Public Presentations
Here are some examples to help give you
inspiration and ideas for your public presentations.
“I thought my razor was dull until I heard his speech.”-Groucho Marx
At the bottom of the page is an audio course on presentation skills.
John Graden 2nd Grade Class Presentation
Mark Moore, “I am a champion” elementary school presentation
Mark Moore Promo Video
Punch, Chop, Punch Demo Open
We would walk out and do this Punch, Chop, Punch without saying a word. This is a good demo open because it’s fast and dynamic. Mind you, what is being taught is rubbish, but it’s good entertainment.
How NOT to do a School Demo!
This mele’ was the final segment of this demo. Bad idea but fun to watch. I was a brown belt at the time.
Bill Wallace Presentation–Charisma and Stage Presence
Though this is not at a school, it still has some great content you can pick from, especially the charisma and stage presence he exudes.
Demos at John Graden’s Black Belt Graduations
Less yak and more smack was my plan for graduations. I had a captive audience and I wanted them to be impressed by how good our students were to help create a buzz in the community.
Exciting Demo Ending
This musical kata was how we would finish our demos. Though I’m not suggesting you do kata, but a well-choreographed sequence showcasing a variety of skills including weapons and board breaking is an exciting way to end your demo.
How to Posture While Seated on Camera
Presentation Skills
Communication Skills 1
Communication Skills 2
Communication Skills 3
Communication Skills 4
Communication Skills 5
Using "Do" vs "Don't"
How to Give Clear Directions
What to Do vs What Not to Do
When giving instruction, be careful of the language that you use. Avoid giving instruction that defines the behavior by the negative. For instance, “Don’t drop your guard” tells the student what NOT to do but doesn’t tell the student what TO do. “Keep your guard up” is a more clear instruction. Better yet, “When I say guard up, think of holding two phones to your ears.
Even when you are using more proactive, positive language the message may still be vague. For instance, “Pay attention!” Does the student understand how to pay attention? Has anyone every taught that to him/her? Does she know your specific expectations for pay attention such as Eyes on You? The command “pay attention” provides little guidance because it fails to teach.
A more clear direction would be to teach students early that facing the instructor at parade rest with eyes focused and remaining silent is how you pay attention to the instructor. This provides useful guidance. It is easy to remember, solution oriented, and hard to misunderstand.
Without telling the student what to do, an instructor can’t really tell whether the student has complied which makes it more difficult to hold him/her accountable. A student may protest, “But I was paying attention!” Students sense and exploit the lack of accountability. The time spent in this void of clarity is a waste of precious learning time.
When the student has clear instructions to follow, compliance is clear and easy to define for the instructor and the student.
Four Keys to Giving Clear Directions
1. Specific.
Effective directions are specific. They focus on manageable and precisely describe actions that students can take.
2. Concrete.
Effective directions are not just specific; they involve clear actions that any student knows how to do. When directing a student to pay attention, he/she may or may not know how to do that. But if the instruction is to, “Put your eyes on me,” that is something no student can misunderstand or not know how to do.
If the student appears to struggle, get more concrete: “Turn your body to face me. Look at me with your eyes. Listen to me with your ears. If you have a question, raise your hand.” These are real things: physical, simple, commonplace. There is no gray area or prior knowledge required to comply.
3. Sequential.
Effective directions should describe a sequence of concrete specific actions. In the case of the student who needs help paying attention, I might advise him, “John, turn your body to face me. Look at me with your eyes. Listen to me with your ears.”
4. Observable.
The instructions give John actions that the instructor could plainly see him do. This is important. The instructor provided him with a series of steps that were specific and simple enough that any student could reasonably be expected to do them.That leaves John with little wiggle room to stray.
What to Do allows you to distinguish between incompetence and defiance by making your commands specific enough that they can’t be deliberately misinterpreted and helpful enough that they explain away any gray areas.
However, it’s important to distinguish between incompetence and defiance. If I ask John to pay attention or sit up or get on task and he doesn’t, knowing whether he will not or cannot matters. If he cannot, the problem is incompetence. If he will not, the problem is defiance. I respond to these situations differently.
How to Give School Talks
Getting a school talk is a little tricky. The key is to look at it like a teaching gig rather than a marketing opportunity.
Schools are very sensitive about businesses coming in to sell their students.
There are three primary categories of school talks.
- You come and talk/demo to a class. This is an agreement between you and the teacher so it’s pretty easy.
- You demo/talk to an entire basketball court bleacher full of hundreds of students. This has to go through the principal which makes it a bit more complex.
- You offer to teach the PE classes for a day or the entire week. PE teachers are usually very receptive.
For the in class and/or PE classes, you give your students a letter to take to the teacher.
The letter might read, “It seems we have a student in common. Joey has been training with us for 14-months and has earned his brown belt. He actually helps us teach some classes. What do you think about the idea of Joey and I teaching some martial arts and important life skills to your class? We’ll teach them how to deal with bullies and confrontation (non-violent), and some important martial arts-based life-skills.”
The class talk is more intimate and typically not as reliant on exciting demos as the bleacher’s audience.
Either way, the angle is always to teach kids how to make smart decisions and evaluate situations wisely.
Stories are powerful, so you want to make sure you some really good ones that would relate to the age group your addressing.
You want a good mixture of how to deal with confrontation and bullies to success principles for life.
You also want to start with a bang and finish with one as well.
The most effective open to a demo I’ve seen is to simulate a home invasion or similar crime that creates emotion
Ideally, you could get a student to break the board and use that to discuss Fear Into Power, Concentrated Power, Unleashing the Black Belt in You etc…