Stage Anxiety

8/10/2019 Stage Anxiety

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In the upcoming slides,

you will learn... • What stage fright is.

• How controlled stage fright is helpful.

• How uncontrolled stage fright can be harmful.

• How to prepare thoroughly.

• How to relax before you speak.

• How to develop the right attitude.

• How to concentrate on your topic

and audience.

• How to handle specific symptoms.



Understanding Stage Fright

• “The human brain is a wonderful thing. It starts

working the moment you are born and never stops

until you stand up to speak in public.” - George Jessel

• Most people experience stage fright.

If you polled the people in this classroom

right now, 80 to 90% would report some

form of nervousness about giving apublic speech.

• Stage fright affects most people

in physical ways…



Understanding Stage Fright

(continued)• Sweaty palms

• queasy stomach

• dry mouth• excessive perspiration

• increased heart rate

• shortness of breath

• The reasons for these symptoms of stage fright arebecause people want to perform well and make a good

impression, but they are worried that they may not be

very successful.



Controlled Stage Fright

• You can make good use of tension when you are preparing

to deliver a speech.

• This tension causes muscles to tighten, you heart and

breathing rates to increase, and more adrenalin and oxygen

to pump throughout your body.

• Good public speakers can take this result of stage fright

and make it work for them by learning to control it and

channel it properly.

• Well-known speakers have reported that their most

successful speeches have been those that they were most

nervous about beforehand.



Uncontrolled Stage Fright

• Inexperienced speakers, unused to feeling the symptoms of

stage fright, often think their dry throat or sweaty palms

spell certain doom for their speech.

• The result is runaway stage fright.

• 2 Forms of Runaway Stage Fright:

– 1) Lack of Confidence- speaker has allowed the symptoms

of stage fright to snowball. This leads to runaway stage

fright.

– 2) Overconfidence- Does not usually begin until after the

speech begins. It takes the speaker by surprise. If you are

overconfident, and you have a moment of forgetfulness,

sudden stage fright can be triggered.



Prepare Thoroughly

One effective method for controlling stage

fright is to prepare thoroughly for each public

speech.1) Study your topic.

2) Analyze the needs of your audience.

3) Research & outline the ideas of your speech.4) Rehearse your presentation sufficiently.



Relax Before You Speak• Here are several relaxation techniques that will help reduce the

physical symptoms of stage fright.

• 1) Force yourself to yawn several times. Fill your lungs w/ air each

time by breathing deeply.

• 2) Let your head hang down as far as possible on your chest for

several moments. Then slowly rotate it in a full circle, at the same

time allowing your eyelids to droop lazily. Let your mouth and

lower jaw hang open loosely. Repeat 5 or 6 times.

• 3) Sit in a slumped position in a chair as if you were a rag doll.

Allow your arms to dangle beside the chair, your head to slump on

your chest, and your mouth to hang open. Tighten all your muscles

at one time, and then gradually relax them. Repeat.



Train yourself to think in the right way:

1) Since the time for my speech is getting near,

what I’m feeling are symptoms of stage fright. It isanticipation and excitement that make me feel thisway.

2) This is my body’s way of preparing me to meet

a special speech situation.3) Once my speech begins, this tension will serveas a spring to sharpen my thinking and givevitality to my presentation.



• Don’t think about yourself too much. Instead,

begin to develop a positive attitude. When you

do develop one, the worst symptoms of stagefright are likely to disappear.

• How can you begin developing such an

attitude?

• Choose your speech topics carefully.

• Be interested in your topic.

• Share your enthusiasm of the topic with your

audience.



While you are actually delivering your speech,

search the faces of your audience to make certain

they are following your ideas to see whether the

listeners agree with your ideas. If you perceive boredom growing among your listeners, change

tactics and attempt to regain their attention and

interest. Oftentimes, simply using more

expression in your voice regains their attention. Ifyou concentrate on looking for audience feedback

and making an appropriate response to it, you will

have little time to think about yourself.

Concentrate On Your Audience



• Humor has long been used as a means of reducing

tension between speaker & audience. Getting a laugh

form the audience builds confidence rapidly.

• When using humor, observe these precautions:

– Prepare humor thoroughly beforehand, making certain it will

be understood and appreciated by this particular audience. A

joke that falls flat can destroy a speaker’s confidence rather

than rebuild it. – Use humor mainly during the speech introduction, sprinkling

lesser amounts throughout the remainder of the speech.

– Do not overuse humor.

– Avoid offensive jokes.



Handling Specif ic Symptoms

• Trembling hands and a rattling manuscript- Use 3x5 note cards

and concentrate on squeezing your shoulder blades together.

• Stumbling Over words-getting “tongue twisted”- Deliberatelyslow down your speaking rate until the problem disappears.

• Excessive Perspiration- Ignore it. Do not call attention to it by

wiping your hands or forehead.• Tense Muscles- Use platform movement and gestures, and

again, concentrate on squeezing your shoulder blades together.

• Feeling Inferior- Try dressing for the speech in the outfit that

makes you look your best. Naturally, it must be appropriate tothe audience and the occasion.

• Dry Mouth- Speak slowly to avoid getting tongue tied. Do notlick your lips in front of the audience.



What You Have Learned...

• What stage fright is.

• Controlled and Uncontrolled stage fright & how to deal

with it.

• How to prepare thoroughly.

• How to relax before you speak.

• How to develop the right attitude.

• How to concentrate on you audience and your topic.• How to use humor thoughtfully.

• How to handle some specific symptoms.



Overcoming Speech Anxiety

Understanding presentational anxiety

and applying some of these techniques

and suggestions will help you overcome

the more paralyzing forms of stage fright.

They might become very useful when

you give your next speech.

Stage Anxiety

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