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.
October was a tough month. I had a heavy broadcast load with 10 games over 31 days. A good chunk of those games were on weird days because of playoff scheduling, which forced me to adjust my prep routine. Those adjustments led me to work late into the night many nights. As a result many of my practice reps were axed in the name of proper game preparation. With that load I also avoided doing the practice reps on game days in order to save my voice. That being said, I still got quite a bit done and feel like I did get better in October.
*The plan called for at least 7 minutes of practice play-by-play each day, for a minimum of 217 minutes. This month I called 46 minutes of practice basketball and 109 minutes of football. That’s 155 total minutes. That’s a total of just under four full 40 minute basketball games.
*The plan features eight days in October of picking a term and coming up with a minimum of five different ways to vary that description. I was very short here, only completing that requirement four times.
*I was supposed to listen to 16 other announcers and pick things I like and dislike. I was short with only six. In reality, I think I was closer to ten but I failed to mark a few sessions in my log, and if they aren’t there, I don’t count them.
*The program calls for five self-critique sessions. I did not do great here but I still completed three self critiques.
*The blueprint includes emailing other broadcasters about their careers on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a total of eight times in October. This was again a bright spot where I exceeded expectations contacting twelve fellow sportscasters.
Totals For October
46 min bball
109 min fball
4 vocab sessions
6 listening sessions
1 critiques of other
3 self critiques
4 critique requests
12 contacts made
Totals Overall Jan-October
2,674 minutes of practice play by play.(44.6 hours)
67 sessions of coming up with a minimum of five new vocab words.
27 self critiques.
29 critiques of others.
67 listening sessions of other announcers pbp.
216 relationship building contacts.
