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I started casting in Feb. 2012 in Norway. I've traveled a lot and attended many of the bigger events in Norway along with my co-caster Sjugur under our brand name GGWP.TV. Recently I had a crisis of confidence and it was really rough. I care a lot about casting and e-sports.
I thought I was getting good, but I asked some of our greatest casters on Twitter if they could take a look at my stuff and give me some pointers. The response I got (from MrBitter) was: "This one is easy - play more games". I have 6k games played and I am addicted to watching GSL and other tournaments. I know a ton about the game, but I am not very good at remembering details unless I really work on memorizing them.
I realized that I was very far from as good as I might have thought. We do very well in Norway, but the competition here is mainly hobby-casters whereas our ambitions is to go pro - one day. I think a lot of e-sports fanatics have felt the same way I do and have struggled with the thought of: How do I improve?
Casting in a foreign language requires that I learn to think in English. My vocabulary and pronunciation is very good, but when you are forced to think and speak constantly it does not flow as easily as in your native tongue. So I am doing, as often as I can, regular small segments where I try to guess builds. It's a great way to analyze replays and to memorize them. In addition I am using English on a more regular basis and that makes it easier to have the flow of conversation with my co-caster and viewers. I think especially what is lacking with using a foreign language is the chemistry I have with my fellow Norwegian co-caster.
Among all the thoughts I have had recently about casting and how to improve one idea struck me as very good for this community: Caster coaching. Apollo said a while ago that we need more professional level casters. There is just not enough of them.
We have coaching for players by pro-players - why not have coaching for casters by pro-casters? Many, if not most, casters have a rather limited income. A great way to support these professional casters as well as offering a service to a growing community would be coaching. I would gladly pay for an hour of coaching by Day9, Apollo, Tasteless or Artosis. These casters have a unique ability to relay difficult concepts in a great way.
Caster coaching is not a magic solution to creating professional casters. It requires hard work, but caster coaching can help you overcome obstacles or even realize some issues you were not aware of.
I hope this catches on! <3
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I was actually thinking the same thing recently :D
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I know the guys from the BTS Studio (Dota2) offered coaching to people that donated a certain amount when they had a kickstarter to build their studio, so I don't think it's unheard of. Just it means the casters have to donate a lot of their time to do it aswell.
ie. in say, Baseball, the commentators are more than likely retired players/coaches, but they can get away with it because baseball is never going to change
whereas sc2/dota, the casters have to have that first hand knowledge from playing the game at a high level, because the meta is constantly changing, so they need to use a lot of their time outside of casting for playing.
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Absolutely Reign.
You have to have an in-depth understanding of the development of the metagame, but that does not mean you have to have excellent knowledge of the current metagame. A play-by-play caster should be aware of strengths and weaknesses in the current matchups, but you can gain that by watching streams.
I sincerely hope that pro-level casters take my idea to heart. My hearts desire lies in casting, but not if I'm not good enough 
Caster coaching is not just about what to talk about and how to talk about it, but also techniques on how to learn and improve.
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My recommendation if some of you really want to try and make something like this a career is to go to broadcasting school. Doesn't necessarily have to be about Starcraft, but more often than not I find casters having a hard time articulating themselves. I definitely gave Kelly a hard time and it was certainly well-deserved, but even the guys who you find behind the bench most of the time have their own struggles.
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Broadcasting school?
All Norwegian sports commentators are either journalists or retired players.
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That happens often in many sports, but the thing is if you really want to work on those skills and join the profession regardless of casting a game. Broadcasting school is the perfect place to hone your skills when it comes to speaking. There are plenty of great schools out there. You don't have to stick around Norway either.
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I love seeing posts about people looking to become better casters. I write a blog on becoming a better caster so I definitely support this line of thought.
Here are some things I think you might find useful:
-Create a network of casters. Not just for casting, but people that you can actually TALK about casting with. It's just like how players need to have people to talk about the game and have discussions with others to really propel their knowledge forward, I think casters should do the same thing. This can also be a good place to get feedback.
-Watch your own casting. Often times you'll be your worst critic and you'll find a lot that you can improve on.
-Whenever you find a situation that made you feel uncomfortable/awkward during a cast, write it down and come back to it later when you have time to think. How can you handle that situation or avoid it happening in the first place?
-Try to break down aspects of casting into different categories so "improving your casting" isn't this big, arbitrary and scary thing. It's the same way a player might be at a loss if you just say "go get better." Instead break down things like "work on constantly making workers" or "never missing injects." Similarly, in casting you could say "work on not stuttering while speaking" or "not missing any drops or run-by harassment."
Caster coaching is an interesting idea that I've considered asking a top level casters for. The thing is you and the coach needs to be cautious about the feedback given. While playing Starcraft can show personal play style choices to an extent, for the most part players don't have too many issues "giving up" on personal preferences when being taught by a coach. However, casting is a very arbitrary thing that heavily revolves around expressing yourself, so it's very easy to lose your personality if you try and follow anyone's advice too blindly. If you aren't careful about that you just end up coming across as "fake" so it's important for the person being coached to still consider the advice and not just blindly follow it if they disagree with it.
Anyways, these are just some of my thoughts on it. Another thought is if you're trying to work on your knowledge of the game, consider getting player coaching from a fairly analytical player and instead of asking for help actually executing play, instead ask them to break down all the matchups for their race. In my experience, most great players have some kind of flow chart of how the matchup can go so learning that flow chart and the specifics of what to look for in a game can really increase your understanding of the matchup.
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feardragon: You are definitely spot on! I think your advice is excellent.
As you said - you are perhaps your own critic and as such you can always find things to improve by especially watching your own casts. I've done that quite a bit and when I am casting I focus a lot on how I express myself while trying to propel my thoughts into the next subject. The most common way to do this (wrong) is "uuuuhhhhh." I found that I need to dare to be silent while working through my thoughts. I am talking about a second of silence to replace the "uuhs" and "aaahs". This requires me to be very self aware and control not only my voice, but also body language. In some ways - controlling my body language controls my voice and my thought process. Strangely as that sounds I find it true for me.
I think what I am looking for in professional caster coaching is help on what strengths to develop. That might be the hardest part to realize yourself. What part of my casting is actually really good? Is it my enthusiasm, is it my analytic skills or perhaps I am good at conveying difficult concepts in an easy to understand way? I find it important to not only realize your strengths, but also find ways to improve upon them - and that is the hardest part in my opinion. How can I do what I do best even better 
There are a lot of questions and subjects which would benefit greatly from having a professional caster coach.
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EPT
