Member Article

Drive time

With Simon Raybould of Curved Vision

Okay, this isn’t the most profound tip for public speaking in the world but it cropped up in one our recent training days. Several people commented that it would be nice to do the warm-up exercises we were talking about but that it wasn’t practical because they drove to the venue and then didn’t have anywhere to go…

…and what’s wrong with doing your warm-ups in your car?

Well, assuming you’re not travelling with your boss or whatever, very little! You’ll get a reasonable degree of privacy and any lip-work you do (essential to improve your diction) will be no problem. A couple of tongue-twisters at a red traffic light and you’re well on your way.

The note of caution in all of this, of course, is that your driving position isn’t a good one for getting your posture sorted out, so if you do decide to spend some time in the car getting your act together watch out for a couple of things:

• make sure your shoulders don’t get pulled up by having your hands on the wheel
• make sure you don’t allow your stomach to get tightened - which it might because a driving position isn’t good for allowing your diaphragm to work well
• Remember those two issues and you should be able to find some extra time in your day

As usual, questions and comments on sme@curved-vision.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .