Public Speaking Survival Tips For New Karate Instructors
Public speaking is a nightmare for many people! Yet here you are standing in front of your first full blown Karate class! A dojo full of watchful youth…worse yet if their parents are there too watching your first class!Obviously there are ways to overcome this fear of public speaking/presentation; heck most teachers start out just like you; scared..now it is nothing to them, teaching/demonstrating is not even a concern in their routine!
So how can you get to this relaxed level? Easy, practice, practice, practice.
What you need is a method of calming yourself, and preparing your class lessons to be exciting and enjoyable. Here are a few ‘tricks’ to help you relax, enjoy and excel at public speaking.
1 Reassure yourself that the class will be interested in what you teach. They are there to learn from you…you need to know your stuff and should be well prepared for your class. ‘Winging it’ is obvious and can cause you to lose your pace in class. Know your class material and start running the lesson!
2 Hook the students by being an interesting teacher. Nothing is worse than a dull, uninterested lesson - seeing the class fall inattentive can be unnerving and cause you to lose confidence & result in student injury; prepare yourself well for the age group you are working with.
3 Inspire them with activities and hands-on demonstrations. Keep talking to a minimum, teach Karate through demonstration not a lecture!
Here are a few insights into how to relax and prepare yourself for a class, public performance, etc.
Tip One - Breath…no really, breath!
Quick nervous breathing can cause hyperventilation and worsens anxiety. Just before class take five minutes in a quiet area to relax with deep breathing. Run through what you want to do during class and also prepare yourself to be active and lively for the next 50 minutes or so.
Tip Two - Captivate student’s attention by using actions. Demonstrate the techniques (this cannot be stressed enough). When you do speak to give explanations, paint pictures and sensations in their minds with your words.
Tip Three - Alter your voice tonality and speed of delivery when describing concepts/moves. Explode with energy when need be and slow down when you need to have them hanging on the edge of their seats! You are the conductor and they are the orchestra.
Tip Four - Have fun!
July 21st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
It is correct that deep breathing helps a lot in getting relaxed, and gaining a sense of control over oneself. Before doing anything else, our breathing has to be corrected - from fast and shallow to deep and slow.
Now, you have to take care of what is going on inside your head! I am giving below my thoughts based upon my own experiences. Hope readers find it useful.
It is correct that to captivate listeners the speaker herself has to be captivated by the subject of discourse. If you are interested in what you are speaking, then your listeners will also be interested in your speech. - This is regarding the extent of ‘interesting’ that can be created in the listeners.
Now, may be you have to make a speech on a subject with which you are not really fascinated. Here, the thing that helps you best is your knowledge and grasp of the subject on which you are speaking. if you have good level of mastery over the topic, it will show, and the audience will respect you for that.
Another important thing to remember is that you should not be awed by the fact that you are going to speak from a position of authority, so you are required to be something more than is actually the case. It makes you feel nervous, you feel that you are not actually that great, after all. Here, you can calm yourself by thinking that this is a case of role playing. In many cases you are the audience, and in a few cases the reverse is the case. There is nothing very great about it.
Always remember that audience is there to know or listen to something new from you. Do that, and you will be a great speaker!