What if tennis players were honest in their interviews?
One of the unforeseen benefits of living in Vietnam is the TV coverage of the major tennis events. Tennis is one of my favorite sports to watch, as it’s essentially a gladiator arena. You can feel for the players as they’re going through the physical and emotional ups and downs throughout the course of a match, and the tournament.
In the U.S., tennis always takes a back seat to the NFL, baseball, basketball. Here in Asia, it’s easily in the top 2 in popularity, right alongside non-American football.
So Sana and I were watching Wimbledon last night, and she said something along the lines of, “Why do they always ask the same questions?”
Like when one player wins, the person asks, “So, how do you feel after winning the match?”
I guess you say, “I feel good after winning the match,” as though you’re supposed to feel bad after winning.
What if the player said, “I feel fine, but you really should talk to the person I just beat. She’s an emotional wreck and needs more attention than I do.”
Then you get to the end of the tournament, and someone asks the player, “So how do you feel?”
They’ve been playing grueling tennis for two weeks, and you ask them how they feel? They feel like a meat tenderizer has been pounding on them for two straight weeks, that’s how they feel.
But the player just smiles and says, “Well, I’m tired of course, but I feel good heading into the final…”
The interesting thing is that no one really expects honest answers in these types of situations. Both the interviewer and the player are kind of winking to each other as they go through this scripted 3rd-grade level dialogue, and then everyone goes about their day.
The key here is maintaining control of the narrative. Both the TV producers and players know what the viewers really want. People in the stadium or at home watching simply want to see the human side of the player they’ve watched for a couple of hours. They don’t want an in-depth explanation on what went right and what went wrong.
The same player will go into far more depth on whatever issue if they’re doing an interview for the Tennis Channel, or a magazine or blog that only tennis players read.
Because different audiences have different expectations.
It’s the power of niching, and one of the things I discuss in my Podcasting Principles course available on my mobile app. Follow this one principle, and it can change everything about how you do interviews, prepare for gigs, even potentially the person you marry.
To access the app, simply go to this link and follow the registration directions.
https://committedmedia.org/app