pumps you up before a game or competition, but what if your phone’s not working or you left it at home?

It’s fine if you feel wearing a particular jersey brings you good luck, but what if you forgot to pack it and you have to wear a different one for a change?

It’s good to have a pre-game routine that puts you in a positive frame of mind and makes you feel ready for the task ahead, but what if, for whatever reason, you have to stray a bit from what you’re accustomed to doing?

Tina DeRoo, a mental performance consultant with the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic in Halifax, says rituals are OK, provided people don’t get too caught up in them or become dependent on them.

“From a sport psychology perspective, we want people to be able to create positive thoughts that are going to help them in performance,” she says, “but we want to connect it to something that is more permanent, (where) they’re not reliant on external circumstances or objects.”

So, for instance, if someone has a song they like to listen to or a video they watch in order to psyche themselves up, but maybe one day they don’t have access to their iPhone, it shouldn’t be a big deal, DeRoo says.

“What we could teach an athlete to do is, over time, just be able to bring up that song in their mind,” she says. “The better I can get at the skill ... the more I’m reliant on myself and my own mind, which is kind of the point of sport psychology, to bring that responsibility (for their performance) back to the athlete, bring it within them.”

Of course, from the world of big-league sports, there have been all kinds or rituals, some more offbeat than others.

Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs was known for his pre-game chicken meals. Michael Jordan would wear his University of North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform. Another Chicago sports great – goalie Glenn Hall – had a more bizarre routine, reportedly making himself vomit before hockey games.

For some athletes, a pre-game ritual might simply entail being the last to leave the locker room before taking the field or the court or hitting the ice.

“That’s all well and fine as long as that can happen,” DeRoo says, “but we can’t all leave last. We can’t all leave first. So there’s kind of the logistical complications of that and there’s no evidence to say that you leaving first or last is going to impact the outcome.”

In her position with the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic, DeRoo works with mostly provincial-level athletes and sport organizations, teaching them about how the mind works and about how they can use it to help them in competition “because everyone has an example – if not multiple examples – of how their thoughts have hurt them in competition,” she says.

And if you have rituals? Music that gets you fired up? A routine that’s familiar and comfortable? A lucky pair of socks?

“It’s not necessarily problematic,” DeRoo says. “It just depends on how rigid or flexible you are.”

In other words, if your phone isn’t handy or you neglected to pack the footwear that seems to bring good fortune, it shouldn’t be an issue.

“It’s no worries because my performance is dependent on me and my thoughts and I can create those thoughts regardless,” she says.

Yarmouth hockey player Allie Munroe has a long and impressive hockey résumé that has spanned minor and major hockey, provincial teams, the national stage, university and now professional hockey overseas.

There is no doubt that hard work, skill, talent, athleticism, determination and other qualities have gotten Munroe, 22, and who plays defence, to where she is and where she’s been.

But has she also gotten help along the way from some rituals and superstitions too?

“Some of my own experiences with superstitions have changed throughout my playing career,” says Munroe, who was happy to share some of them with the Tri-County Vanguard as part of a newsroom sports feature on rituals and superstitions.

“A typical game day always includes taping both of my sticks before every game. I put my game stick with the blade side up away from others,” she says. “I make sure I have water and a sports drink in my stall to have during warmups and the game. Before on-ice warmups I splash water on my face and my hair. In on-ice warmups my roommate and I always pass to each other at a certain time and at the end of warmups I make sure I put a puck in the net before I leave the ice.”

When it comes to games, there are certain things she always does too. “Before each period I squirt water down my neck and if I am starting the game I tap my stick twice on the ice before I go into my hockey stance,” says Munroe, adding that until she thought about it for this story, all of these things she does she doesn’t even notice anymore.

“It might be weird to be so specific, but they have all just become habits at this point rather than superstitions,” she says. “It’s crazy. I never really thought about it and how many weird things that I do until now!”

Munroe spent four years playing hockey at Syracuse University in the United States. In her sophomore season in 2016-2017 she earned the College Hockey America (CHA) Best Defenceman title, along with All-Conference First Team honors. Over the years at Syracuse she was a member of the athletic director’s honour roll and was named to conference and tournament all-star teams. In her 2018-2019 senior year, when she was co-captain of her team, she was named CHA Best Defenceman for the second time in her career and was also an All-CHA First Team selection.

This hockey season Munroe is overseas, playing with Djurgarden, a professional women’s hockey team in Sweden. In the past she has also taken part in the selection camp process for the Canadian National Women’s Development Team and at the time of this interview was hoping to get a call up once again for one of Hockey Canada’s women’s series teams or the world championship team. 

Meanwhile, whether there are new or different sports rituals in her future remains to be seen, but she does mention a fun one she and her teammates had while she was playing hockey at Syracuse.

“At home games we would play dodgeball in our locker room. We would do defense and goalies versus the forwards,” she says. “This was not a friendly game and would often get very intense. But it was always something to look forward to and it got the competitive spirits up before we even stepped on the ice.”

Many people have rituals or superstitions when it comes to sports, including some of the biggest names in the pros.

The following are some examples from the world of professional sports involving either current or retired athletes:

Wayne Gretzky

The greatest hockey player ever, Wayne Gretzky would, among other things, apply baby powder to the blade of his stick. Explaining this practice, he was quoted as saying it was “a matter of taking care of what takes care of you.” He also would put his uniform on in a certain order and would fire his first warm-up shot wide right of the net.

