IELTS Speaking for Success - ⚽ Sports (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

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Hello, lovely, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory and we are the hosts of the IEL Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you super grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high I old school. Your bad night score. Bad night, bad night. Oh, Rory, I saw Scotland will be in the World Cup. Will you cheer on your team?

Uh, no, but hopefully they do well. It's nice to be included. But perhaps today we can talk about sports teams. Oh, God, okay. What are coincidents on this podcast? Yes, dear listener, a new topic in speaking part one, sports teams. Why won't you cheer for your team? I don't like football.

I'm aware this will make me unpopular with so many people, but I hate football. It's not my cup of tea at all. No, I will not be cheering on my national team. It will be nice if they win, but if they do not win, I will not be surprised and I will not be too disappointed. It will be okay. We will survive this. Have you ever been part of a sports team? Oh, not that I can remember off the top of my head. I've only ever been the team captain of like a quiz team, but I think that's as close as it comes.

And why not? Just because I'm not a very competitive person. I don't see the point in sort of. going hell for leather on a football pitch or a rugby pitch or a tennis court. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. Do you prefer team sports or individual sports? I mean, I don't like either because I'm not very competitive. But if I have to pick one, then individual sports,

just because there's less chance to mess up any coordination you might have to do or let your teammates down. Do like watching team games. Not really. like I said, I don't have a competitive bone in my body. I'd rather read a book or watch a video on YouTube. When I have done it, there have been some moments when I felt slightly elated. But that's about it, to be honest.

Are team sports popular in your culture? I would say so. We have like a strong culture of having football and rugby teams. So we've got football and rugby fans as a result. And they organise different events. Scotland has the tartan army for its football team. And lots of people play on different teams in various positions just as a hobby.

For example, my partner plays rugby. So it's quite common. Did you play sports as a child? I think so. Outside of the usual things that we had in PE classes, I think I played hockey and went swimming for a bit as extracurricular activities. But I never took either of them very seriously.

some parents want their kids to be elite athletes but mine were more well-balanced or maybe they just wanted some child care that was quite productive. Will you play any sports, team sports, individual sports in the future? Depends on how you define sport. I mean, I do yoga now,

but I don't do it competitively so I wouldn't class that as a sport. However, if we are classing it as a sport, then I will do that more in the future. because I'll be a yoga teacher. But I don't see it that way. For me, it's like a lifestyle choice almost. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free,

and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Yay, thank you, Rory, for your understanding. No worries. We make a good team. Oh yeah, dream team. Working with Maria is my team sport. Yes. Right, dear listener. So sports games, sports teams. So usually when we play football, we have two teams, right? And you might say, I've never been part of a sports team. I've never played any sports, any team sports.

Or you can say, like, I've only been the game. captain of a quiz team. For example, like you have a small competition at school about words or in a lesson, in a literature lesson, you have kind of a quiz, a test and it wasn't a kind of a sport, but it was like a test, a competition, a game, right? So you can also talk about that. So any team. So I've been the captain of a quiz team. If you are on a quiz team, Or, no, if you are on a sports team, make sure you know what your position is. So maybe you're the captain or maybe you play in a different position. For example, if you play rugby, you could be a winger or a prop or other words, I don't know

the meaning of, I just hear about them. Yeah, and you can imagine that you played football and you can say, yeah, I've been, I played football at school and I was a defender or a winger or a goalkeeper. right? A defender. Yeah, I was a defender. I used to be on our schools, hockey team, football team. You can lie, Deleason. Is that true?

Oh, I thought you were telling the truth. I was like, oh, Maria played hockey, really? No, no, I'm going to see. I'm good at lying. Yeah, you can say that I'm not competitive. So I don't enjoy competition, competitive. I don't like competing. So when you want to win at all costs, right?

I'm not competitive. I'm not a competitive person. And I don't like competitive sports. So like football, hockey, you know. And Rory, what did you say, go hell leather? You said, I don't like... Oh, to go hell for leather. Hell for leather.

It's an ADM. It is, yeah. It just means as fast as possible. So, like, if I say go hell for leather, on a football pitch, it just means go as fast as possible on a football pitch. Yeah, could you give us a sentence with it? Well, I don't see the point on going hell for leather on a football pitch or I had to catch a bus yesterday so I had to go hell for leather to catch it because I was late.

Team sports don't appeal to me. You can say I don't like sports or different kinds of sports don't appeal to me. It's not my thing, I don't like it. The examiner can ask you questions about team sports. or individual sports. So individual sports, for example, running, jumping, when there's one person who does it, right? Swimming, like freestyle swimming, diving, open water swimming. Boxing is an individual sport, really? Oh, you can't do boxing individually.

I mean, you need someone to play with, like to go against eyes. Of course, maybe you compete for yourself, then that's fine. But it's so weird. Wrestling, sumo. It's kind of like combat sports. But yeah, you're listening. Swimming, diving, running, so throwing. You know, like people throw different things like hammers and other things.

And we have team sports. Football, cricket, basketball, baseball, rugby, volleyball, ice. hockey, rugby again. Yeah, so these are the most popular team sports, now you know. Regardless of what you do, you play the sport and you have the position of something. So I play rugby as the team captain, for example. And you can say, I'm not into sports, but if I have to pick one, if I have to choose one, then I'd go for individual sports, like diving, swimming. Teammates are people you play with. So, you're If you play football, you play with your teammates.

