A major part of why I posted my Blueprint to Broadcasting Success was so it could be helpful to other broadcasters. I also posted it for selfish reasons to hold myself accountable for putting in the extra work to get better. As part of that accountability I’m going to post monthly on how closely I stuck with the plan, the challenges faced, and how/ if I’m hearing improvement in my self critiques. From there I can determine what I need to focus on to continue improving and moving down the path towards becoming a great broadcaster.
May was a very successful month following the blueprint. I again missed two days but made both days up.
*The plan called for at least 14 minutes of practice play-by-play each day for a minimum of 434 minutes. I missed two days, one for a slow pitch softball double header and one for Memorial Day but made up both days. This month I called 262.5 minutes of basketball and 203 minutes of football. That’s 465.5 total minutes. That’s a total of almost 11.6 full 40 minute basketball games.
*The plan features nine days in May of watching another broadcast on mute and coming up with minimum of five different ways to vary a specific term or description. I was nine for nine on this one!
*I was supposed to listen to five other announcers and pick things I like and dislike. I gave six detailed critiques to peers this month.
*The program calls for five self-critique sessions. I was supposed to do this five times. I got all five.
*The blueprint includes emailing other broadcasters about their careers twice per week for a total of nine times in April. I made 25 contacts in May.
*The blueprint calls for 13 listening sessions in May. This was the one aspect in which I came up short with only ten. I listened to numerous Minnesota Twins and NBA Playoff games but I did not record them in my log, so they don’t count for this purpose.
Totals For April
262.5 min bball
203 min fball
9 vocab sessions
6 critiques of other
5 self critiques
5 critique requests
25 contacts made
Totals Overall Jan-May:
1,292 minutes of practice play by play.(21.5 hours)
41 sessions of coming up with a minimum of five new vocab words.
14 self critiques.
16 critiques of others.
32 listening sessions of other announcers pbp.
73 relationship building contacts
