Tag Archives: basketball

Lucky Socks for Basketball

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“So I used to play basketball and when I played well I’d mark my socks, so if I played well I’d always wear the right sock on the right foot until I played bad and then I’d switch them up.”

I think this is a good example of contagious magic. According to my informant, the thinking behind this is that if he plays well with a certain sock configuration, the socks must either be causing the good performance or they must soak up some of the “mojo” of the good game and will lead to good games in the future. However, once he starts playing poorly, it’s obvious that the sock configuration has lost its magic and needs to be reconfigured. This is a way for him to relieve pressure from himself and stay calm in stressful games. If he does well, he will continue to do well thanks to his lucky socks. If he does poorly, it is not because his game is bad, but because his socks are no longer good luck socks and simply need to be changed. By rationalizing his basketball performance like this, my informant is able to stay cool and confident under pressure. Furthermore, the belief is that luck can be recycled, as long as he finds the proper order for his socks.

Jason Kidd’s Free Throw Ritual

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“Even in the NBA, players have superstitions. For example, Jason Kidd, who whenever he shoots a free throw will touch his butt and kiss the crowd before he shoots.”

This ritual is a way of to soothing oneself during a stressful time through repetition of a familiar action. At the same time it is an act of showmanship, directly addressing the audience. Many athletes have rituals that they perform before or after games, as there is a strong belief in luck among them. This makes sense as the outcome of many athletic competitions doesn’t come down purely to skill. There is often a strong element of chance or luck involved in sports, so athletes often feel like luck and ritual is very important.

The idea of using familiar repetitions to relax is also seen when athletes or students choose to wear their “lucky socks” during a competition or exam. Whereas the item probably does not improve a person’s luck, it is often comforting by providing a memory as a souvenir of success.

One-Testicled Basketball Coach

Basketball Coach

Legend/Joke

 

My informant told me a story about the basketball coach at his school:

 

“We had this really mean basketball coach, who would often get angry at students for messing around. He would get all angry and red and would scream at the kids when they acted out of order. The funny thing was, though, that his voice would go really high when he yelled. People thought it was really funny, so it was hard to take him seriously. They would say that he, during a practice, wasn’t watching and got hit in the nuts with a basketball, so he lost a testicle and thats why his voice is so high and he’s so angry all the time — compensating for the missing testicle.”

My informant enjoyed the story and said people brought it up  with their friends whenever the coach got mad at them.

The story is a means of undermining the seriousness of the Coach’s anger, belittling the Coach and empowering the students to battle the coach’s authoritative yelling. Making fun of the coach for having only one testicle, students call him less of a man, using comedy to feel less intimidated by his shouting.

 

Basketball Superstition: Rolaids and Army Socks

Interview Extraction:

Informant: “So growing up I played basketball, and my dad was a basketball coach. And basketball was the most important thing in my life. I played basketball- I was like Jack across the street, I played basketball every day. Every year, every day I would be out shooting hoops and what not. I was pretty good, I was a good shooter. But shooters are very superstitious and there was a certain amount of you get hot, and you don’t get hot, right? Where your shooting is off, so you have good nights and you have bad nights. Well, part of that is psychological.  So my dad, my dad who was the coach, he had a really nervous stomach. And so he would buy not rolls, but boxes of Rolaids. These white tablets, and he kept them in this brown cardboard box with no writing on it. So the players would notice that Coach Paul had these, so he got the idea that he would tell his players that these were shooting pills that would help you shoot the ball better. And so, it became a big joke, but he used to hand them out before the game to everyone and they were the quote “magical” pills. And everyone knew that they probably weren’t, but we all felt like it was good luck to eat one of Coach Paul’s Rolaids before the game to help our shooting. So I became very superstitious, I always had to have a Rolaid before every game. And my socks, my Pete Maravich socks. Pete Maravich was a great basketball player who died very young. His dad was also a basketball coach, and he wore these grey old army socks. And he was a great player, and he wore these baggy old army socks that he was always wiping his hands on. And uh, so I bought some and I had some baggy grey army socks and I used to wear them because Pete wore them.”

Analysis:

As an athlete, there is a tremendous pressure to do well.  While the outcome of the game is largely from the collective or individual effort of the players, there is a psychological necessity to create familiarity and order in your sport so that your mind remains calm and focused during the game.  To create a sense of peace, athletes have come up with many different rituals to perform before the event so that their mind becomes free of anxiety and focused on what they need to do.  This can be a number of things that vary on the sport or individual, such as taking time to stretch by yourself before running a race or picturing yourself doing well during the game.  This kind of homeopathic thinking is also very common in basketball.

The superstitions my informant mentioned are ones that are unique to him, though I have heard of similar rituals in my research such as basketball players having a lucky pair of shoes they always wear for a game.  The Rolaid superstition serves as two functions. One, it is a unique tradition that the Arcata High School basketball team shared during the time my informant played that created a sense of community with the players by having this ritual.  This sense of community is important with playing in a sport that relies on the collective effort of a team.  The second function is that the Rolaids are part of a homeopathic magic that helps the players get into the mind-set that they will succeed.  Having a winning attitude is an integral part of performing well in any sport.

The other superstition involving the Pete Maravich socks is also a form of homeopathic magic.  The informant believed that by wearing the same kind of socks Pete Maravich wore, he would be able to perform as well as Pete Maravich.  Thus creating the same kind of winning attitude that the Rolaid ritual gave to the players.  While my informant no longer plays on a basketball team, he has taken his sock superstition with him into his professional life.  He once mentioned to me that he has a favorite pair of socks he likes to wear for important business presentations.  In this sense he is using the ritual he learned as a basketball player to create a winning attitude in business, which is also integral to successful proposals or negotiations.

My informant was born in 1957 Arcata, California to a high school basketball coach and his wife.  After earning his undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of California, Davis, he moved to southern California to obtain his MBA in business from the University of Southern California.  He now a partner at Ernst & Young. He lives in Manhattan Beach, CA with his wife and has two children.

Ritual – American

When at the free throw line- 3 dribbles and a deep breath then shoot

My informant grew up playing and watching basketball, so it would make sense that he would play for his middle and upper school basketball teams.  Since my informant grew up watching basketball, he saw many different players approach the free throw line every game and do something before they let the ball out of their hands for the shot.  After watching basketball for many years, my informant developed his own technique.  It is common for players to dribble the ball and then shoot, but my informant added his own touch, “the deep breath.”  He said the reason for this method before shooting a free throw is to “give me a method before each shot to get a rhythm and make sure all free throws are consistent.”  Moreover, it is obvious that this method is done while the informant gets fouled and goes to the free throw line.

The reason why this ritual is so important in my informant’s world today is because he loves basketball.  Whether it is going outside on a warm day to play a pick-up game or just watching a game on ESPN, my informant just loves being a part of the game of basketball.  He grew up as a huge fan of the NBA, so it makes complete sense that basketball means so much to his life.  Even though his favorite hobby is music, he loves doing anything involving basketball.

When I interview my informant, I asked him what he thought of this free throw ritual and he said “it works and as long as it keeps my head in the game I will continue to use it.  My view on this ritual is that it is an extremely good idea, because basketball is such a complicated sport that one needs a certain ritual on a free throw.  If one doesn’t have a set ritual, it makes the game that much more confusing.  The free throw is the one part of the game that allows one to pause for a few seconds and take everything in.  You are standing at a line to shoot two free shots with no one guarding you, and because of this it helps to have a ritual to make this situation a calm one.