Individual, team rituals keys to success

by Lindsey Elling and Laurie Duffy
Staff Writers

Anyone who watched the men’s swimming events at the 2000 summer Olympic games in Sydney, Australia last year, might have realized the importance of a standard pre-meet ritual.

American Olympic team swimmer Gary Hall Jr. strutted onto the pool deck before his race sporting red, white and blue trunks, throwing punches at an imaginary opponent. The shadow boxing might support the swimmer’s approach to pre-meet preparations — personal preferences matter.

While Athens is not on the same level as Sydney, Ohio swimmers and divers have their own rituals that get them psyched for events.

Listening to music is a popular ritual that many members of the Ohio swim team take part in. Prior to entering the pool deck, the women’s team cranks up the music in the locker room while some men employ the use of headphones to listen to their tunes in solitude.

“Before the coach comes in, we turn the music up and talk to each other and try to get each other psyched up,” Ohio swimmer Trisha Kessler said.

Getting psyched up is one thing for Ohio swimmers, but not getting psyched out is another. Ohio swimmer and team captain Jonathan Friend said he adheres to the same superstitions before each race.

“I listen to music and try and do the same types of things before each meet, like eat the same type of food, and wear the same type of t-shirt,” he said.

Even though swimming and diving might be predominately an individual sport, swimmers feed off energy from each other while Ohio coach Greg Werner and the captains provide the bulk of the leadership.

Both the captains and Werner give the team things to think about as they prepare, such as respect for opponents and being ready to go when their event is called, Werner said.

“We always have a team meeting and go over the line-up and as a team they clap when they announce each event,” he said. “We talk about getting better from competition to competition, learning from the past and making yourself better.”

At the conclusion of every meet, the team gathers on the pool deck to discuss the reactions to their performances and reflect about what direction the team is headed for the next competition.

“Coach runs down what his general impressions of the meet were and runs down what’s next and where we go from there,” Friend said. “Coach recognizes the team and at the end, we do our ‘Ohio’ cheer.”