3 Lessons from Sports Athletes for Presentations

I'm giving you 3 lessons I learned from sports athletes for presentations in this week's episode of MasterTalk. Connect with me on Linkedin: Brenden Kumarasamy

1. Think about your communication journey in decades, not days. (0:58​)

Most people want success tomorrow, the next day, the next second, they’re not willing to play a longer game to achieve a much greater reward. Kobe Bryant said in one of his interviews that he made the decision to be one of the best basketball players of all time at the age of 13 and won his first championship at the age of 22, 9 YEARS later.

All professional sports athletes, especially the best in the world, think about their lives in decades, and do the work every single day to achieve a 10-year goal to be champions in their craft. Most people try to think about their lives in 10 days if they’re lucky, more like 10 minutes and this is especially true with public speaking and training your communication skills. Most people spend a bit of time practising and go ah, I’ll never get better and stop altogether whereas the best people at anything whether it’s sports or being phenomenal at public speaking, spend years honing their craft, working on their skill and have a clear goal that they want to achieve, so the lesson for us here is to spend some time imagining how our lives would change if we were incredible at speaking and fight every single day until we achieve that vision.

2. Always watch the tapes, no exceptions. (2:46)

Whether it’s Tom Brady or Kobe Bryant or any athletes from any sport, the best in the world watch the tapes, ALL of them. Kobe used to play 3 games a WEEK and he’d watch every single one, win or lose, he watched, and every world class player does the same, because the best are created from the detail.

Watching yourself in any skill is crucial to getting better and puts you ahead of your competition because most people aren’t willing to face their own mistakes, are too afraid to look at their mistakes, instead of facing them head on to be the best at their craft.

3. Pressure is an acquired taste, so start getting used to it. (4:31​)

In an interview with Joe Rogan, Israel Adesanya, an incredible middleweight fighter in the UFC talked about this idea that pressure is not for everyone. For some, it’s devastating and for others, it can be empowering. He equates it to eating caviar or escargot (snails), not everyone likes it, but the people who do can use it to their advantage and find the taste that lies within it that most don’t understand.

He’s very right on that. A lot of people I’ve met over the years love to run away from pressure, even if it’s a small presentation to a group of 20 people or a conversation with someone new, it’s very difficult for most people to just embrace it and go for it, whereas champion sports athletes use pressure as a weapon to make themselves invincible like Israel and many of these individuals have been able to do with their careers.

As always, if you enjoyed this week’s episode of MasterTalk, be sure to SMASH that LIKE button and SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel to see more videos like this and if you know one person that loves sports or hates it, send them this video so that they’ll be one step closer to mastering their game.

Special thanks to Maison Leporem for letting me use the space.

[MasterTalks]

Do you want to become an exceptional communicator today, rather than someday? Come join Brenden LIVE during one of our FREE Zoom trainings and become a TOP 1% communicator in your industry. rockstarcommunicator.com

[Viva_la_viva]

Great tips, I think all of these tips apply for life in general too. Thanks for sharing!

[RahulKumar-pkht]

Never say why me, always say try me. Thanks ❤️

[tiinajarvet]

We want the results yesterday. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon!

[finneganesguerra]

Just curious, why does your head always lean towards your left?