Title: Visualization
General Information about Item:
- customary lore, personal
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: JS
- Date Collected 10/22/21
Informant Data:
- Male, 20 years old, Born in New Jersey, Currently living in Hanover, NH
- JS is a 400 hurdler on The Dartmouth Track Team
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: Track competitions are often as much mental as physical, especially the field events and hurdles. Since track is an individual sport there is a lot of self-motivated pressure on an athlete to do well. Messing up only leaves ourself to blame so mental training is common in this sport.
- Social Context: During a track meet unlike the field events, sprinters and hurdlers only have one shot at their race. Hurdles can be mentally challenging as it is easy to mess up the rhythm and get hurt/loose the race.
Item:
- JS has a certain visualization routine before every meet where he focuses on the feeling of running and successfully timing up each hurdle jump. He claims that it calms his pre-meet nerves and helps boost his confidence for a good race. He said that he learned this method from an older teammate in high school and has been doing it since.
Informant Comments/Quotes:
- “I always have to visualize myself running the race the day before the meet.” -JS
Collector Comments:
- Visualization is a common practice among track athletes because of how mentally challenging the sport can be. Although this practice is somewhat personal, I can personally verify, as a member of the track team, that this practice is extremely common especially at Dartmouth.
Collected By: Chloe Taylor