General Information About Item:
- Verbal Lore, Warmup Ritual, Chant
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: Kyle Schubert
- Date Collected: November 2nd, 2021
Informant Data:
Kyle Schubert is a twenty-year-old male from Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He is currently on a men’s varsity team at Dartmouth College, and formerly competed for Ridge High School prior to his induction into the world of college athletics. Presently, he attends Dartmouth and is seeking a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in conjunction with forwarding his athletic career.
Contextual Data:
Kyle Schubert participates in varsity athletics at Dartmouth, which has a long and storied history of tradition and excellence in the weight room. Being a member of a large athletics team, he has access to the Floren Varsity House Athletic Facility, colloquially known as just Floren. A self-described amateur powerlifter, Mr. Schubert takes full advantage of the wide variety of training facilities and strength & conditioning expertise that the coaches provide. It is normal for loud music to play during lifting sessions and teammates chanting to hype each other up. In this context, many teams come together either right before or after a scheduled lift to say some sort of phrase and words of encouragement.
Item:
During his scheduled team lift, the normal procedure would be to perform a brief warmup and stretching prior to using actual weights. Right before setting up the squat rack, however, athletes are usually called by their captains to congregate and put their arms together in a circle. According to Kyle, this is then later proceeded by a chant, often times “Go Big Green,” “GBG,” or some variation of the school’s athletics mascot. The purpose of this chant is to energize the lift group before a tough session and build a sense of team comradery.
Collector’s Comments:
I thought this pre-lift warmup ritual to be super interesting and highlights how lifting is an important part of team culture. Weight room training largely reflects work done “behind the scenes” of actual games and tournaments, showing us how integral it is to finding success in football as well as many other sports.
Collector’s Name: Jonathan Hu
Tags/Keywords:
- Verbal Lore
- Warmup Ritual
- Chant
- Athletics
- Lifting