Informative Speech Help.

[andy ross]

Whats up guys, tomorrow I have to give a 5 to 7 minute informative speech about wakeskating. The speech has to have 3 main points and right now I have the history of wakeskating, what you need to wakeskate, and competitions/video and magazines exposure and what it means to wakeskate professionally...Ive never had to give a speech before so I was wondering if these were good points to talk about...and if anyone on here has experience with public speaking what are some things that I can do to stay calm because im getting pretty nervous about it.


thanks,
andy

[knox]

Sounds good to me. Odds are no one in your class knows about wakeskating, they'll believe you even if the information isn't remotely accurate.

[electricsnow]

Credibility and accuracy go hand in hand.

As for speech preparation techniques, I would recommend practicing your speech a lot, and that includes saying it out loud. It seems silly and I admit it's embarrassing to me, but I've found that that helps out a lot with public speaking. Part of it just comes down to confidence. Good luck!

[GnarShredd]

This isn't going to help but if you ever have to do a perquasive speech you should dress up as Darth Vader and convince people to go to the dark side. Unfortunately I thought of this after I took my speech class.



Also, those sound like very broad topics to cover in just 5-7min. Narrow it down to 3 to 4 main points. If you're including an introduction and a conclusion, which you should, then stick with 3 main points. that way you can devote roughly a minute to each section, Intro, Point 1, Point 2, Point 3, and Conclusion and still have some time left over in case you run over on a particular point, which you likely will if you're talking about something you really like.

Something like this would be apropriate (bold items are the main points and the non-bold are ideas on what you can talk about in each.

-Intro
Point 1-Brief history of wakeskating.
-Who started it.
-Where they gained their inspiration and their vision for the sport.
Point 2-Where wakeskating's at today
-Current Influential riders and why they stand out (what makes them embody wakeskating so well?).
-Level of riding
Point 3-The Future of Wakeskating
-The Winch (even though this is kind of the present, nobody is going to know any better, plus it makes for a cool way to introduce people to the concept of a winch for wakeskating. you can maybe show a picture or something to help reinforce it. It'd be cool to talk about how winching really is helping wakeskating to stand out from wakeboarding)
-Potential for growth in participants of the sport.
-Conclusion



It's a lot to talk about in 5-7 minutes though and I don't know exactly how detailed they'd want you to get but these are just some rough ideas to run with. A tip that helped me is to outline everything like I did above to organize your thoughts, then go from there.

the biggest thing though about getting over your nervousness is to just practice your speech to yourself. I've had to give 40 minute speeches/lectures in a hall full of people (mostly girls , haha, that's what I get for being a fashion merchandising major) and I'm usually a relatively shy person. Just practice your speech (yes, out loud) just like you plan to say it in class and you'll be fine.

I guarantee that if you're nervous you'll talk to much and ramble. Stick to your main points and make sure you cover enough time with each and you'll be fine; oh and practice, practice, practice.

[t-rex]

[GnarShredd]

Yeah, it's cool. I get a lot of shizzle but when it comes down to it, who went on a study abroad trip to London/Paris with a group of 81 other people, with all 81 of them being female? (I was the one guy of 82 students on the trip, haha)

[t-rex]

GnarShredd,

[mr robotto]

-Act like you know what you're talking about, whenever you're making a speech if you seem confident and like you understand the subject people will believe that you do (now don't do this day to day and act like you know everything, thats annoying as hell)

-Don't use like, I'm guessing this is for a class and you come across as if you don't understand the material and that you're unprepared and looking for more time--plus you look, like, stupid

-don't act like you're reading something. When you're talking make it seem as if you're having a conversation and that you care about it with a passion (which should seem easy with wakeskating...)

-Its better to have too much information than too little. Come more prepared than you think because nothing is worse than giving a speech and realizing you still have a good gap of time to fill-its better that you leave something out because someone is stopping you.

-Eye contact-you don't even have to look at someone, just make it look like you're looking side to side and use some hand motions or act like you're holding the rope, use your hands to show the length of a wakeskate, but don't use repetitive hand motions every other point that is being made.