Questions to Ask Sports Players
Twenty questions for interviewing an athlete, whether for a student paper, a podcast, a club profile, or a few minutes at a meet-and-greet. They go past the highlight reel into training weeks, injuries, money, and the parts of a position that nobody watching ever notices.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How did you actually get into this? Was there a moment, or did it just happen?
Why ask it
Origin stories are the easiest opener in sport, and the detail that matters is whether another person appears in the answer: a sibling, a neighbour, a school coach. Athletes who name someone usually keep talking, while "I was always good at it" is often a media line.
What was the level where it stopped being easy?
Why ask it
Nearly every athlete has a point where natural ability stopped covering the gap: an age group, a college season, a first professional contract. That transition is where the real story sits, and almost nobody asks about it.
What does a normal Tuesday look like in season?
Why ask it
One ordinary day tells you more than any description of training philosophy: sessions, travel, physio, meals, sleep, and the job many athletes still hold. It also shows how much of the week is not the sport at all.
Which part of training do you dread?
Why ask it
Asking about dread produces something specific, usually a conditioning block or a recovery routine, and it quietly breaks the convention that athletes enjoy every part of the work.
What's something about your position that people watching never notice?
Why ask it
Every position carries invisible work: the run that drags a defender away, the setup pass, the block that appears in no statistic. This is the question that makes a player feel understood, and it usually produces the best answer of the interview.
What do you notice in the first few minutes that tells you how a game is going to go?
Why ask it
Reading a contest early is a genuine skill that athletes are rarely asked to explain. Expect concrete tells: an opponent's first touch, the noise from their own bench, heavy legs in the warm-up.
What's the smallest technical thing you've spent months working on?
Why ask it
A grip, a foot position, a breathing pattern: naming one detail shows what improvement actually consists of at a high level. Vague answers about hard work usually mean nobody has coached them in that detail.
Who on your team makes everyone else better, and how?
Why ask it
This gets you past the star and into how the group really works. Notice if they name a substitute or a veteran who barely plays, because that tells you what the dressing room actually values.
What does your coach say to you that gets through?
Why ask it
Most players have one phrase that lands, and it is usually short and unglamorous. It reveals how they need to be managed, which is more interesting than any general answer about leadership.
Which loss do you still think about?
Why ask it
Defeats are remembered in far more detail than wins, and the one they still turn over shows what they hold themselves responsible for. If they say they never dwell on losses, ask about the most recent one instead.
What's the worst injury you've played through, and would you do it again?
Why ask it
Playing hurt is normal in most sports and rarely discussed plainly. The second half of the question carries the weight: an athlete who says they would not repeat it is telling you what the sport has cost them.
How do you handle the days when your body is fine but your head isn't?
Why ask it
This separates physical readiness from mental readiness, which fans and even coaches tend to merge. The answers are usable by anyone who competes at any level: a fixed routine, a deliberate distraction, one specific person they call.
What do you do in the hour before you compete?
Why ask it
The last hour is ritual, and ritual is specific: music, tape, silence, the same order of warm-up drills. It gives a profile texture that general questions about focus never produce.
What do people get wrong about what this pays?
Why ask it
Money in sport is either exaggerated or hidden, and outside the top tier most players are funding themselves or working alongside it. Framing it as a correction lets them set the record straight without disclosing their own contract.
What's the strangest superstition you keep?
Why ask it
Superstitions are fun, safe, and loosen an interview fast. They also show how much of the performance rests on routine rather than on confidence.
Who did you copy when you were young, and what did you steal from them?
Why ask it
Copying is how technique gets learned, and naming the model shows which qualities they were reaching for. The word stolen invites a specific move rather than a tribute.
What are you working on right now that nobody's seen yet?
Why ask it
Most athletes are mid-project on something: a weaker side, a new shot, a tactical change. This puts the interview in the present tense, which is where the interesting material almost always is.
What would you tell a fourteen-year-old who's better than everyone else in their town?
Why ask it
This is where an experienced player stops being diplomatic. The answers are usually blunt: the town is small, the jump is brutal, learn how to lose while it is cheap.
What will you miss when you stop, and what won't you miss at all?
Why ask it
Even at a distance, retirement draws the most candid answers in sport. The second half is the half people remember, because it is where the grind gets named.
What question are you tired of being asked?
Why ask it
This saves you from asking it and hands them the subject they would rather talk about. It is also a graceful close, since it gives them the last word.
Interviewing an athlete
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting the time in the first place
- Go through whoever controls access: a press officer at a professional club, the coach at an amateur one, a parent for anyone under eighteen.
- Say how long you need and stick to it. Fifteen minutes honoured exactly is worth more than an hour requested and abandoned.
- Ask when in their week is quietest. Mid-week between sessions is usually far better than a match day.
- Offer to send the questions in advance if that is what unlocks the interview, and accept that the answers will be flatter for it.
- Confirm on the day. Training schedules move constantly and nobody will think to tell you.
Timing around results
Immediately after a loss you will get either silence or something they regret, and neither makes a good piece. Immediately after a win you will get euphoria and no detail. The best material comes two or three days later, when they have watched it back and can tell you what actually happened. If your only access is a post-match scrum, ask about one concrete moment rather than how they feel, since specific questions rescue that format more than sympathetic ones.
How to ask
- 1Keep each question to one sentence. Two-part questions get the easier half answered.
- 2Ask about a specific play, session, or day rather than about the season in general.
- 3When you get a rehearsed answer, stay quiet for a moment. Athletes are used to filling that gap, and the second version is usually better.
- 4Follow up with "what did that feel like at the time" rather than "how do you feel about it now."
- 5Save anything difficult, injuries, selection, money, for the last third, once the conversation has settled.
Where interviews go wrong
Reciting statistics at them
They know their numbers. Use a statistic to set up a question about a decision or a moment, not as the question itself.
Pressing on medical detail
Injury specifics can affect selection, contracts, and insurance. Ask what they are able to say, accept the limit, and do not speculate on their behalf in print.
Asking them to criticise a teammate or coach
You will either get nothing or you will get someone in trouble. Ask about the situation rather than the person if it matters to the story.
Comparisons to famous players
These produce a polite deflection every time. Ask who they modelled themselves on instead, which is a question they can answer honestly.
Younger and amateur athletes
- Get a parent or guardian's permission for anyone under eighteen, and let them sit in if they want to.
- Do not ask a young player about their chances of turning professional. It is a question about pressure they did not choose.
- With amateurs, ask about the logistics: who drives them, what it costs, how they fit training around work or school. That is the actual story.
- Check names, spellings, and events before you publish. Local sport is where errors are noticed most.
- Send the piece, or at least their quotes, if you promised to. Reputation with one club travels to every other club in the area.