Pole Knocks (Drew Clutterbuck)

Title: Pole Knocks

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

H.T. is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2023 who is majoring in economics. He was born and raised in Oslo, Norway and began skiing at the age of 5. He began skiing competitively at the age of 8. He is currently competing on the varsity alpine skiing team at Dartmouth College.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Alpine skiing is the sport of racing down a snowy mountain on skis. While racing, with timed runs, a competitor holds two poles that they use for balance as well as propulsion at the beginning of the run. Whoever gets down the mountain quickest through a set course wins.
Social Context: This folklore was collected at Baker Library when asking the informant if he had any superstitions. It first originated around ten years ago when he noticed his other teammates had a pre-race routine, which typically consisted of knocking poles together in some sort of fashion. This originated when he felt he had to do something to get him more focused for the race.

Item:

Before each race, the informant knocks his poles together three times, and then knocks himself in the head twice. This will make him race better.

Transcript:

“Around 10 to 15 seconds before I go, I have to, with my poles, knock them together three times and then knock my head two times. This is just to say ‘ok we’re going now, this is race time.’ This came when I felt I had to do something else because I felt that I wasn’t focused enough for races, so this would get me into the zone.”

Informant’s Comments:

“This doesn’t really make me any better physically, but it puts me in the right mental state so that I believe I do perform better.”

Collector’s Comments:

I think this is interesting because it is less about luck and more about just being focused and in the moment so that he skis better.

Collector’s Name: Drew Clutterbuck

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive