So You Want to Enter the Speech Contest…

Girgle, girgle, twitch, sweat. Girgle, girgle, twitch, sweat.

These sounds are familiar to me now. They are my friends.  Not long ago, they were my enemies.  Just before speaking in any contest, my body would turn from serenity into a symphony of bodily noises.  Yes, I could hear my body sweat!

If the words “speech” and “contest” together in the same sentence cause you to fret, don’t worry, you are among friends.  I’ve been there over 100 times (we’ll call it 100).

100 times I waited to hear my name.  100 times I waited to shake the hand of someone called, “Contest Chair.”  100 times times I sat or paced, biting the inside of my lip, breathing deeply, or holding my knees tightly together to suppress the urge to escape to the flush central although I’d been there three times in the past fifteen minutes.

Why do I subject myself to this mental and physical torture?  It’s very simple.  Every contest squeezes the best performance out of me.  Every contest stretches me a little more.  I’m not done stretchin’.  I gotta enter some more contests!

While I work to make my best a little better, perhaps I can share some ideas to make your best a little better too.  Let’s divide these techniques into Preformance, Performance, and Postformance.

PREFORMANCE

In preparing for your speech, first, ask yourself, “Why am I entering this contest?”  Is it to beat other speakers or is it to become a better speaker?  Is it to compete against other speakers or to compete with other speakers?  If you enter to compete with other speakers and in the process help yourself and others become better speakers, then you’re on the right track.  If you enter to win trophies, ask yourself the question again.

If you happen to win a few contests and start thinking you’re a pretty good speaker, think again.  Go listen to the fabulous speakers at the District, Region, or International level.  You will return to the contests with renewed humility and purpose.

Now that your head is bolted on straight, let’s hone your skills.

Look at the Judges Guide and Ballot for the contest you intend to enter. Get intimate with the scorecard.  No need to hug it, but really get to know it.  Dig into the criteria to fully understand what it means to fulfil them.  What does it mean to structure your speech?  How can you demonstrate your flexible voice?  How will you demonstrate self-assurance without parading around like a peacock?

Then select a topic for your speech.  Selecting a topic for Table Topics and the Evaluation contest is easy but the International and Humorous Speech contests present greater challenges.  For the International Speech contest, select a topic with broad audience appeal from which the audience can take home an action, an idea, a value.  If your speech succeeds, they will remember you by the one idea they apply in their lives.  For the Humorous Speech contest, perhaps take something real in your life and exaggerate it.  For example, my 1999 Humorous Speech entitled “The Power of Procrastination” had no redeeming value, but it was an idea to which everyone could relate and silly enough to entertain.

Next write the speech.  I suggest using the method “5 Steps to Impact.”  Ensure that the choice of topic and the writing supports voice flexibility and a variety of delivery mannerisms.  Know the number of words you can cover in seven minutes.  For me it ranges between 650 and 750 words.  The higher you go in contest levels, the longer it takes for the audience to finish responding to you.  At the District level, I like to rehearse my speech at 6:15 to 6:30 minutes.  Then I can give the audience all the time they need and still bring it in on-time.

One question that will confront you is, “Should I memorize my speech or know the outline and basically wing it.”  That’s a good question to which I have no patented answer.  I’ll answer the question by presenting the risks and you can answer it for yourself.  If you memorize the speech you risk sounding memorized or robotic.  You might simply forget it too.  I’ve done that and seen it happen to others.  The risk of not memorizing it is your ideas sound muddled or you miss getting the right word at the right time.  The challenge is to get the right words at the right time without forgetting and have it sound like the first time you presented it.  It takes a lot of practice to be spontaneous, clear, concise, and effective.

Rehearse your speech as often as possible, trying every time to become emotionally connected with your material and the audience.  Every time you deliver it, it’s like the first time.

Now it’s contest day.  During the contestants’ briefing, ensure you relay all special instructions to the contest chair.  Ensure the contest chair correctly pronounces your name and speech title.  I once gave a speech entitled, “Hello, My Name is C-C-C-Craig.”  The contest chair needed a few tries to get the stutter just right!  Ensure you clearly understand the speaking area.  Ask for a change if you’d like.  Walk around the speaking area and imagine the audience seated in front of you.  Become comfortable in that space.  Remember you cannot be disqualified for exiting the speaking area during your speech but why test others’ understanding that rule.  Get it cleared up before you speak.

If you use props or furniture, ensure the Sgt at Arms knows exactly where and when to place them.  Practice this placement, if you wish, until you are comfortable.  Practice with the audio equipment.  Try the microphone.  If using a clip-on mic, try it on to get the correct height.  Speak at your loudest and softest level to ensure room coverage.  Know how the clip works so that if you have to move it during your performance, you can do it smoothly.  Find out if the audio technician will be present during the speech contest and how he/she will adjust the sound, if at all.

