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by Logan Scisco
Although the goal of forensics is to encourage and teach people to speak in front of audiences, the size of those audiences can greatly impact a competitive round and a competitor’s psyche. Depending on what event you do in forensics the crowd sizes fluctuate, especially when elimination rounds are held. Of all forensic events, extemporaneous speaking tends to pull in the fewest number of audience members. Extempers do not make their audience laugh as often as an HI or cry during a DI and there are some people that just do not find a discussion about the next Federal Reserve chairman that interesting. Extempers usually speak in front of audiences ranging from one to five people for most of their rounds but what do you do when you are in a state or national elimination round and there the room is suddenly packed to watch the round? Some extempers panic in this situation because they are not used to it. This strategy piece will give you some tips on how to master your nerves and conquer those rounds.
Eye Contact
The most important thing when you are in a room with lots of people is to distribute your eye contact effectively. It is a good idea to figure out where the judges are in the room, but this does not mean that you need to spend all of your time only looking at judges. I have ranked several competitors down in the past because they only looked at the judges and never engaged anyone else in the room. Also, it is good to make sure that you know who your judges are so that you make sure to look at them from time to time. I have also ranked competitors down in the past for never looking at me when I serve on an elimination round panel. Either they think I am not a judge or they forget, but either way it does not leave your judge with a good impression if you never look at them during your speech. Sometimes figuring out who your judges are will be guess work because not all tournaments position their judges at the front of the room on a long table. Usually you will be able to identify them because of their age and what looks to be a ballot in front of them. However, I frown upon competitors that walk into a room and immediately demand to know where the judges are. This is a signal that they are only there to talk to the judges and not the rest of the audience, which is very off-putting.
As you give your speech you want to make sure that you have controlled eye contact. When speakers get nervous their eyes dart all around the room as they speak. They might be looking to the left, then they look to the center, and then the right all in a single sentence! What you need to do is to follow a “one person, one idea” eye contact model. What this means is that you want to look at someone in the audience and deliver one complete thought to that person. Usually this means that you will be looking at someone in the audience for at least a sentence. This establishes a better relationship with that person in the audience and allows you to communicate your thoughts directly to them. This does not mean that other audience members will not get your message since they are going to be listening to the speech and watching it develop. As your speech develops you want to move your eye contact across the room to different people. You can return to the same person later, but what you want to avoid is looking at five people during the same thought. By following this advice you will appear more controlled and it will likely relax you since you can focus on an individual instead of an entire room for each sentence of your speech.
A good way to practice controlled eye contact is to give practice speeches in front of groups. Extempers are horrible at only practicing in front of their coach and then leaving for the day. This is great preparation for preliminary rounds, where this scenario will likely occur, but it does not make you prepared to handle finals panels or large crowds. Extemp may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but volunteer at practice to watch another extempers on your team as long as they stay to watch your speech as well. Try to recruit people to watch your speeches as well. If you cannot find these people, then work with your coach to put objects on classroom desks like staplers and imagine during your speech that those objects are audience members. They will not give you the same reaction that a human being would, but you can practice moving your eye contact and keeping it focused instead of letting it dart around the room.
Remember that it is Still an Extemp Speech!
The biggest reason that extempers crack under pressure when talking in front of large crowds is that they think more about the moment and the situation than about giving their speech. This tends to occur in national final rounds, especially the finals of the National Forensic League when speeches are taped forever and put into the NFL’s archives. No one wants to give a speech that they will regret and no one wants to give a speech that is going to be pointed out by students and coaches in perpetuity as “do not go out there and be that speaker!” Still, by focusing on the moment and the large crowd that watches the round these extempers lose sight of two important things: giving a speech on a national or state stage is an excellent opportunity and a testament to the hard work that you have put into the event and it is still an extemp speech!
If you find yourself nervous before a big round that is not bad. Everyone gets nervous and if someone says that they never get nervous then they are lying to you. The reason you get nervous before a round is that you know you have an opportunity to win the round. In the case of NFL that means a nice shiny trophy, the designation as national final round champion, and potentially a shot at a national title and thousands of dollars in scholarship money. At other tournaments with a winner-takes-all finals format, you know that you have the opportunity to be a national circuit, local, or state champion. Nerves are only bad if you let them negatively influence your performance.
To calm your nerves, you should tell yourself that the speech you are about to give is no different than the ones that you have given before smaller audiences or to your coach in practice. The rules for the speech are still the same: the time limit is seven minutes, you need to make sure you say and answer the question, and you need to make sure you cite sources to support your view. Just because the audience of the speech is different does not mean that anything regarding the event has changed. By keeping this in mind you can relax and have fun.
Have Fun!
When you are in a big round it presents you with a new challenge and an opportunity. A challenge in that you have to engage a bigger audience than you are used to, but it is also an opportunity to share with those people your views about the domestic or international topic that you chose. Those people chose to be there, so they are a captive audience and you are the one that has the floor! Therefore, view the chance to speak before a large audience as a way to make a good impression and maybe even a teaching exhibition since younger extempers might be watching you perform.
Also, it is important for the judges to see that you are enjoying yourself when you speak. It never hurts to smile every once and a while. If you are a funny person, then feel free to throw in some jokes to lighten the mood, but do not force yourself to do anything that you would not normally do just because you are speaking before a large audience. One of the worst mistakes speakers make in the NFL final is that they try to turn it into standup comedy and those people do not come out of those tournaments with national championships. If you are in a national final, try to be conscious of your time up on the stage and enjoy it because you may be giving the last speech of your career and you may never get another opportunity like that again.
I remember being very, very nervous for my 2003 NFL final round speech, but midway through the speech I realized some of the things that I have talked about in this strategy piece. I realized that I was just giving a regular speech and time seemed to slow down as I took in the moment of speaking in an NFL national final. It was one of the better speeches that I ever gave due in no small part to relaxing and enjoying my experience as opposed to trying to rush and get through the speech. By appearing relaxed and confident you will win many, many rounds in your career and by maintaining that same state in front of large crowds you can become one of the greats.