World Champion Craig Valentine suggests you focus on these things when practicing your speech:
- Avoid the mirror - you won't look at a mirror onstage so don't look at one when you practice - video yourself practicing and watch it after you finish
- Imagine the audience - picture the audience as clearly as possible - What are they wearing? What are they doing?
- Mental practice - go through your entire speech in your mind (no words) seeing and feeling the audience's reaction to you
- Create connections - if you stumble while rehearsing, continue as if you were onstage - focus on the message you are getting across to the audience and see yourself making that deep audience connection
- Bring up the bad - if you've got something you need to work on and isn't going right, exaggerate the correct way to do it - for example, if you find you have low energy in your talk practice your talk yelling and waving your arms
Tim Wilson
Professional Speech Coach
Free speaking tips at: http://speakingquicktips.blogspot.com
