Professional Footballers / Athletes
Whether you are a retired sportsman or woman targeting a media career, an English-speaking or overseas athlete/coach wanting to improve on your delivery in interviews or are simply looking for alternative employment outside of your recognised sport, SpeakSmart UK can provide you with the necessary tools.
Life after sport has always been a matter of concern for professional athletes.
The average length of a footballer’s career, for example, is currently estimated at approximately eight years, if they are fortunate to avoid serious injury. In this modern era of 24-hour, seven-days-a-week Sky Sports News coverage, however, the opportunities for current and retired sportsmen and women with worthy communication skills have never been greater.
“Everyone knows Wayne is not the sort of person with his Liverpool accent who is going to be able to stand up in front of a lecture room of people. But he doesn’t need to. All he has to do is make certain the players he is talking to understand where he is coming from.” – Roy Hodgson, England Football Manager.
Roy Hodgson touched on two important skills a public speaker needs: being understood by the audience and having the ability to ‘stand up and lecture a room full of people’: in other words the ability to deliver a speech. As speakers we have to make it as easy as possible for people to understand us.
The employment market for eloquent elite sportsmen and women has been further broadened with the likes of radio station talkSPORT, amongst others, also providing blanket sports analysis and reporting. Similar openings are 
now available in America, Canada and large parts of Europe too, where English remains the international language of football. Growing up in Leeds, playing sport and football was always a passion of mine. I was fortunate enough to play as a semi-professional for Fryston Colliery in the West Yorkshire League but I am also a family friend of past-and-present England internationals Aaron Lennon, Micah Richards and Brian Deane and it was through conversations with such players and their relatives that I received confirmation the importance of communication coaching has often been neglected in the past and would be of great value to sportsmen and women at all levels of their professions.
With more and more sportsmen and women from every continent in the world now plying their trade in this country, most notably evidenced by the influx of foreign football players and managers since the advent of the Premier League, SpeakSmart UK is designed to help those, for whom the English language is not their mother tongue, improve their speech and communication. But SpeakSmart UK places equal importance on assisting sportsmen and women, born and bred in this country, to articulate themselves in the best possible manner when faced by questions from print journalists, radio presenters and television commentators. Media training is essential for any client wishing to project a positive public image of themselves.
Away from the sports arena, meanwhile, regardless of the career path taken for retired athletes, preparation for life after professional sport will require effective communication skills in the workplace, including the development of interview and presentation skills. With the national and international working environment becoming increasingly competitive, SpeakSmart UK offers clients the opportunity to benefit from one-on-one private and personal training. The aim is to provide an essential service to improve general communication skills that will empower clients with the necessary skills to improve confidence and open the doors to greater opportunities.
In essence, it is absolutely critical that potential clients make a conscious decision to invest time and money in themselves as preparation for life after sport. Communicating the message to professional footballers that learning and education is of paramount importance in the transition process to an alternative career and for their personal growth and development, PFA education executive Osher Williams recently stated:
“(Footballers) may be combining the demands of playing at elite level with the responsibilities of raising a family. Conscious of this, we feel that we must supplement the good work already undertaken with new approaches to the way in which we connect with players.”
SpeakSmart UK can provide one of those “new approaches”, offering all professional footballers and other sportsmen and women with the chance to enhance their personal development through Empowerment Confidence Opportunities!!
SpeakSmart UK offers the following:
- Effective Communication Skills in the Workplace
- Interview Skills
- Presentation Skills
- Listening Skills
- Communication Skills for Frontline Staff
- Accent Training/Softening
- Public Speaking Skills
For further information, please get in touch with Randolph Hamilton using our contact page.