In this video, I’m going to teach you 3 simple speaking drills.
Here are the drills: 1. Count from 1 to 20, 2. Say ‘Hi! My name is …’ and 3. Breathing to stay calm.
Here’s your first drill, count from 1 to 20.
Let’s start with counting to 20. The best thing about this drill is you won’t need to think about what you’re going to say. You just have to count up to 20. As you are counting, play with your hand gestures and eye contact. You can go faster, slower, louder, softer or play with pauses. Let me demonstrate it for you.
Presenter demonstrates how to count from 1 to 20.
Next let’s try Drill 2, ‘Say hi my name is’.
The next drill will help you stay present and be in charge of your space. It will help you speak more confidently, especially at the start and at the end of your sentence.
This is what you need to do: Take a deep breath, then say, ‘Hi! My name is …… .’ And after the sentence, take another deep breath.
Let me demonstrate this.
Presenter demonstrates how to do Drill 2.
For most of us, after we introduce ourselves or say something, we usually want to run away from the attention on us, like ‘Hi! My name is ….’ and pass that attention to someone else. We usually look away. But here, we choose to stay and be comfortable in our space. So remember: when you do this exercise, practise with your breath at the beginning and at the end. We will now do a variation of Drill 2 to work on different tone of voice. In this exercise, we’ll say ‘Hi! My name is …..’ in 3 different ways. Play with the pitch, speed and use pauses to show how much you are in charge of your space.
Our final drill is, ‘breathe to stay calm’.
In the final drill, you will learn a simple breathing exercise to help you stay calm. This is how it goes…breathe in 2, 3 4, hold 2, 3, 4, breathe out 2, 3, 4, hold 2, 3, 4. This breathing exercise is very helpful before your presentation, when you are feeling a little nervous while waiting for your turn.
Now that you’ve got your 3 drills, have fun going through them.