Ritual in Viral Video

A lot happened at the eighth stop of the 2018 IAAF Diamond League in Lausanne, Switzerland last week, like Shelby Houlihan becoming the fourth-fastest woman in the 1500 meters, for example. And while the men’s 200-meter race was intensely close (Noah Lyles won by a mere 0.19 seconds), the prerace rituals of University of Southern California teammates Michael Norman and Rai Benjamin caught our (and the Twitterverse’s) attention.

The video, shared on Twitter, went viral—with over 95,000 views—and shows Norman and Benjamin walk up to their starting blocks, hit both of their thighs, clap three times, and stretch their hamstrings.

“Every member of the USC men’s track and field team does the same ‘ritual’ before we get in the blocks,” says Caryl Smith Gilbert, director of track and field coach at USC. “We believe in doing the same thing every single time we race because when nothing changes, we can control race elements easier.”

Gilbert’s got a point. Experts agree that a prerace ritual has plenty of mental benefits.

“The mental side is mostly a self-hypnosis,” says former pro runner Julia Lucas, coach for Nike Run Club. “Every time those sprinters step on that track, they probably do the same thing in practice and in races. They work themselves into this rhythm so that a very big race that might make them nervous won’t unsettle them. It allows them to do what they’ve been trained to do without the pesky business of nerves and self-doubt.”

In other words, controlling what you do before a race helps put you in the mindset to control what happens during the race.

That said, don’t just adopt this routine as your own, cautions Janet Hamilton, owner of Atlanta-based Running Strong, which offers coaching and rehabilitation services to runners. The final move is a ballistic hamstring stretch, which uses bouncing or momentum to force the muscle beyond its natural range of motion.

This type of stretching is fine for athletes trained in explosive movement like sprinters, but it isn't safe or recommended for all athletes, Lucas says. If you're not properly trained, it can even cause injury. She also notes that sprinters like Norman and Benjamin spend a lot of time warming up before the race—they’d never just step onto the track and do that routine cold.