Encourage the other contestants.  In the process of lifting them up, you will lift yourself up.  They will feel positive towards you too.

Before the contest begins, mingle and meet members of the audience.  Shake their hand; give them a hug; do whatever you do when you’re excited to meet people.  If this seems silly, remember when you connect before the contest, you will reconnect during your presentation.  Some of the people you greeted might be judges.  They need hugs too.

PERFORMANCE

You wrote and rehearsed a dynamite speech.  You’re ready.  Still, your body is in overdrive and you have trouble controlling the adrenaline rush.  Breathe deeply, fully inhaling and exhaling slowly.  Picture yourself presenting your speech and the audience responding to you.  If it helps, find a quiet space to collect yourself.  Each of develops our unique way of getting in the groove.

When your name is called, no need to leap out of your seat and race up to the stage.  I like to sit in the back of the room to ensure that I get a long walk up.  This gives me a moment to collect myself and “feel” the audience.  Shake the hand of the contest chair and smile.  Breathe.  Wait comfortably in silence for him/her to sit.  Judges will appreciate your composure.

Look directly at the audience with absolute certainty that what you are about to say is important.  Then launch your speech!  If you feel nervous, pretend you are comfortable.  If you are fearful, pretend to have courage.  If you forget what to say, remember it or make it up.  You are unstoppable.  All rockets fired and you’ve taken flight.  It’s up to you to steer this thing.

If the mic level is too loud and it sounds distorted, without looking down, smoothly reach for the mic clip and slide the mic down a little. Do the opposite if the level is too low.

Your entire being must now gather together in a state of congruence to deliver your important message.  Every breath, every facial expression, every hand movement, every body movement, every subtlety of voice must convey every moment of your message together and believably.

I used to subscribe to the notion that when you speak in a contest, you speak only to the judges.  Now I disagree.  Everything you did to prepare was for the judges.  Now you are totally for the audience.  Are you ready to receive their listening and approval or are you hammering them into submission?  If you connect with the audience by first connecting with yourself and bringing them into your world, them you will connect with the judges.  If you try to put on a show for the judges, you might miss them because you forgot about the audience.  Seasoned judges will notice that subtlety.

As you bring the audience into your world, take them through an emotional journey, the Disney formula if you will.  I suggest upbeat in the beginning, down to touch their hearts, and upbeat again at the end.  Contrary to popular misconception, you don’t need to kill anyone in your speech to touch hearts.  If you do bring the audience down, immediately salvage their hearts, as professional speaker Michael Scott Karpovich suggests.  Give it some levity.

In my first few years, my speeches plodded along at 650 words.  In the last couple of years, I’ve tried to focus on increasing the pace through unimportant parts and really slowing down when the audience needed the time.  Now I achieve about 750 words.  One of the greatest delivery challenges is becoming comfortable in silence without verbally stomping on the audience when they needed to laugh, think, or experience an emotion.

If you timed it right, you can ignore the timing lights for the International and Humorous Speech contests.  Just deliver it, fully present with the audience, giving them the gift of your speaking.

At the end, wait for the Contest Chair to return, shake hands, turn comfortably and return to your seat.  Smile at the audience and receive their congratulations for a job well done.  I once lost my mind, stayed on-stage until the audience stopped clapping, and returned to my seat in silence.  It came across as arrogance even though I didn’t feel arrogant.  A few friends had the courage and caring to mention it to me.  I did it only once.

POSTFORMANCE

After your speech, try to get as much specific feedback as possible.  Platitudes are of little value.  If people say, “You did a great job!” then receive it with gratitude and open arms.  Ask questions about your speech to try to get specific feedback.  Focus on feedback that made you feel uncomfortable.  Look to the people with the courage and understanding to give you the guidance you need to improve.  If you receive criticism, ask several other people about the same element.  Don’t necessarily change your speech based on one opinion.

If you can get a copy of your speech on videotape, great!  Watching yourself on video will provide some of your greatest feedback.

If you don’t win a trophy, remember that the greatest prizes were the lessons you learned and those one or two people who expressed their gratitude for your speech because it touched them.

I encourage you to enter the speech contests if only to improve your speaking.  With adequate Preformance you will achieve an excellent Performance.  Every moment you spend in Postformance will add to your cycle of success in communicating with audiences.

Girgle, girgle, twitch, sweat. Girgle, girgle, twitch, sweat.  These sounds are your new friends.