{"id":783,"date":"2017-02-23T15:32:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T15:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/?p=783"},"modified":"2017-02-23T15:43:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T15:43:01","slug":"overcoming-performance-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/2017\/02\/23\/overcoming-performance-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Performance Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andrew<\/a>

Andrew Keeler L2, USA<\/p><\/div>\n

Hi, I\u2019m Andrew Keel– \u2026 Andrew, and, my presentation, sorry, I\u2019m, um, going to talk about\u2026 something that I should know the name of that\u2019s called\u2026 oh yeah, \u201cStage Fright.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try this again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi! \u00a0I\u2019m Andrew Keeler, I\u2019m an L2 based out of Knoxville, TN, and today I\u2019m going to talk about dealing with performance anxiety as a presenter at a judge conference. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Performance anxiety, like any kind of anxiety, is a fear response. \u00a0Commonly referred to as \u2018stage fright\u2019, performance anxiety is a fear that arises in relation to presenting, speaking, or otherwise <\/span>performing<\/span><\/i> in front of an audience. \u00a0Like all fear responses, the anxiety that a presenter feels may be justified to some degree. \u00a0Most people are afraid of looking foolish in front of others; it\u2019s trivially easy to imagine ways to mess up a presentation and have nowhere to hide when all eyes are on you. \u00a0There are, after all, millions of ways to mess up a presentation and Only One Way to execute it perfectly. <\/span><\/p>\n

In small doses, performance anxiety is a motivator to practice and perfect a presentation so that you, as the presenter, do a good job presenting. Performance anxiety becomes a problem when that fear response grows out of proportion to the presentation, and becomes paralyzing and debilitating instead of motivating. \u00a0At this point, the performance anxiety starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as you now spend more time rehearsing ways to make a mistake than thinking about doing things correctly. \u00a0Unfortunately, \u00a0this only makes you more likely to actually make a mistake during a presentation.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do we go about getting over performance anxiety to give a solid presentation?<\/span><\/p>\n

Caution<\/b>: \u00a0These tips alone will not produce a stellar presentation. \u00a0In some cases they may appear to contradict \u201cbest practices\u201d for giving presentations. \u00a0My goal here is to give advice to help mitigate excessive performance anxiety and give a good presentation in a relaxed and confident manner \u2013 not help you to write the \u2018most interesting presentation in the world.\u2019 \u00a0Once you\u2019ve gained confidence as a presenter you can focus on enhancing the presentation content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Become an Expert<\/b><\/h2>\n

Even if nothing else in this article works and your knees are knocking together so badly that your audience joins you in what they imagine to be an interpretive dance, you can still compensate for some performance anxiety by knowing what you are talking about better than everyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

My day job is in physics research as a graduate student. \u00a0In a research group, everyone in the group focuses on different parts of the same project because the projects are too big for one person to do everything. \u00a0The person who writes and maintains the analysis software is different from the person who designs the physical setup for our experiment, who is different from the person who works on developing new detectors for the experiment, who is different from the person who runs simulations, who is different from the person who handles the administrative tasks for the experiment, etc. \u00a0We meet maybe once per week as a whole group to update everyone else on where we are in our part of the project, and in that time, I am the only person who knows what I\u2019ve been up to and what the status is on my part of the project. \u00a0When I\u2019m presenting my status, no one can tell me I\u2019m wrong because I\u2019m the only one who knows what has actually been happening. \u00a0There may be discussion about whether something similar has come up before, or where to go from here, but even the head researcher who has been doing things like this for 30 years is generally less of an expert on my particular part of the project than I, the lowliest student in the group, am.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how does this apply to judging? \u00a0Doesn\u2019t every judge more experienced than me know pretty much everything there is to know about judging?<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course not. \u00a0Magic is a giant, complex game, and being a judge only adds to the complexity. \u00a0Just as there are certainly areas where you are weak as a judge, there are areas where other judges are weak as well, even if everyone there is at the same judge level. \u00a0Your job, as the presenter, is to bolster your presentation by knowing absolutely everything there is to know about Investigations, or Two-Headed Giant, or Modern, or Layers, or hosting Judge Classes. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As an aside, don\u2019t be afraid to mention why <\/span>you are qualified<\/span><\/a> to talk about your topic within your presentation. \u00a0Your audience may not think much of it, but it can certainly help your confidence in your presentation by establishing that you do actually know what you\u2019re talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognize that people are interested in what you have to say<\/h2>\n

I mentioned above that all judges have strengths and weaknesses. Likely, the areas where other judges are weak are different from the areas where you are weak. \u00a0So, you presenting on a topic you are familiar with is going to be quite interesting to other judges who are not as familiar with that topic. \u00a0In fact, when you\u2019re standing up there looking at the sea of faces, think about the fact that all of the people in those seats chose your presentation over whatever else they could have been doing right now. \u00a0You don\u2019t need to convince them that your topic is an interesting one, because your audience already believes that it is. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, consider this article. \u00a0It is literally black text on a white background,\u00a0a couple\u00a0pictures further down as illustrations. \u00a0It could not be less bland or boring. Yet in spite of how boring and bland the presentation is, I\u2019ll bet most readers think this is a pretty good article. \u00a0You, dear Reader, have gone almost half-way through a visually uninteresting article with a minimum of clever humor, and I firmly believe you probably didn\u2019t even notice until I called attention to it just now. The reason for this is that you are interested in what I have to say, so I don\u2019t need to spend time worrying about how to convince you to read what I wrote. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Informative presentations select their own audiences. \u00a0As a presenter and <\/span>expert<\/i><\/b>, most of your audience will be there because they think you have some information to give them that they want to know. \u00a0They primarily want to be informed, not entertained. \u00a0There may be a small portion of your audience that is only there so they can get judge foils at the end, but it\u2019s unlikely that even clever visuals will convince them to be interested in your presentation. \u00a0For the vast majority of your audience, and certainly for the part you are most interested in reaching, the information you are presenting is the thing they are most interested in, which by default makes your presentation interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, a presentation can be made much more <\/span>visually appealing<\/span><\/a> than black text on a white background, but you shouldn\u2019t feel the need to use a slick presentation to convince your audience to be interested in your topic, because most of them would be somewhere else if they really weren\u2019t interested in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prepare for Failure<\/b><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Earlier I said that there\u2019s only one way to do things right, and millions of ways to look foolish. \u00a0I lied. \u00a0As it turns out, no presentation goes flawlessly. \u00a0This is such a truism that it hardly seems worth mentioning, but closely related to it is the lesser-acknowledged fact that things don\u2019t <\/span>need<\/b> to go flawlessly. \u00a0Audiences are much more forgiving of little mistakes than presenters are, particularly because the audience has no way of knowing if you made a mistake in the first place. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, those \u201cumm\u2026\u201ds, \u201cahh\u2026\u201ds, and awkward pauses? \u00a0That\u2019s how people naturally speak, and so everyone else automatically filters out some of those \u2018dis-fluencies.\u2019 \u00a0Pausing at an appropriate frequency also helps the audience to better take in the information that you\u2019re presenting, so not pausing at all can actually give a more negative impression by making a presentation seem too hard to follow. \u00a0Only when there\u2019s an excessive amount of pausing and awkward vocalizations do people start to notice and react negatively. \u00a0As a rule, using more than one interrupter per sentence is excessive, though you should use fewer if you are speaking more quickly, as the contrast between the content and the interrupter is more jarring. \u00a0I can assure you that your audience will be a lot more forgiving of those little things than you likely are. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t plan for what to do in case something does go wrong. \u00a0\u00a0If you miss a talking point, how will you communicate that information to your audience? \u00a0What\u2019s your plan to recover if a joke falls flat? \u00a0How will you keep the audience engaged if the screen falls over or the projector breaks? \u00a0Should you practice improvisation in case something unpredictable happens? \u00a0Do you need a backup plan in case you can no longer rely on your visuals? \u00a0These are all questions that you can, <\/span>and should<\/span><\/a>, answer ahead of time and then include in your practicing, so that you don\u2019t have to worry about them during your presentation. \u00a0Speaking of practicing\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

This one should go without saying, but there\u2019s still a temptation to skimp on this part. No amount of practice can adequately prepare you for being in front of a live audience in terms of eliminating anxiety, but that practice will translate into fewer mistakes during the presentation. That\u2019s because you re-tread that well-worn neural path that you\u2019ve made by giving the same presentation over and over again, so your brain is comfortable because it knows what comes next in the presentation. Writing notes is a good way to reinforce this, as the act of writing forces your brain to rehearse what you are writing and gives you prompts that you can refer to during the presentation.<\/p>\n

Another small thing you can do to help here is to have \u2018scripts\u2019 that you employ when you speak. A \u2018script\u2019 in this case is a short sentence or two that you can re-use with only slight tweaks for different settings. Have you ever noticed that fast food workers tend to always say the same things when they\u2019re greeting customers? \u201cHi, welcome to [place], how may I help you?\u201d Every customer gets the exact same scripted introduction, and they never seem to notice or care, because they are interested in what\u2019s being said<\/em><\/strong>. Scripts save the presenter a lot of mental energy, since they can be done pretty much on autopilot and can still create a good impression with the audience.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a couple of other scripts that readers may recognize:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> 1) Judgecast<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHello and welcome to Judgecast. \u00a0This is episode number [number]. \u00a0My name is CJ Schrader and with me, as always, my two [adjective, usually a pun] co-hosts. \u00a0First up we have Jess Dunks (Hi, this is Jess) and Brian Prillaman\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

2) One that I use a lot as a judge<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi! My name is Andrew Keeler, I\u2019m an L2 based in Knoxville, TN, and [what I\u2019m doing talking to you today].<\/span><\/p>\n

3) One that you probably use as a judge<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have an [number]-minute time extension, and remember to play more carefully in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pay attention to your body<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\"Looking
Looking cheesy has never felt so good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did you know that certain postures can make you feel more relaxed and in control? \u00a0Psychological studies have shown that people who adopt postures that take up lots of space feel more powerful and confident while they do so, and that people whose muscles are tense tend to feel more stressed. \u00a0A great way to calm yourself down before a presentation is to roll your shoulders back and down into a more relaxed position, opening up your chest to improve airflow and make yourself look bigger. \u00a0This can help you to both relax and make yourself feel more confident.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other aspect of this falls into self-care. \u00a0Be sure you are eating right and drinking enough water. \u00a0Be sure you get enough sleep the night before. \u00a0If you feel under-prepared, you\u2019ll present as under-prepared. \u00a0Taking care of yourself will give you the physical resources of a well-prepared presenter, allowing you to present as a well-prepared presenter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognize feedback for what it is<\/b><\/h2>\n

The judges that attend judge conferences generally have two goals (aside from shiny foils, of course). \u00a0Judges at conferences want to support the judge community as a whole and also grow as individual judges. \u00a0Hopefully you as a presenter also have these goals. \u00a0Feedback should be an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses as a presenter, which should present an opportunity to grow as a judge, a presenter, and a person. \u00a0Feedback shouldn\u2019t be a means for \u201cputting you back in your place\u201d, or for establishing how much more an audience member knows about your topic than you do, and quite honestly almost no one uses it that way anyway. <\/span><\/p>\n

In short, try to take your feedback to heart as honest efforts to point out areas of strength and weakness, rather than seeing feedback as competition or an attack. \u00a0If you have a tendency to feel attacked through criticism, try to avoid immediately rebutting feedback from others, especially if the feedback is given face-to-face. \u00a0Instead weigh the evidence in favor of your feeling attacked (things like, \u201cThe criticism wasn\u2019t fair because X, Y, and Z\u201d) against evidence that might support the criticism (\u201cThe criticism was justified because A, B, and C\u201d) to come to a more balanced conclusion about the feedback. \u00a0You might still conclude that the feedback was unfair, but you\u2019ve done your due diligence to see things from the reviewer\u2019s perspective and learn anything productive you could from the unhelpful <\/span>feedback<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0This helps protect you, both from coming across as unnecessarily defensive and from failing to improve your presentations because you don\u2019t take honest feedback to heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

By adopting some of these strategies, you\u2019ll be able to present more confidently and mitigate some of the anxiety that you feel before and during a presentation, lessening the negative impact that fear has on your presentation. \u00a0These methods for dealing with performance anxiety aren\u2019t silver bullets that will cause you to present without feeling anxious. \u00a0Neither are these techniques for giving stellar presentations. \u00a0Hopefully these techniques will allow you to take your focus off of your knocking knees and onto the presentation so that you can give a solid, informative, and interesting talk without fear of an interpretive dance breaking out.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Is this an interesting read? Do you also have something to say about\u00a0slides and seminars? We are always looking for feedback, but even more\u00a0for collaborators! It doesn’t matter if you want to help writing\u00a0already scheduled articles, or share entirely new ideas. Contact\u00a0Theo<\/a><\/span><\/span>, and let the\u00a0Judge Community know what you think.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving a ruling to a couple of players? No problem!
\nHandle an appeal? Sure!
\nDisqualifying an angry player? I can deal with that.
\nNow, please, don’t put me in the spotlight in front of a lot of people, that is not for me.
\nAt least not until I get to read this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[],"language":[13],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-conference-presenters","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}