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.
September was my first month back on the in-season plan and I hit most of my marks. It felt good to be back and I can hear the improvement in my broadcasts. Here are the latest numbers to report.
*The plan called for at least 7 minutes of practice play-by-play each day, for a minimum of 210 minutes. This month I called 80 minutes of practice basketball and 135 minutes of football. That’s 215 total minutes. That’s a total of over five full 40 minute basketball games.
*The plan features nine days in September of picking a term and coming up with a minimum of five different ways to vary that description. I was right on with nine required.
*I was supposed to listen to 13 other announcers and pick things I like and dislike. I was close but just a bit short with ten listening sessions.
*The program calls for four self-critique sessions. I did not do great hear but I still did two self critiques.
*The blueprint includes emailing other broadcasters about their careers on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a total of eight times in September. This was again a bright spot where I exceeded expectations sending out 19 messages to fellow sportscasters.
Totals For September
80 min bball
135 min fball
4 vocab sessions
1 critiques of other
2 self critiques
4 critique requests
19 contacts made
Totals Overall Jan-September:
2,519 minutes of practice play by play.(41.9 hours)
63 sessions of coming up with a minimum of five new vocab words.
24 self critiques.
28 critiques of others.
61 listening sessions of other announcers pbp.
204 relationship building contacts.
