Luck is what happens. Superstition is magical thinking. Ritual is preparation.
In 1881, a group called the Thirteen Club staged a dinner on the 13th, in Room 13, with 13 crawfish, 13 candles, 13 toasts. Above them hung a banner.
Nos Mortituri te Salutamus.
“We who are about to die salute you.”
They walked under ladders indoors, spilled salt, smashed mirrors, stepped on cracks. They flouted every superstition.
This proto-Situationist instinct — to create a charged situation and step consciously into it — bubbles inside our favourite athletes.
They build a deliberate stage inside chaos, assign extraordinary weight to otherwise meaningless moments, then exaggerate the stakes just enough to sharpen focus. By over-performing doom, athletes loosen its grip.
Superstition vs Ritual
Last spring’s Jamboree season was an emphatic exploration of luck.
Do you need to be good to be lucky? Or lucky to be good?
In one of the season’s most enlightening sessions, teams explored superstition vs rituals. Each team defined it a little differently.
Here’s the cleanest distinction:
Luck is what happens. Ball clips tape and dribbles over. Superstition is magical thinking. I wear these socks, those bounces will happen less frequently. Ritual is preparation psychology. This routine steadies my mind so I can serve with confidence no matter what has just happened.
One tries to change fate. The other tries to regulate the self.
In a sport like pickleball, with endless initiation points (serve → rally → reset → serve), that boundary becomes wickedly porous. Every bounce, every cadence, every gesture channels uncertainty into something you can perform.
It can feel like witchcraft. Or a mental state that can be controlled by routines.
And yet, when a number, a date, a vibe starts to feel charged — superstition sneaks in. We pretend a Friday with a 13 can tilt the world just a little. We can submit to it. Or we can perform it.
So let’s perform it with gusto. Let’s use the occasion to reclaim everything that might have become “unlucky.”
An Assignment for Friday the 13th
The challenge: reclaim bad mojo.
1. All games to 13 today.
First to 13. No win-by-two. Embrace the off key rhythm.
2. Build your absolute “unluckiest ensemble.”
Shirt you never wear, but can’t throw out. Shorts from a loss that still burns. Mismatched socks from difficult personal eras. Headband that can’t unsee a particularly tough drill session.
Put it all together today.
3. Praise “bad luck.”
If a ball grazes the tape and dribbles over, it counts for 2 points today. Thank it out loud. The tape doubles your focus.
4. Confide your most neurotic pickleball superstition to a partner.
Before each game, say it out loud to your partner.
5. Play your entire warm up without stepping on a line.
You have the footwork. Challenge your opponents to a modified game—rally‘s over the moment anyone steps on a line. (And oh yeah, rally’s worth double the moment ball clips tape.)
6. Experiment with a ritual you’ve seen others use.
Could be as simple as the number of times you bounce the ball before your serve. Once to channel the pickleball gods. Twice to shut up the gremlins. Thrice to flow into a tidy third shot set up.
BONUS: Today is the day to practice shots and patterns that you just can’t seem to trust in games with magnitude.
Remember: today is your lucky day
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