Patrick Roy

One of the greatest goalies in NHL history, Patrick Roy’s rituals included talking to his goalposts, reportedly thanking them when a puck was deflected off them. He also had a habit of skating backwards towards the net prior to games. Roy is the only player to win the Conn Smythe trophy as Stanley Cup playoff MVP three times.

Serena Williams

Tennis great Serena Williams is said to have a number of rituals. Among other things, she reportedly has a specific way of tying her shoes, will bounce the ball five times before her first serve and twice before her second and will stick with the same pair of socks during a tournament as long as she’s winning.

Michael Jordan

Basketball’s all-time greatest player, Michael Jordan starred at the University of North Carolina before joining the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. As a pro, Jordan would wear UNC shorts under his Bulls shorts.

Larry Walker

A former baseball great who started his big-league career in his home country of Canada – with the Montreal Expos – Larry Walker had a thing for the number three. He wore number 33 and happened to be a three-time MLB batting champion.

Wade Boggs

Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who spent most of his big-league career with the Boston Red Sox, was known for his pre-game chicken meals. He even wrote a chicken cookbook titled Fowl Tips: My Favourite Chicken Recipes.

Glenn Hall

Some rituals are a little stranger than others. Hall of Fame netminder Glenn Hall had an odd pre-game routine where he reportedly would make himself throw up.

Moises Alou

Another unusual practice is attributed to former Major League Baseball player Moises Alou, who is said to have urinated on his hands during the baseball season in order to toughen them. Other major leaguers reportedly have done the same thing.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Travel superstitions are among the rituals for Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best and most famous soccer players in the world. When flying to a game, he reportedly wants to be the first to disembark. On a bus, however, he prefers to sit at the back and be the last to exit the vehicle.

Brian Urlacher

One of the great former Chicago Bear linebackers, Brian Urlacher is said to have eaten two chocolate chip cookies before every game. Corey Nachman of Business Insider said you could call Urlacher the Cookie Monster of the Midway (a reference to the Bears being known, collectively, as the Monsters of the Midway).

(NOTE: Sources for this story included Business Insider, DailySportX and Sports Retriever.)

It could make the most die-hard hockey fans – hockey moms, included – cringe. Or, depending on the artistry, it could leave the casual bystander in awe or confusion.

Green, blue, red and every variation of blond that existed – and even the variations of blond that shouldn’t exist.

There were fauxhawks and mullets and things that didn’t really fall into any category. And sometimes there were shaved numbers and team logos. I even once saw a checkerboard.

These were the annual tournament, provincial and playoff hairdos I remember from the years my kids played hockey.

I never really understood how a weekend or a few weeks of a new hairdo (followed by months of bad hair as you waited for things to return to normal) could make a difference on the ice. But apparently it did.

I’ll never forgot the season my oldest son was in his second year of atom hockey and the entire Yarmouth Mariners team declared – since nothing had worked to that point – that our only shot at finally defeating the Shelburne Flames was for the entire team to dye their hair green.

I remember the phone call as I was getting ready to leave Greenwood to head home from a hockey game, the day before our next game with the Flames. “We’re at the Pharmasave in Bridgetown and we’ve found green hair dye!” I was told by a very excited hockey dad. By the time the puck dropped the next day the majority of our team had gone green. Not that you could notice under their helmets – except for the kids who got really, really sweaty and the dye ran down their face and neck.

Not only was this plan not very well thought out, but I’m pretty certain we still lost.

I have always found sports rituals and superstitions interesting and amusing. Back in his bantam AA hockey days, my oldest son Jacob had a lucky Bauer t-shirt he always wore during their warm-ups prior to games. And a teammate wore a specific Under Armour shirt belonging to my son.

“We were losing when I was wearing the other shirt and then I started wearing this shirt and we haven’t lost since,” he explained to me.

“It’s just a shirt,” I said. “No,” he insisted. “At school we were playing badminton and me and a friend were winning when I was wearing the Bauer shirt. Then I put on the Under Armour shirt and we lost three games in a row.”

What could I say? That scientific anomaly was enough to convince me that one shirt was lucky and the other was cursed.

Of course he had to wear the Bauer shirt.

I remember being at our league tournament later in the season telling our coach in a panic, “Jacob can’t find the shirt!” By then everyone was aware of the good luck charm. “Don’t worry, he’ll find it,” said our coach, although I could tell he too was concerned. We finally determined Jacob had left the shirt in the closet of our hotel, which was just across the parking lot.

“You’re going to go get it, right?” said our coach, although I was probably already on my way out the door before he even finished his question.

That same hockey season we were at a tournament in Dartmouth. When we weren’t at the rink the boys on the team – their bad blond hair and all – had been collecting tickets at the arcade of the movie theatre next to our hotel. The night before our semifinal game they showed up at the hotel with the largest stuffed Hello Kitty I had ever seen.

Not only was I told this is what 2,000 arcade tickets would get you, “This is our new team mascot,” the boys proudly proclaimed.

At our semifinal game they dressed Hello Kitty in a team jersey, had her participate in the warmup, took a team photo with her and brought her onto the bench during the game.

But after we lost the game the affection for our new team mascot quickly soured, which I discovered when I went into the dressing room and saw stuffing all over the floor lying next to Hello Kitty’s torn-off head. Or, as they referred to her now, ‘Goodbye Thanks-for-Nothing Kitty.’

Needless to say, she didn’t make the trip to provincials with us.

P.S. We should have beaten Cumberland. (Inside joke.)