Breathe!
Featured in the Advanced Presentation Techniques training manual
By Clare Forrest & Margaret Zuppinger
Category: Meetings and Presentations
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Even the most experienced presenter needs to review their presentation style on a regular basis if their presentations are to remain inspiring and interesting. Key areas for presenters to understand and constantly review, though many do not, are how they breather whilst presenting, how they project their voice to their audience, and the impact that both breathing and projection have on their vocal tonality. This training activity looks at the impact that participants make with their voice – ‘It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it’.
You begin this training activity by explaining the importance of abdominal breathing in powering the voice. By carrying out two brief exercises participants become aware of the difference between this and their normal breathing. Following this, they practise their primal sounds – laughing, crying, and so on – using the abdominal breath. During the final exercise, the participants discover how breathlessness weakens the control of their voice. They then feed back what they have learned about the importance of breathing from the techniques they practised during the activity. The training activity concludes with a brief discussion on how participants can remind themselves to breathe effectively during a presentation.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to help participants literally to breathe life into their presentations.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 2 |
| Max Group Size: | 6 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:00:00 |
| No of Pages: | 14 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: CD player, CDs of dance music.
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers for managing yourself, presentation skills, and stress management programmes. It can also be adapted for one-to-one coaching. It is advisable to follow this training activity as soon as time allows with the activities ‘Voice projection’ and ‘Voiceworks’.
Download the training activity, Breathe! as featured in the Fenman training manual; Advanced Presentation Techniques