Tell it like it is
Athlete
Technical and Professional Communications 12
Lesson Idea by: Heather Leask, School District #83
(North Okanagan-Shuswap)

In today's world, athletes are role models to both young and old alike. Who wouldn't want an athlete's talent and exciting lifestyle? Their fame and fortune are also pretty enviable. The biggest sports stars command huge salaries and the devotion of thousands. When they say something, do something or wear something, fans are eager to follow suit. Why do you think this is?

Of course, many athletes are not in the super-star league. Yet, these home town heroes are important role models to the people in their communities. We respect their hard work and their determination to be the best. This doggedness serves as an inspiration for the rest of us, even if we don't want to be athletes ourselves. In many ways, sport is a metaphor for our lives as a whole, complete with challenges, competition and rewards.

Because athletes are in the public eye, they frequently are asked to give speeches at high schools and civic functions.

These speeches might include talking about the team and answering questions about the season. Or, the speeches might tell students what it's really like to be an athlete in an attempt to motivate them toward achieving that goal.

"We may go to a high school and give the kids information on what it takes to be a player and the sacrifices they have to make," says Peter Anholt, head coach of the Kelowna Rockets Hockey Club. "With the age group that I'm dealing with here, 16 to 20, they sacrifice a lot to play hockey."

Often, speakers use famous and not-so-famous quotations to get their message across. For motivational quotations that you might want to use when giving a speech, visit the following Web site:

A Lot of Motivating Moments
http://www.motivateus.com/

You're an athlete, and you've been invited to give a speech at an elementary school next month. You'll be speaking to a group of children who are keenly interested in sports and have dreams of having athletic careers when they get older.

What would you tell these children?
What is important for them to know?
How can you point them in the right direction to meet their goals?

One way of planning presentations is known as the CMAP strategy. The letters stand for content, message, audience and purpose.

The idea is to match the message of a presentation to the interaction between context, audience and purpose.

Context - anything that might influence audience response
Message - precise details to get the job done
Audience - primary and secondary
Purpose - immediate, mid-range and long-term

In planning a presentation using the CMAP strategy, begin by identifying the obvious context, basic message, immediate audience and primary purpose. Then consider the audience and their goals to determine precisely what information they need or want from you in order to act.

To help determine the CMAP, ask yourself the following questions:

Context - anything that might influence audience response

  • Is this message independent or the beginning, middle or end of a longer process?
  • What is your relationship to this audience? First contact or established association?
  • Degree of familiarity? How formal or informal is the setting?
  • Do you have any competition - past, present or future?
  • Is the audience expecting to hear from you?

Message - precise details to get the job done

  • What is the basic message of this document or presentation? (Say this with an action statement.)
  • Should a secondary message be included? Stated explicitly or implied? Why?
  • Given the audience and the context, how should you word the purpose and action statements?
  • What precise amounts, dates, times, etc. will this audience need or want before they act on your message?
  • What's the core message? Are any secondary messages required?
  • What explanations will help improve the audience's understanding?
  • What details would best be presented as graphics, figures or tables?

Audience - primary and secondary

  • Who is your primary audience? (Focus on it.) Who else is likely to see this message, now or later? Consequences?
  • What does your audience already know about this matter? Need to know? Want to know? How technical or specialized?
  • How will your audience benefit from this message? How can you make this benefit clear to them in the message?

Purpose - immediate, mid-range and long-term

  • What do I want your audience to do or think immediately after receiving this document or presentation?
  • How do you want the audience to respond over the next few months?
  • What do you want from the audience in the next few years?
  • Are you informing, persuading, explaining, advising, recommending, evaluating, describing, proposing or doing something else?
  • Why is this message needed? Now? Are deadlines involved? If so, have you specified them?

Answer each of the applicable questions in the Context, Message, Audience and Purpose sections for the presentation you are about to make. Once you have answered all the questions, condense the information into a CMAP statement. The statement should take the following form:

I am speaking to (audience) to tell (audience) that (the basic message in one phrase) in order to get (audience) to (purpose stated as action) given these circumstances (setting and environmental influences).

