Physically, for this speech, I was looking to appear a little more relaxed than the first speech. Although I do feel I did well being able to appear calm, I was definitely nervous during the first speech. For this one, however, since it was an extra credit speech, I was more relaxed knowing there wasn’t anything to lose by making this speech. Additionally, I was talking about a subject matter that I’m very knowledgeable about, which is cycling. This relates to my emotional goals for this speech. The athlete I spoke of, Alberto Contador, was one of my longtime favorite cyclists as I gained interest in the sport. To see his demise occur this way is rather saddening and disappointing for the sport, and I looked to illustrate that in the way I spoke.

Making the speech, like I previously stated, was easier this time than the first speech because I’ve had experience and the event occurred last week rather than 14 years ago (as in my introductory speech). I felt very positive about my speech; I knew exactly what I wanted to say, I knew the order I wanted to speak of the events leading up to it, and I knew the background information I wanted to give out at the beginning of the speech. Additionally, I felt a strong connection with several audience members. I saw many smiles when I mentioned Contador’s excuse that contaminated meat was the reason for his failed drug test. A few students laughed when I mentioned that I always wanted to be “like Mike” (Michael Jordan) on the basketball court. So I definitely felt that a strong connection has been made and is being formed in general with the audience that I’ve been speaking to.

I think one thing I’ve learned and continue to learn is that you can never over-prepare when planning a speech. I knew exactly what I needed to say, but I still found myself saying “umm” or “like”, filler words which should really be avoided. One thing I do notice is that I make note cards, and never end up using them. One thing to maybe consider is constructing and writing a note card that has trigger words that I know I’ll use instead of filler words. Another thing I would personally like to focus on is my conclusions. I struggle to clearly get my point across at the end of the speech. In this case, I think there was so many important things about eh outcome of this case that I simply didn’t know how to summarize them into one. I definitely want to be more prepared when I think about what to say for future conclusions.