Olympic Lessons for Presenters Who Want to be the Best
The dust has settled on the London 2012 Olympics and the UK can get back to normal but are there any lessons for presenters from the 2012 Games?
I could be negative and have a go at the professional BBC commentators who managed to entertain us with a vast selection of bloopers, contrived alliterations, uhms and errs and general gibberish but to be fair, if most of us were in their shoes, presenting live for several hours a day, we’d probably mess up sometimes too. Instead I’d like to draw some lessons for presenters from the athletes themselves and their truly stellar performances.
Lesson 1: Great presentations are the result of relentless practice.
Every medal winner in those games put in the practice hours necessary. To get to the top of any field you need to practice and keep practising . There is no shortcut! However if you keep practising the same faults you may take a long time to improve. That’s where great coaching and feedback combine with practice to accelerate positive change in performance.
Lesson 2) Great presentations require unshakeable self belief
Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, David Rudisha, and all the other Gold Medallists at London 2012 didn’t doubt that it was possible for themselves to win! You could see the certainty in their faces. This is a valuable lesson for all presenters or budding presenters. You have to develop and unshakable self belief. you can find more posts on presentation confidence here.
Lesson 3) Managing your “nerves” is a critical success factor
Imagine the pressure that most of these Olympic medallists were under in the run up to their events. The roar of the crowd, the expectations of their coaches, families and Nations. It’s enough to make the best prepared athlete go to pieces. But the Olympic Champions didn’t. Somehow they were able to find a place of calm inside themselves and to harness that nervous energy, turning it onto an extra power source. Presenters must learn the same lesson. You can find more tips on managing your presentation nerves here.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. What are your favourite lessons for presenters that came from the London 2012 Olympic Games? Please post your suggestions below!