And if you don't do very well, you can mess something up. Yes, you can make a mess of it. And you can let your teammates down. A nice phrase of a verb, let somebody down. Don't let me down, you know? So don't disappoint me. And if you, for example, don't score a goal, you let everybody down. Is that two phrasal verbs in one sentence?

I know, look at you. 9. Yes, dear listener, you can use only one idiom, like during your speaking test, when you're one or two idioms, but phrase or verbs, two, one, three, even four, phrase of verbs in one answer. And they sound natural. And they're connected to the topic. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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Is that also an idiom? Yeah, it's idiomatic because literally we don't have bones which are competitive. So if you want to be creative, your listener, I don't have a competitive bone in my body. That's a good one to know anyway, just because you can hear a competitive bone, but you could have an aggressive bone or an angry bone for people who maybe struggle to manage their emotions or who don't struggle to manage their emotions. You can say that I'd rather read a book. So instead of watching some sports on TV, I'd rather read a book.

I would rather read a book or I would rather watch a film on YouTube. Okay? So I choose this, not watching team games. Or maybe you like it. So then like, yeah, I really love watching team games on YouTube. When you feel elated, Rory. You feel very happy, like you're over the moon. But I said I feel slightly elated, which is just a way of saying I feel a bit,

Woo, it's good we're winning. But then I go back to my normal emotions because I just don't have this competitive bone in my body. We say that, yes, there is a strong culture of football in my country, because football is popular everywhere. Football hockey, rugby cricket, right? You listen. So these are the most popular. team sports, basketball and volleyball, right? But usually football. So yeah, we have a strong

culture of football. Okay, we have a lot of football fans, we have a lot of teams, right? We have our national team and a lot of amateur football players. Amateur like not professional. I'm an amateur tennis player for example. Like I play tennis but not professional. We do sports or we play sports. So you can say I played some sports as a child and here the examiner means some games, right? So play sports like hockey, football. And you can say, yeah, like during our physical education classes, PE classes, physical education, I played hockey or I played football, I went swimming, okay?

I went diving. Or I did yoga, maybe you did yoga at school. Oh, did we talk about extracurricular activities. What are they? Things that you do outside of school, basically. So, if you learn something when you're younger outside of school, but it's not directly connected to your school or it's not organized by your school, then it's extracurricular.

I suppose it could be organized by a teacher in the school, but usually people associate this with things like dance or gymnastics class. They do them after school, after the regular school hours. Yeah, and you can say like, um, during extracurricular activities, I went swimming, or I went dancing, or I played chess. They were not included in regular lessons, but they were extra. Right. So Rory, like, imagine that you have to choose one sport, okay? So which sport would it be if you had to play something?

I don't know. Can you give me some choices? Choices of sports? Yes. Oh, I know what I would do. I would do free diving. That would be cool. Like, free diving is when you dive into the water without any breathing apparatus. Like no air tanks and you see how deep you can go. That's quite cool. It's probably extremely dangerous.

But it's cool. Or swimming if I have to pick a more milk-tozed option. How about underwater hockey? Oh, that's got a special name, doesn't it? Isn't it called octopo? or something or aqua push. No, it's just called underwater hockey. Ice.

What's aqua push then? Britannica.com calls it underwater hockey. You know, we have ice hockey, the usual hockey, but you can play hockey underwater in a swimming pool. It is, it's underwater hockey is called octopush in the United States. And there's a British octopush association. It is not octopus, it is octopush. Maybe there's an octopus association, but we are talking about underwater hockey

Hockey. I knew there was something like that. Right, dear listener. So you can choose an interesting sport for you, like underwater hockey, and you can say, oh, you know, like, I've never been part of a sports team, but I'd like to try out underwater hockey. And then you become interesting for the examiner, badmine, you know, for the ideas. So yeah, just, you know, be interesting, be like, say something exciting. Quality. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our new episodes. Okay. Bye. Bye. only. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you,

please go to conixontario.ca. Have you ever been part of a sports team? Oh, not that I can remember off the top of my head. I've only ever been the team captain of like a quiz team, but I think that's as close as it comes. And why not? Just because I'm not a very competitive person. I don't see the point in sort of going hell for leather on a football pitch or a rugby pitch or a tennis court, it just doesn't appeal to me at all. Do you prefer team sports or individual sports? I mean, I don't like either because I'm not very competitive. But if I have to pick one, then individual sports, just because there's less chance to mess up

any coordination you might have to do or let your teammates down. Do like watching team games. Not really. Like I said, I don't have a competitive bone in my body. I'd rather read a book or watch a video on YouTube when I have done it. There have been some moments when I felt slightly elated, but that's about it, to be honest. Are team sports popular in your culture? I would say so. We have like a strong culture of having football and rugby teams.

So we've got football and rugby fans as a result, and they organise different events. Like Scotland has the Tartan Army for its football team. And lots of people play on different teams in various positions just as a hobby. For example, my partner plays rugby. So it's quite common. Did you play sports as a child? I think so. Outside of the usual things that we had in PE classes,

I think I played hockey and went swimming for a bit as extracurricular activities. But I never took either of them very seriously. Some parents want their kids to be elite athletes, but mine were more well-balanced, or maybe they just wanted some child care that was quite productive. Will you play any sports, team sports, individual sports in the future? Depends on how you define sport. I mean, I do yoga now, but I don't do it competitively,

so I wouldn't class that as a sport. However, if we are classing it as a sport, then I will do that more in the future, because I'll be a yoga teacher. But I don't see it. that way. For me, it's like a lifestyle choice almost.