Many athletes have a ritual they perform before competition. But why is that? In this episode of If I’m Honest, Julia Landauer explores why pre-competition rituals are so important for performance. Julia shares research from the University of Toronto that explains the effects rituals have on brain activity, she hypothesizes what happens if we don’t perform our rituals, and describes her own pre-race rituals. Julia also reached out to some of her racer friends to hear their pre-race rituals, which they generously shared via voice recordings.

NASCAR crew member pre-race ritual TikTok referenced: https://www.tiktok.com/@nascar/video/7350349479742164267?lang=en

University of Toronto study referenced: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5452956/

Thank you to the drivers who shared their pre-race rituals:
Katherine Legge: https://www.instagram.com/katherineracing/
John Edwards: https://www.instagram.com/_john.eddy/
Zach Herrin: https://www.instagram.com/zach.herrin/
Rajah Caruth: https://www.instagram.com/rajahcaruth_/

Learn more about Julia Landauer at https://julialandauer.com/