Monday 4 November 2013

Why is an Announcer like a Birdwatcher?

Or an Anti-Aircraft Gunner?

I was announcing a bout yesterday with Holly Sheet and afterwards she said she was amazed/impressed at how I was able to pick up everything that was going on track including all the players.  I started explaining that once you've memorised the players, that's most of the work done and so you can concentrate on the action of the jam rather than grasping to recall/read a players name and number. But how do you memorise 28 players easily?


I now need to go into a little story about me growing up, so grab a seat by the log fire and when you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin...


When I was about 6 years old I remember my granddad pointing out birds in the garden and naming them.  He started teaching me the differences between the birds we'd see and I soon learned to recognise them.  A few years later I started bird watching with a friend and we'd wander round the countryside with our binoculars trying to get a glimpse of a rare hawk or warbler. We would spend hours reading the RSPB bird guides and all the info contained therein to help us identify what we saw in the field.
My other passion at the time was based around all things military, and especially model airplanes. This led onto me joining the Air Cadets at age 12 where I learned a range of useful skills(field tracheotomy anyone?) and got very good at aircraft recognition - the skill of identifying a plane from just a silhouette.

So why is this fuzzy memory of my distant past relevant. Well it seems that the skills used in both birdwatching and aircraft recognition can be used in announcing.  Birdwatchers can catch a glimpse of a bird and tell you instantly what it is, almost as a reflex. They mentally pull together details of how the bird flies, any distinguishing markings, the general size and shape, and that triggers the memory of which bird matches all of those criteria.

Now, I want you all to be adults about this next bit.  No sniggering.

In the world of bird watching and aircraft recognition this is called Jizz, sometimes spelled Gis or Giss.  There are many explanations behind this name but the main one that a lot of people hold to is that it is derived from early in the 20th century, but was widely used throughout WW2 by Anti aircraft gunners and pilots and was short for General Impression of Shape and Size(http://www.scribd.com/doc/16209649/The-etymology-of-jizz).

What does it mean to me as an announcer?
The whole point of Giss is that it allows you to quickly recognise something based on a single or a combined set of characteristics. The last couple of times I've done streaming commentary the broadcast table has been situated on turn 1 facing down the straight towards the pivot/jammer line. This means that you often don't get to see any of the players numbers until the whole pack is on or around turn 1. I've found that if I spend time watching the skaters when they are warming up I can associate a number of things with that skater like their height, build, skating stance, sock colour, helmet colour, sleeves/no sleeves/vest, etc.

If I have put the time in then I can recall a skaters name, without really thinking about it and sometimes just with a quick glance at them in the middle of the pack.   This makes the call flow better and also helps to inform the audience.  I hear so many announcers that will only ever say the name of the jammer when the jam is in progress, but can't tell you which blocker has just flattened them.


How to build up the Skills?
Unfortunately, I don't have the magic answer to this, but here are the steps that work for me:
1) Handwrite the roster. This helps to link the names and numbers in my head.
2) Position yourself trackside while the teams are warming up. Stand where you'll be when calling the bout.
3) As the skaters go round, watch them, read off their number and then read their name off the roster/programme out loud. I normally say things like "247, L'il Joker, Gold Helmet, white skates, red bandanna tied to kneepad".  Doing this I am building visual associations with the name and number.
4) Repeat step 3, until you get to the point where you stop needing to read their shirt numbers, or look at the roster.

While you are doing this try to  call out players names and numbers when they are facing you, or are on the other side of the track.

You should get to the point where you can squint(so that you see a blurrr version of the skater) and you can call them based on the way they skate, or their distinguishing features.

But remember, what works for me may not work for you and you may need to find out the best way to build associations in your memory.  There're are probably 1000's of books out there about mental agility and how to build memory etc, so get Googling or if anyone can recommend any, comment below.


And Finally
I have to give a shout out to Bulldog who initially taught me the importance of watching the teams warm up as a way to learn the skaters.


Next Up:  How to bring down a casino through memory based card systems...

1 comment:

  1. Hey! That final link doesn't work!



    Great info! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete