Sam Northeast takes PCA presentation course
Thursday 10th December 2015
Kent club captain Sam Northeast has prepared for the demands of the role by taking part in a presentation skills course.
Northeast, 26, appreciated that presenting to different groups of people is a key area of captaincy and so enlisted the help of David Townsend, one of the PCA’s six-strong team of Personal Development Managers, to help him develop those skills.
Townsend arranged a session at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence for Northeast with a training skills company who have previously helped county cricketers to produce benefit speeches.
The agenda for the day included a refresher course on the basics of voice and non-verbal communication, recording and reviewing presentations and working on prospective speech outlines for a variety of audiences.
Although the challenge of public speaking is very different to the one Northeast faces when he goes out to bat, Kent’s new captain enjoyed the session.
The 26-year-old batsman said: “After a chat with David, about any areas that I wanted to work on we identified the topic of presenting to groups.
“The captaincy role today has many facets to it and includes speaking to a variety of audiences on behalf of the club, so I thought that it would be worthwhile spending some time working on those skills.
“We obviously spend a lot of time preparing ourselves to do what we do on the field, but sometimes you need to have a look at what options there are off the field. I found the session really good in that it gave me a chance to work on some stuff I haven’t done in a long time.”
Townsend, who works with the full-time professional and academy players at Kent, Essex and Middlesex, was impressed by Northeast’s initiative in identifying an area of personal development that could be improved.
Townsend said: “We get a chance to run workshops with the professionals each year, but it was good to be able to do an individual session on something really relevant.
“Sam went into it with a great attitude and these things are always much better when they are practical and you get to work on some of the skills that you might need in the coming months. I applaud him for having the foresight to have a go at it.”