Speaking drills

Speaking drills are activities which train a student's speaking through consistent repetition. They usually aim to eliminate a particular fault that hinders effective delivery.

Enunciation problems

 * Consonant drill - Slowly read something, hitting all of the hard consonants (b, d, g, k, t, etc.). Focus on enunciating every single syllable clearly. Slowly build up to normal speed, continuing the over-enunciation.


 * Pencil drill - Read text with a pencil or pen in your mouth. This can either be done with the pencil sticking out between the front teeth, or held lengthwise across your molars.


 * Tongue twisters - Read a series of tongue twisters, at a quick conversational rate.

Articulation problems

 * Mouth-opening drill - Open your mouth in an exaggerated manner while reading or speaking. (You may actually want to do this in-round, in a less noticeable way - many articulation problems are caused by not opening the mouth enough.)


 * Abade drill - One popular articulation drill is to say "abade" (ah-baa-dee) repeatedly, with slowly increasing speed, always trying to leave clear breaks between syllables and words.

Flat or monotone delivery

 * Conversation drill - Intentionally read a brief to someone as if everything in it was your own words, and you were just having a conversation. Act like you're very interested in and excited about the subject, so you own personality comes through. (Obviously, this should be more understated in an actual round, but reading evidence should still have the lilt and fall of natural conversation.)


 * Emphasis drill - Go through a brief and mark all the "good" words, that should be emphasized when you read the evidence. Then read the brief, consistently emphasizing the words you marked. (This should mainly be done with pitch and style, not pure volume - you don't want to be shouting by the end of your speech.) If you have trouble with choppy speech, you may want to practice emphasizing words without slowing down on them.

Volume

 * Speaking too quietly - Many debaters, especially younger ones, speak too quietly to hear clearly. To combat this, intentionally deliver a speech at the top of your lungs. (Obviously, you shouldn't actually shout in-round!)


 * Speaking too loudly - This is commonly the result of poor breathing, so try the breathing drills below. Or, simply practice speaking at a whisper and find the happy medium.

Non-fluid speech
Speech is not fluid when it contains a great number of unnatural or unnecessary pauses and stumbles. To help alleviate this problem:


 * Correct problems proactively, not retroactively - Many debaters get in the habit of just saying things, and then - when they stutter or stumble - backing up and fixing them. This habit breaks up the flow of natural speech. Instead, practice by focusing on getting it right the first time (slow down if you need to.) Then, when you make a mistake, do not go back and fix it; just keep going.


 * Focus on rhythm - Practice speaking with a set, natural rhythm. You might speak to music that has a specific beat. Alternatively, have someone clap or tap out a rhythm while you talk. (Obviously, speaking in a weirdly rhythmic way in-round is not advisable, but doing this exercise will help you overcome choppy speaking.)


 * Reading ahead - Practice reading text a few words ahead of what you're actually saying. This helps reduce stumbles from suddenly encountering an unfamiliar word, because you will see it slightly before you read it.

Lazy reading
Often, debaters will get lazy when reading evidence and skip over or misread words.


 * Skipping drill - read a brief and intentionally skip every other word, or every third word. This forces you to pay attention to what you are reading. (Remember, of course, that you shouldn't actually skip over words in-round!)


 * Filler drill - Read an entire brief, and insert the word "a" between every word. For example, "the impact is nuclear war" becomes "a impact a is a nuclear a war a."


 * Pig Latin drill - Read an entire brief in Pig Latin. (...if you can stand listening to Pig Latin for that long...!)

Verbal pauses and filler words

 * (main article: Verbal pauses)

Filler words like "ah", "um", and "like" sound bad and distract from the content of the speech.


 * Interruption drill - As you speak, have an attentive listener do something startling every time you say an unwanted word. (Clapping, banging the table, saying something loudly, or shooting rubber bands/Nerf darts at the speaker are all common.)

Breathing problems
Breathing problems include not taking enough breathes and breathing incorrectly. Having to take large breaths while reading or running out of breath at the end of a sentence or card are strong indicators that a debater is not breathing correctly.

Breathing deeply and slowly is thought to reduce nervousness and increase volume. This is referred to as abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing.
 * Chair drill - This drill is intended to increase reliance on diaphragmatic breathing and reduce breathlessness. Lift a chair (such as a kitchen or folding chair) at arms length in front of you while giving a practice speech. During the speech, focus on breathing deeply and slowly, and speaking loudly.


 * The "public humiliation" drill - Meant to improve diaphragmatic breathing, this drill requires you to stand against a flat vertical surface, such as a wall. Your head, shoulders, buttocks and heels should be in direct contact with the wall. If desired, you may hold your arms slightly forward with the elbows bent in such a way that your hands are in a position to grasp the opposite wrists. This position allows for full expansion of the diaphragm. Standing thus, inhale deeply into the abdomen while counting to ten. Your chest and shoulders should not move. Hold the breath for another count of ten, exhale for ten, and repeat as many times as desired.


 * Once you have "stretched" your diaphragm, recite a tongue twister. The most famous for this purpose is an announcer's test that originated at Radio Central New York in the early 1940s, made famous by radio personality Jerry Lewis. The point is to recite as many lines as possible with a single breath. It goes as follows:


 * One hen
 * Two ducks
 * Three squawking geese
 * Four limerick oysters
 * Five corpulent porpoises
 * Six pair of Don Alversos tweezers
 * Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
 * Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt
 * Nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic, old men on roller skates with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth
 * Ten lyrical, spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who hall stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery, all at the same time.


 * Pause-point drill - While making an argument, intentionally breathe at natural pause points. Say the tagline, take a breath, read the citation, take a breath, read the card (breathing at punctuation marks), then take a breath before going to the next tagline. Etc.


 * Punctuation drill - While reading evidence, intentionally take a small breath at each punctuation mark - commas, periods, semicolons, colons, etc.


 * Posture drill - Slouching, slumping over while reading, and other posture problems can cause breathing issues. Stand up straight and put your briefs on a lectern. Have someone watch you speak and call out poor posture.