Every Athlete’s Pre-Game Ritual
Toastmaster Speech - Presented on 30/08/2025
Every athlete’s pre-game ritual is a kind of spell. Today we call it physiology. Back then, we called it spirituality.
The year is 424 BCE. We are at Mt. Olympia. Among the athletes about to compete stands Doricus of Rhodes. Before him lies a sacrificial boar, its throat freshly cut in offering to Zeus Horkios. Doricus lays his hand upon the sacred animal and swears an oath—that he has trained faithfully and will compete with honor under Zeus’s gaze. He believes the sacrifice will give him the strength to win. And indeed, Zeus listens, and Doricus wins the 83rd Olympic Games.
Now, did this pre-competition ritual actually put the odds in his favor?
What we do know is that pre-game rituals are still used today, though the style and language have changed slightly. This practice, this anomaly is still common among high-performing athletes who seem to receive some “magical” benefit from it.
By definition, a ritual is a solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.
Take Rafael Nadal: his ritual begins before the first serve. He never steps on the lines when walking onto the court. He places his water bottles beside his chair so the labels face the side of the court he is playing on, aligned in perfect order. And before every serve, he goes through the same sequence adjusting his shorts, tucking his hair, bouncing the ball, then striking.
LeBron James begins every game with his chalk toss. He scoops powder into his hands, claps into the air, and lets the white cloud raise a signal to himself and the crowd that the performance is about to begin.
And just recently, a friend I made with a Muay Thai athlete I met in koh phangan who would engrave his name in the sand, be in mindful thought and rub it out before each fight.
If you’re anything like me, this touches the very deepest areas of your curiosity & spirituality. Think about it? an intimate, personal performance designed to give oneself extra power to overcome the obstacles of competition.
But is it backed by evidence and science?
Studies show that rituals give athletes a sense of control and reduce anxiety. For example, the muay thai athlete explained, “It means whatever the outcome, it’s no longer in my control but belongs to destiny.” Rituals reduce the anxiety of “what ifs.”
There’s also the rhythm of routine, which creates focus and concentration. This certainty can counterbalance the inherent uncertainty of competition. Nadal said, “ It's a way to put myself in the match to command my environment, to match the order I'm looking for in my head. Each ritual has defined their way to help me concentrate.
Finally, rituals can build psychological confidence and momentum. Athletes may link their habits to previous wins, viewing them as a confidence booster. However, this can be double-edged: some athletes feel helpless without their ritual if they cannot complete it. If the ritual is intangible and always accessible, it avoids this pitfall.
Interestingly, pre-game ritualistic behavior is most common among people at the top of their fields those living a life of Ikigai.
Ikigai literally means “the worth or value of life.” It refers to the intersection of:
What you love
What you are good at
What the world needs
What you can be paid for
When you are operating at this frequency, you reach a point of synergy and high performance in your skill. The beauty of the pre-game ritual is that it’s entirely personal. It comes from spending immense time working on a skill, noticing the intricate habits that benefit you, in time you notice and create a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. It’s something that emerges only from action.
This got me thinking about Toastmasters and public speaking competitions. They hold the same pressures as sports and can benefit from pre-performance rituals just as much. So I asked some of the best speakers I know about their rituals or, let’s say, habits. Eric and Sophie are both my mentors at Toastmaster and the best speakers I know personally.
Eric’s rituals include:
Physical prep - staying hydrated, exercising, going for a swim, eating light meals.
Vocal prep - voice warm-ups.
Mental prep - rehearsing mentally, minimizing reliance on notes.
Emotional prep - deliberately inducing nerves to harness adrenaline.
Environmental prep - arriving early, visualizing success.
While he may not call them rituals, they are repeatable habits designed to put him in the right state—exactly what a ritual is in performance psychology.
Sophie’s pre-speech rituals are structured, focused, and intentional:
Physical/voice prep - singing aloud in the car to warm up.
Mental prep - rehearsing the opening, closing, and top three points aloud.
Emotional prep - smiling and imagining warmth and human connection.
Check-in summary - a mental checklist: voice tuned, mind/heart aligned, message impactful
Both pre-game rituals are tailored to their individual style, however, are a series of actions performed in a prescribed order designed to get them into flow and peak state.
Now, if you’re Eric or Sophie, killing a sacrificial boar and pledging an oath to Zeus may not help your performance, but what we have found is that spending enough time taking action and performing your craft allows you to develop habits, build a structured system, and create a personal pre-game ritual.
This strategy combines spirituality and physiology, meeting you at the intersection of action and flow.
So everyone take action and find your pre-game ritual.