Finishing up a three-day class today. Usually slam worn out on a good week — being sick has made it much harder than normal. My voice was ’bout shot, my patience low, and I was ready for the final bell to sound.With about two hours to go I became aware that I was rushing, pace was fast, and usually that means I am slurring my words. I began to try to very consciously slow down and enunciate, since usually I’m way overboard by the time I notice it. I typically poke fun at a class’s mumbled responses and had done so with this class, making me ripe for repayment. And it came. I uttered some phrase that made sense to me, but I have no idea how it came out. A student fired back something about mumbling (imitating/making fun of me), and the entire class — me included — got a good laugh out of it. It was a nice break for me, and helped me get to the finish line with a little extra energy.When energy wanes, your ability to control your thoughts, speech, and actions typically is lessened. A conscious effort to ramp up those skills of enunciation, culling the message to its simplest form, and maintaining the rest of your delivery skills along with bringing the needed energy and vibrance is more important than ever. And harder. But the more training you’ve had and the more ingrained your (good) habits are, the easier it is to maintain the required pace all the way through the finish line.
The longer you speak and the more tired you are, the greater the need to concentrate on speech delivery skills and the more important your developed habits become.
