One thing I haven’t really touched on in all of my blogs is one of the most interesting writing aspects in all of sports reporting, beat writing. You may be asking what exactly is beat writing you may ask? Well beat writing is popular in all aspects of journalism as well as sports. Beat writing is when one focuses solely on one particular aspect of a sport, whether that be a specific team, player, or even a coach. Beat writers are very popular in sports reporting and are commonly where die-hard fans get their up to date info on all of their favorite teams.

Let’s first breakdown the act of focusing on just a specific team when it comes to beat writing. To me this is the simplest form. You need to focus on all things that happen with this team. You need to inform the reader on all aspects of everything that is going on. Beat writers for specific teams focus on all the players and report everything. For this type of writing you need to get as close to the team as possible. You need interviews, you must attend all of the games, you need to speak to the coaches. Remember fans look at specific beat writers for all of the news on their teams year-round.

Now you can also look at beat writing by covering a specific player. You may be asking yourself “wouldn’t covering the team be enough for me to learn about all the players?”, Well yes and no. Some people want to learn everything about star players in their respected sports. People want to know anything and everything there is to know about specific players. Star players leave teams all the time and its your job to get the inside scoop as to why they want to leave or why they want to stay. Beat writers are also much more popular when it comes to younger players such as players in high school or college. These players usually have a lot of decisions to make on their future and it’s your job to keep people up to date.

These same principles of beat writing can apply to coaches. Coaches just like players change where they go all the time so people need to be caught up on them. Another big aspect for covering a specific coach is getting all of their tendencies down. Talk about what type of coach they are and just how they do their job.

Remember covering a specific team player or coach shouldn’t limit you. These things should be something that you can excel in but you should always branch out into other endeavors. Beat writing is always something to get started in but writers that truly succeed can write about everything! Wat are some topics you would find interesting to beat write about? Leave some comments below and remember never stop reporting!