In sports reporting, there are so many different ways in which you can interview people, The Guardians women’s football reporter Tom Garry who has also worked for BBC Sport and the Telegraph in the past gave me his top seven tips for interviewing.
- PREPARE
Before you get to an interview with someone, do your research, for example, if you were to interview Keely Hodgkinson, you would not only find out about her career but you would also look at some previous interviews she has done so you’re not just repeating questions she’s already been asked and things she has had reported about her. This is the same principle with all athletes/sports stars.
Tom Garry: “I think the interviewee appreciates it when you’ve done your research and when you know interesting and true things they really appreciate that as well. The worst thing to do is to kind of, you know, sort of upset an interviewee by kind of saying something that’s not quite right. You know, if you ask them a question where the answer is obvious, that someone who has done their research would know, then I think you risk not having a great conversation. So preparing and getting your prep done is so important for any interview.”
- Have some questions ready in advance
Preparing questions in advance is also really important, for one they must be open questions as you get better responses. Preparing questions also gives you a basis for the interview, you don’t always have to stick to these questions but say you have a killer question that no other journalist has ever asked before you’d write it down so you remember it.
TG: “You know, it’s good to have a few bullet points of things you want to make sure you cover. Sure you cover rough topics, but don’t go in there and sort of like, ask question one, question two, question three, question four, and stick to a script, because then you won’t have a natural, nice, flowing conversation. I think that’s important to be flexible with what you asked to be prepared to go off script if they (the athlete) say something fun.”
- ALWAYS LISTEN
Listen, listen, listen to your interviewee always! Sometimes an athlete may say something great and interesting but because we as journalists are too focused on our questions and getting that killer line for our article we may miss something really fun and cool and avoid pursuing the athlete’s comment further.
TG: “It’s so important to listen to what they’re saying because they might say something fantastically interesting that you want to just follow up on or just check the detail, but if you’re not listening, you won’t hear but if you listen carefully, you’ll be able to follow it up and maybe find out something even more interesting about that person than you initially thought you would.”
- Be friendly, kind, and polite
Being kind, friendly, and polite with an athlete will make them feel relaxed in the interview and more likely to talk to you/tell you things more so than if they were uncomfortable. It will also make them feel at ease talking to you and they will hopefully remember you as an approachable and kind journalist in the future.
TG: “When you’re meeting them for the interview, or whether you’re doing it on Zoom, or whether you’re going in person at the start and the end, particularly, just be as nice and friendly and polite as possible, you know, try and put them at ease with a really warm welcome, nothing too over the top, but just things like, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you so much for your time. Lovely to see you. Appreciate this. Thanks for doing this. All those kind of polite things, ask them how they are as well, this is always my first question.”
- Don’t lead or end with sensitive questions
Most athletes have suffered some form of setback, injury, etc… in their careers, so asking sensitive questions to your interviewee is likely to get you some really good content for your article however, never start or end with these types of questions. Build the interview up slowly before dropping these questions in.
TG: “You know, you want the sensitive stuff to be in the middle, you want to do a few nice, sort of interesting questions, gentle ones early on, and slowly build your way towards the really kind of sensitive topic once they’re a bit more relaxed, and then bring it back around to a nicer, positive sort of look forward at the end, I would say, would be perfect.
“They’ll respect you for asking sensitive things. But it’s important to just not blurt it out as a first question and not save it right to the end, because if you save it right to the end, you might run out of time, or by then, they might be tired. They’ll give you the best answer on roughly the kind of fourth, fifth, or sixth answer of the interview, usually once they’ve loosened up a little bit and they’re feeling at ease in the conversation with you.”
- Interviewing less famous people can give you brilliant interviews
As aspiring sports journalists, many of us don’t have big and famous sports stars in our contact books just yet, however, interviewing athletes from grassroots-level teams or local clubs in your area who aren’t even at all famous can give you some brilliant interviews, because they are raw and real-life experiences that many people can relate too.
TG: “Some of the best interviews are with the people who are the least famous because they’ve got stories to tell that people haven’t heard before. So that’s not a bad thing to be doing interviews with people who are not household names. You’re almost doing a more valuable service to society by helping raise the profile of these people that we don’t know about.
“Though it’s important to remember to help your readers know where these people are from, who they play for, and why they’re interesting. You can find out some of the lesser-known athletes have got really powerful human stories to tell. So it’s about trying to find out what issues are affecting their lives, what might be interesting to the reader, and they might have an experience that no one’s known about because they’ve not been interviewed before.”
- Make the interview like a conversation, not just a Q&A
Many athletes are grilled daily by journalists in press conferences, post-match interviews, etc… so if you’re having a full-on sit-down interview with them, you want to make them feel comfortable and allow the conversation to flow, not just make it another Q&A session for them.
TG: “Just do everything you can to make it a normal chat, like you’re having in the pub or a barbecue or before a gig or, you know like you’re just sat on the bus next to somebody chatting. Just try and get them to have that kind of conversation. And rather than them feeling that they’re having a Q and A and they’re being grilled, you just want them to relax.
“So that’s the really the best thing you can do is try and make the whole thing really chilled out, and get yourself down to the serious stuff in a relaxed way, rather than risking having one-word answers.”
Every journalist will surely have their own personal ways and tips for interviewing, however, every single article I’ve read or journalist I’ve spoken to said PREPARATION is the biggest must for any interview, if you know your stuff about the person your interviewing then it’s likely you won’t go far wrong.
Sporty AF 