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.
August was a down month to say the least. An eleven day vacation, moving into a new apartment, starting a new job, and the start of the season really threw me off track. I missed more time in this month than I have during any month since I started the “Blueprint to Broadcast Success” in January. I still put in over three hours of practice, plus bits and pieces of the rest of the program.
In September I’m switching back to the regular season program. It’s a bit less intensive with the time demands of weekly game preparation. After all, the point of this whole thing is to be better on the air. Anyway, here are the latest numbers to report.
*The plan called for at least 14 minutes of practice play-by-play each day, for a minimum of 434 minutes. This month I called 81.5 minutes of practice basketball and 90.5 minutes of football. That’s 188 total minutes. That’s a total of almost five full 40 minute basketball games.
*The plan features nine days in August of picking a term and coming up with a minimum of five different ways to vary that description. I was well short with just four.
*I was supposed to listen to 14 other announcers and pick things I like and dislike. I was again very short with only four such sessions.
*The program calls for four self-critique sessions. I did only one.
*The blueprint includes emailing other broadcasters about their careers on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a total of nine times in August. This was my one bright spot where I exceeded expectations sending out 21 messages to fellow sportscasters.
Totals For August
81.5 min bball
90.5 min fball
4 vocab sessions
0 critiques of other
1 self critiques
2 critique requests
21 contacts made
Totals Overall Jan-August:
2,304.5 minutes of practice play by play.(38.4 hours)
59 sessions of coming up with a minimum of five new vocab words.
22 self critiques.
27 critiques of others.
51 listening sessions of other announcers pbp.
185 relationship building contacts.
