Does public speaking cause you anxiety?
Public speaking is something that many people fear and struggle with, but it doesn't have to always the case for you. Public Speaking exercises at home are a great way to improve public speaking skills and gain confidence in public speaking situations.
The best public speaking exercises at home are the ones you do over and over again until they become second nature. In this article, we will be discussing the importance of public speaking exercises and 9 killer public-speaking exercises you can do at home!
Top 9 Killer Public Speaking Exercises (At Home!)
1. Practice in front of the Mirror
This may seem silly, but it's an incredibly powerful public speaking exercise that can be done easily and repeatedly. All you need to do this public speaking exercise is a full-length mirror (or even just your bathroom counter). Next, find some time when there are no distractions like the phone ringing or someone coming over for dinner unannounced (Yeah right!).
Now all you have to do is make sure not to look directly into your eyes while looking into the mirror; instead, focus on impressing yourself with how well you speak and carry yourself during your speech 'practice'. Try making eye contact with yourself as little as possible and instead imagine you are speaking to a crowd.
Make sure to practice giving eye contact, gesturing appropriately, maintaining an open posture (shoulders relaxed), using pauses effectively (pauses make things sound more important!), etc...
2. Practice your introduction
As public speakers we spend a significant amount of time preparing our introduction, but what about practicing it? Practice your public speaking introduction at home to ensure you are comfortable with how you deliver it and that the words flow nicely.
As a speaker, you only have a few moments to grab the attention of your audience, so its key that you have a quality introduction in regards to content and delivery,
3. Practice Your Breathing
The simple reason for this public-speaking exercise is that if you can control your breath, then it's easier to speak clearly and confidently in front of an audience (or even by yourself). To do this public-speaking exercise simply focus on taking deep breaths from the diaphragm; don't worry about filling up your lungs with air but rather take slow steady inhales through the nose into the stomach area as opposed to shallow breathes like what most people typically do when public speaking.
This public speaking exercise may seem silly at first, but over time it should become second nature and make public speaking a whole lot easier.
4. Record yourself delivering the speech and then watch it back to see what you could improve
When you're recording yourself, make sure to focus on the following things:
- your facial expressions
- your body language
- how well you deliver the speech (pace, volume, etc.)
- eye contact with the camera/recorder
This is a great public speaking exercise because it allows you to get feedback from an objective source. Watching yourself back can be really helpful in improving your public speaking skills as it gives you an idea of what works and what doesn't work. Additionally, it can help identify any nervous habits that you may have so that you can make the proper adjustments.
Make sure to focus on your facial expressions when recording yourself delivering a speech. This is important because it helps the audience connect with you emotionally and see the genuine emotions that are coming across while you're presenting
5. Vocal Exercises
There are many different vocal exercises that you can do before giving a speech in order to help with your public speaking. Some of these exercises include humming the vowel sounds, singing scales, and saying tongue twisters. By doing these exercises, you will be able to improve your breathing, pronunciation, and articulation which will make your speeches sound smoother and more polished.
But don't forget to warm up by stretching out your muscles - this will reduce tension in your voice box that can cause hoarseness or soreness.
Check out some warm up exercises below from an expert:
6. Deliver Table Topics speeches
Have you heard of Table topics?
Table Topics is a long-standing Toastmasters tradition intended to help members develop their ability to organize their thoughts quickly and respond to an impromptu question or topic.
This requires quick thinking and improves many public speaking skills such as improvisation, extemporaneous speech, eye contact, and more!
You can recreate this public speaking exercise at home by practice this by giving yourself topics randomly and creating a quick 2 to 5 minute speech on the spot.
If you practice impromptu public speaking you will no doubt develop as a speaker!
Please see an example of how impromptu speaking breeds quick thinking in the movie clip below:
7. Practice in front of your family
Get more comfortable with public speaking by practicing in front of people who are close friends or family members first. When you do, please ask them for honest feedback!
- Did they state that your speech was boring?
- Were they unclear about the main point of your speech?
- Did you fail to make eye contact with your listeners?
This feedback will be a valuable tool as you can use it to identify any areas of strength or weakness in your presentation skills.
8. Observe other great speakers
The best way to become a better public speaker is by watching great speakers on YouTube, TEDx talks, and other platforms. By doing this, we'll expose ourselves not only to the latest techniques but also broaden our knowledge in different styles, which will help us learn even more from great speakers like those present at these forums!
9. Practice Public Speaking in a Virtual Reality Platform
Would you like the ability to practice in front of an audience while you are at home?
VirtualSpeech is an award-winning VR education platform for soft skills training, with a focus on communication skills such as public speaking, sales, and leadership.
This is a great way to improve your public speaking skill with the following benefits:
- Unlimited real-feel practice opportunities
- Practice in a safe environment (No worries about COVID19)
- Receive real-time feedback
- Training on a variety of public speaking and communication scenarios
Please take note of this brief demo below by VirtualSpeech.
Take Your Public Speaking Exercises at Home to the Next Level!
We hope that these exercises gave you some helpful tips on how to prepare yourself and be a better speaker. These 9 killer public speaking exercises at home should help get your creative juices flowing as well as allow you to practice both public speaking and general life skills.
For more resources to develop your public speaking skills while you are in the comforts of your own home, take advantage of the many online resources. Please check out the article ‘Online Resources for Public Speaking‘ for a detailed review of some online resources for public speaking.
