Folklore Audio Essay

The speaker describes their experience playing club basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They discuss the excitement, pressure, and camaraderie of being part of a team. They interview teammates about their pre-game rituals, which often involve listening to music. The speaker reflects on the importance of culture and traditions within the team. They also mention a tournament where the team faced challenges but ultimately rallied together and achieved success. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the strong bond and sense of community within their folk group. The sound of squeaky shoes fills your ears. The sight of competition gets your heart moving a thousand beats per minute. The feeling of wearing your school's name on the front of your jersey gets you pumped up. The nervousness that fills your body because you don't want to let your team down, but the thrill of knowing that you could have the best game of your life makes the eight hour car ride worth it. The excitement and power you feel when you get your first basket or block is unmatched. This is what I felt when I had my first game. This is what club basketball is at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through our shared traditions, growing friendships, and our love for the game of basketball, my folk group exemplifies what it means to be a folk group. My folk group for the semester was the men's club basketball team here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Growing up, I was always playing basketball, whether it was in my driveway, or at practice for my youth team, or at the gym, but I never really had the opportunity to travel and feel the pressure of playing in different gyms across the country. I was late to the party of having pre-game rituals and traditions, so I wanted to reach out to some of my teammates who had more experience and ask what their pre-games looked like. This past year was my first year on the team. We traveled to four different tournaments across the country, along with hosting the annual Nationals tournament here in Madison. During these tournaments, it is common to feel stress and anxiety because you have traveled so far to participate, but now you want to win. I asked my teammate Owen what things he does to calm down, and he said that the music he listens to before games is the biggest factor in his pre-game routine. Before games, it definitely has changed. When I was younger, it was more like, I don't know, high-five music, I guess, but as I've gotten older, I don't know, I feel like I just want to listen to some calming music and kind of just like, I don't know, chill out a little more. I feel like I already still have that energy, that natural energy before games, but it's more just like keeping myself in rhythm and my head on straight. I met Owen this year on the club team, and we have become really good friends. He has had a lot of experience when it comes to basketball because he grew up playing for good programs and against tough competition. His response to this question is similar to a quote I found by Julian Sardin, where in his article, Sports Rituals, What Are They and How Do They Benefit Athletes? He states, quote, By engaging in familiar actions, athletes create a sense of familiarity and control, reducing anxiety and boosting confidence. Repetitive actions, such as specific warm-up exercises or mental imagery, can help athletes enter a state of flow where they perform at their best, end quote. The second person I interviewed was Kieran. I went to high school with Kieran, but he played high school basketball and I did not. He gave a lot of perspective on things I could relate to because we live in the same hometown and this was really cool to see and understand more. When I asked Kieran about some rituals he participated in, he also talked about listening to music and how his music and the teams he plays for's music can make an impact on bonding and working as a team. There's times where I listen to one song, it's like a song that would stick out through my head, I kind of like define it after I've played a few games. I'll remember if it's a song the team listens to on the trip or while we're playing games we kind of like all joke about, like I remember when we played at Purdue, we listened to that one song by Baby Tron certified and we set it as our alarm one day to wake up, which we were like laughing about the next day, but it got us going, like it got us up and we ended up going to the championship of that tournament, so gotta give a little bit of like a shout out for that song. We talked a lot in class and through discussion sections about the concept of culture. Culture, as Ward Goodenough talks about in his article in 1957, Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics, culture provides a sense of purpose to a full group. Culture on our basketball team is a huge part of how we play on the court, therefore it has to mean a lot to its members. As I was talking with my teammates about their experiences and traditions before games, I noticed a common factor of building their rituals based on the team. Being a part of a culture and a team that makes you feel like a better person is an amazing experience. This full group has had a large impact on not only myself, but my teammates as well. After learning more about my teammates' pregame rituals and traditions, I realized that this group is more of a family. On the other hand, when we went to Purdue in early February, we only had seven guys at the actual tournament. We were planning on having ten, but some things fell through. Some guys just couldn't make it. We didn't really know that until the last minute. And then, I guess even more tragically so to speak, somebody else got hurt on our team on the end of the first day, separated his shoulder. So we were down to six guys, so basically starters and one sub. But that didn't really deter us. We actually rallied more around that. We were like, we're playing for you type of thing. Everyone kind of picked it up. The guys had to have a bigger role. So that ended up leading to actually three more wins, and we were really successful the rest of the tournament. So there's good results and there's bad results. Those are some factors. As the many authors state from the article, Factors Influencing Team Performance, quote, team rituals can significantly enhance the cohesiveness, focus, and overall psychological state of sports teams, leading to improved performance, end quote. Being able to build off of one another and rely on your teammates shows how close our folk group is. Making a connection through our common traditions, our love for basketball, and our friendships show how strong of a folk group we have become.