Two days before your speech to the elementary students, you're asked to make a second, separate presentation to the Parents' Advisory Council (PAC). This presentation will occur a few hours after your talk to the students. This audience won't be as friendly - only about a quarter of the parents will be pro-hockey. Half of the parents consider it a violent sport with too much emphasis on winning, while the remaining quarter have no interest whatsoever in the game. Create a CMAP for the evening presentation to the PAC.

Course/Grade: Technical and Professional Communications 12
Curriculum Organizer(s):
Writing, representing and speaking (planning) 		Curriculum Sub-organizer(s):
Formulate the communication problems or challenges in given situations with reference to purpose and audience; propose a variety of communication options for addressing communications problems or challenges.
Prerequisites:
none 		Resources:
Internet access

Solution to Learn

This is one sample CMAP statement. It is by no means the only acceptable answer.

I am speaking to a group of elementary students who are interested in sport to inform them about the benefits and sacrifices of playing for the team, as well as provide tips to help them reach their goals.

I want to get them to evaluate whether or not they are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, and to recognize the importance of developing an action plan to achieve their goals in life, given these circumstances:

  • The students attending the presentation are avid athletes who have chosen to come to hear me speak
  • I have never spoken to this group before
  • I want to inform them while entertaining them or they won't get my message
  • I have one hour to 90 minutes to talk with the students
  • As a role model, I have an opportunity to make a difference in these children's lives
  • I should explain that only a small percentage of elementary student athletes will ever make it to an elite (or international) level
  • I should correct the popular myth that once you are in the "big times" you don't need education

Solution to Practice

Peter Anholt is the head coach of the Kelowna Rockets, a Western Hockey League team. He is always in the public spotlight, and gives many speeches during the course of a year.

This is how he would handle giving a speech to a group of young people interested in playing for the Kelowna Rockets. First, he would tell them about the advantages of playing for the team.

"We pay for their total education while they're with us. For every year they play with us, they get a year at their choice of university, which includes tuition, books, room and board," he says.

He would also stress the importance of a good education. Hockey players need a firm foundation in another area, so that when they no longer play professionally, they have another career to go to.

Anholt would also tell them what it's really like to play hockey.

"We play 72 games a year, and we practise every day after school. We have curfews in place. There are pressures and sacrifices when playing hockey, like when your peer group is going out to a party, and you can't. The upside is great, though. You can get all your schooling paid for, or you can turn pro, and in some cases be a millionaire in one or two years," explains Anholt.

"It's important to realize it's not all glamor. It's 95 per cent work and five per cent glamor. People think it's 95 per cent glamor and five per cent work," Anholt observes.

"These (players) have different pressures on them than a 'normal' kid. They have pressures to perform both at school and on the ice from their coaches, management, team, scouts, pro team if they're drafted already, their agents, parents, and even girlfriends. They really learn what pressure is very quickly, and they have to learn how to deal with it quickly."

As part of your motivational speech, you may want to include key points similar to these:

It's important to remember that although the final results of a game are very important, it is still only a game. Life is kind of like a game, isn't it? Sometimes we lose, and sometimes we win. It's easy to get down on ourselves if things aren't going well. But when this happens, ask yourself, "Is this going to matter five years from now?" Most of the time, it won't. So don't be so hard on yourself. We all make mistakes. The key is to learn from your mistakes and try not to make them again.

What happens if we hit a roadblock in life? Do we give up and lose our dreams? If that were the case, there wouldn't be a single successful person in the world, because everyone experiences roadblocks. The key is to keep going when everything is crashing down around us.

Remember that as you begin to succeed, in hockey or in other areas of life, you will be faced with even greater challenges.

We have only one chance to live our lives, and what we do with that chance is decided by our character. What is character? Character is what we do when no one is looking. What do you do when no one is looking? Would you be proud of your character?