Jul 09, 2014

Nineteen year old Australian tennis player, Nick Kyrgios, has been lauded in recent times for his confident win at Wimbledon over world number one, Rafael Nadal. Kyrgios was then defeated in the quarter finals by Canadian Milos Raonic; up in a big way then down and gone (but hopefully not for good). Of course, it could be easy to say Nadal had a bad game perhaps, but most commentators are saying that Kyrgios played a truly great game. So how can a player keep that consistency like a Federer or a Sampras? More importantly, how can we as presenters consistently hit the ‘sweet spot’? Let’s quickly get three obvious ideas about these tennis players:

1. They are gifted;
2. They practice, and
3. They are hungry for it.

Yes, most tennis players are natural athletes and the same can be said for presenters, that is, being engaging comes easy to some presenters, but being naturally gifted will not always win over an experienced player or a critical audience respectively. For both sports and presenting, ‘good’ practice is up there as one of the most important components.  This includes ‘match-time’ and mental rehearsals, as well as physically going through the paces with focus on doing it right, repeatedly. This helps make whatever you are mastering second-nature and the more you do something, the greater your confidence in adversity. Mental rehearsal is seen as being as important as physical rehearsal because the mind has a tendency to want to match the external environment with its internal pictures. But all good players do these things, so is that enough? Certainly being hungry for a win can be a real difference maker when you are competing in the sporting arena but what about for a presenter? We certainly don’t want to be seen to be competing against our audience, but our passion for our subject and our hunger to practice and improve are important. And this brings me to the two key distinctions that help people hit the sweet spot consistently. The first is to know your opponent. I doubt that Nadal had seen much of Kyrgios before their match, but I’m sure Kyrgios had seen many of Nadal’s games. Again, we are not competing against our audience, but if you want to land a winner in their court, understanding their game (i.e. the audience’s their expectations and what’s important to them) is critical. However, whilst understanding another is important, all focus on the other is not prudent. Some of the best tennis players, Roger Federer for one, are more focused on playing and improving their own game rather than beating the other at theirs. So to really start consistently hitting the sweet-spot, once you have a reasonable ‘game’ (i.e. have all the basics of presenting down pat), start finessing some of the little things each time you present and/or practice your presenting. Of course, a would-be tennis player could hit a hundred tennis balls incorrectly, and this is just going to reinforce bad habits. As with tennis, so too with presenting; knowing the little elements to tweak and how to improve them as well as having a way to gauge how you are going – videos, audience feedback, a sponsor or coach – will boost your efforts very quickly.