How do I get "good" at asking questions?

Very good advise on this thread.

I would add to slow down, especially if you are in a one-on-one interview. Wait a beat to compose your next question. You do not have to fire a question back the second their mouth closes.

You should always be thinking why something happened when a coach or a player explains something. For example...

"I really wanted to play a big game to night because I had some special people in the crowed tonight, my Aunt Jan and Uncle Jim."

You follow that up with a basic what makes them so special? Are they from out of town? You might get a stone wall, bland response, or might get a gold.

"Nah. My Uncle Jim and my Aunt Jan had a place with a basketball hoop, and when I would go over there I would shoot hoops. We were not allowed a basketball hoop in our driveway where I grew up..."

And there is your lede.

I have also felt that a short question can bring a long answer and a long question can bring a short answer. Not always the case, but usually a rule of thumb.

 

Ask some very basic open ended questions. Did you see anything tonight from your team that surprised you? Then listen to the answer and do follow ups based on it. "I thought we did a much better job of handling their press than I had expected." "What about their press concerned you, since you handled the press pretty well against Podunk earlier this season?"

And I always like to ask coaches what they told their team during key timeouts.

 

There is a big difference between asking questions of a coach or player in a press conference or crowded locker room and interviewing someone one-on-one.

Asking a question in a room filled with journalists can be intimidating but go for it. I respect someone who asked a "dumb" question more than guys who rarely pipe up at a news conference/interview and piggyback on everyone else.

In one-on-one interviews, don't worry so much about a question eliciting a great quote. Often the quotes aren't nearly as interesting as facts and information. And the trick there is to hone in on something interesting and nail it down.

For example, if you are doing a midseason basketball story on the point guard who has cut down on turnovers, you might start with saying that he had been averaging 8 per game and it's down to 4.

What has changed?

"I'm taking care of the ball better," he said.

How?

"I really worked on it in practice."

Were there specific drills?

Then maybe he will say that the coach has three guys surround him everytime he touches the ball or that he makes him take the ball with him everywhere and sleep with it or something.

Then you have a story that people can see.

 

Great example, Ace.

 

It's really not the questions so much as too many writers getting a quote on the subject and moving on and not really digging in.

 

I found the best thing to do is just keep asking questions and learning from the ones you ask. Take notes of which ones get great answers and stop asking the ones that get you a blank stare.

 

Never put yourself in a question.

 

Knowing when to ask (and when not to ask) a question is also a skill. I recall a student writer who was in a gaggle with LaBrandon Toefield when he was a senior at LSU. Toefield would often ramble, and then pause, and it was after those pauses you'd get the best stuff. The veterans on the beat knew this, but this student let about three seconds of silence pass and jumped in and asked a question unrelated to the previous. Moment gone.

You could see the wheels turning in Toefield's mind. He was being thoughtful, which is what we all want, right? He was about to say something beyond the usual, beyond what Saban's machinery had told him to say. But, we didn't get to hear it. The kid cut him off.


Also, relax. Don't over-think it. Some of the best quotes I've ever seen in print were the result of "bad" questions, the kind other reporters hear and roll their eyes or joke about on this board.

 

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/1131676/

Merged: John Sawatsky at Poynter

Read this thread and you will get better at asking questions. I was at that seminar and every time I ask a bad question I think of this session and try to figure out where I failed.

 

Being prepared is the key, though, as others have mentioned.

Nothing is worse than finishing an interview and finding out some information that you never knew to ask about.

Also, no question feels like a dumb question if you know the subject matter.

 

I find I asked better questions when I wrote down some basic talking points as I was covering games.

Perhaps you noticed something about a key play. Ask about it. I've had coaches and players explain that a cornerback was playing 10 yards off a receiver and both the quarterback and receiver noticed. That might give you a starting off point for the next series of questions.