I spent last Friday in Paganel Primary School running a commentary workshop with a group of year 6 pupils. At the moment they are designing and building their own scalextric cars ready to stage a race in the school hall in a few weeks time complete with commentary. Hearing of our 24 hour commentating experience they invited us in to impart some of our wisdom and to pass on some hard learned tricks of the trade. So here distilled are some of the tips I passed on:

– you have to be able to speak and talk at the same time
– it’s all about the two Cs – concentration and improvisation
– try not to repeat yourself
– it can take a lifetime to master or longer
– try not to repeat yourself
– some people are born natural commentators and that takes a long time to learn
– sometimes silence says more than words ever can
– commentating through the night is essentially the same but darker
– don’t worry if your ship comes off its rails just keep talking
– you can get it right for 99% of the time but listeners will always remember the other 3% when you got it wrong
– try not to repeat yourself
– working in a pair can be good as three voices are often better than two

Anyway we had a great session and if the pupils do aswell next time it should be equally good or as Terry Venables once said “If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again”

Craig