Many athletes, including our fellow Apaches, have traditions they do right before or during a game. For example:

1. Before dance performances, my friends and I always watch the practice videos and hum along to the song.
2. Boys Varsity Volleyball is planning to start doing the Haka dance, which shows a group’s strength and unity, before their games.
3. Boys Basketball has a tradition of dressing formally when they have a game.

High school students aren’t the only ones who have rituals. Lots of famous athletes have equally, if not more, eccentric superstitions.

1. Serena Williams does not change her socks during a tournament.
2. Michael Jordan wore his UNC shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for every NBA game.
3. Tiger Woods has always worn a red shirt on Sunday competitions because his mother once told him it was his power color.
4. NHL players grow out their beards until they win the Stanley Cup or are eliminated. Some players in other sports also follow this superstition.
5. Babe Ruth always stepped on second base when jogging in from right field and also refused to let others borrow a bat from him.
6. NASCAR competitors believe that peanut shells are bad luck, so peanuts are sold without shells at or around NASCAR competitions.
7. Richie Ashburn, a Hall of Fame slugger, would take his bat with him after a game because he didn’t think that the equipment managers would be able to keep his separate from others’ and sometimes kept a space open in his bed just for the bat.
8. Players who appeared on the Madden cover faced a collapse of their career.
9. NHL Hall of Famer Glen Hall threw up before most games because he did not feel like he was giving it his all if he didn’t do so.
10. NHL goaltender Patrick Roy believed that talking to net posts would help keep opposing players from scoring.
11. NBA athlete Mike Bibby had a habit of picking at his nails during timeouts. To solve this, someone on the sideline would hand him a pair of nail cutters every time he stepped off the court during a time-out.
12. Jason Terry, another NBA athlete, follows numerous superstitions. He wears five pairs of socks and shorts of the next day’s opponent and eats chicken before every game.
13. NHL forward Bruce Gardiner used to dunk the blade of his stick into the locker room toilet before coming out to play.

From the successful careers of many of these athletes, they may be onto something with their rituals, strange as they may be.