We can all probably impersonate our favorite baseball player as he walks up to the mound, or know our basketball heroes’ movements before they take a free throw shot or maybe it’s a quarterback before he takes the field (oh hey Tim Tebow). Everyone has a signature move, something he or she must do before they take a shot, serve the ball and dive into the pool. Have you ever seen Kevin Youkilis before he bats, he’s got one great stance. But we’re not here to talk about the stance, we’re here to talk about the specific things players and athletes do before they can compete.
Many of our favorite athletes have rituals.
Some baseball players adjust their gloves and have to perfect their stance, some even have to draw something in the sand by the batter’s box. For many athletes from across all sports, their pregame rituals revolve around food, whether it be a certain thing they have to eat or drink before the game or during the game. Some revolve around music and having to hear a specific song or artists, others have to reenact an action, and some athletes just have weird obsessions that really puzzle us.
Some have superstitions and rituals they have to follow if they’re in a slump, and those have even passed on to others.
Some of these rituals are more famous than others, like Michael Phelps’ pre-swim headphones and arm flapping, others, like favorite foods before each game or Serena Williams’ socks, are less known to the public.
Regardless of what they are and whether or not we’re aware of them, we hope they keep at it and keep working so our favorite players can continue to succeed. Here they are, the 31 most unique pregame rituals followed by athletes throughout history:
[post_page_title]Michael Jordan[/post_page_title]
The GOAT, Michael Jordan, also has his own superstitions and pre game rituals, perhaps that’s what helped him win six NBA titles, six Finals MVP awards and five regular season MVPs. So what is it so other people can mimic? Jordan would wear two pairs of basketball shorts. Obviously he’d wear his white or red Bulls shorts, but underneath he’d wear UNC shorts from his college days. Is that why he couldn’t get into the majors in baseball? There isn’t much room for another pair of pants underneath those.
