come to another speech & debate tournament with me! (may 31- june 2)

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Hey everyone! I'm currently in a speech round, and I have some extra free time, so... here I am. I've done these reflections once before, and I decided to do it again!

Note: I like to wrap up debate tournaments by writing a reflection, and I decided to publish it on this blog because why not. So there might be some debate jargon or confusing bits that only make sense in my head. I'd like to apologize in advance for that. 

So like I said, I'm in a speech round right now, but I already gave my speech. I was speaker 1, and because this is an online tournament, I'm able to write this while other people are talking. Let's jump right in!

round one reflections

I competed against one of the girls in my round the last tournament I was in, too! What a cool coincidence.

I need to start off by saying that all of the people in my room were so good. Out of the 5 other people in my room, I genuinely cannot think of a way to improve 4 of them. They were perfect. The judge will have so much difficulty picking first, because even I can't select a favorite. 

What does this teach me? It shows me that I need to have something that sets me apart. Something that shows the judges that they need to rank me first. That could be...

  • my voice modulation
  • my body language
  • my expressions
  • my tone (slow)
  • my relatability
  • my breaking of the fourth wall
So I need to emphasize all that.

round 2 reflections

Ugh, I hate it when my opponents are nice, because then I feel bad about beating them. Our judge hasn't joined yet so we started talking, and this one person in my round might actually be the nicest person on earth. Well, too bad he's going to lose to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Edit: yeah... in the end neither of us made it to finals, so...

The fifth speaker also talked about about human evolution, which is not good. Its always best to have a unique topic. Her speech is still pretty different from mine though, so it's not too bad.

As for me.... yeah, there's no way I'm ranking first for that round. I messed up in the last paragraph, which is supposed to be the last hurrah or whatever. 

round 3 reflections

I was supposed to be speaker 2, but speaker 6 had to go first because she was double entered. 

The person who was supposed to be speaker 1 slayed so hard. Like I actually think that she was the best speech I've seen today.

As for me, who was after her... let's just say my speech was long. As in, 44 seconds overtime long. Which is a big deal. I was speaking so fast at the end, but I still went overtime. I don't get it! Usually, I have trouble fitting my speech within the time limit. 

The girl after me was fine, but the last speaker (5th) did great. Like, really great. I think he's also going to win. Why is everyone so good??

things I did well

  • Great simulated eye contact with the audience.
  • Tone was clear and filled with excitement, which was engaging
  • God delivery, conveying the message of the original speech in a compelling fashion. 
  • The portrayal of mood and theme engages the audience while maintaining the integrity of the original speech.
  • The introduction effectively set the stage for my speech.

things I could have done better

  • Be mindful of small memorization flubs (at one point I said not everyone believes in money, but in the next line I said everyone believes in money).
  • Adding a bit more variation in your gestures could enhance the visual impact of your message. (two different judges said that)
  • Be mindful of the time, as I did go slightly over.

conclusion

So, I didn't make it to finals this time. But that's okay. This was a national tournament, so it was a lot more competitive the last one. It was a good learning experience.

Paige C, signing off.
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