2.3 Managing PSA

Because the intensity of PSA varies across individuals and contexts, effective reduction begins with recognizing one’s personal source of apprehension. Strategies such as cognitive restructuring and deliberate practice can help individuals reframe their fears and gradually build confidence in public speaking.

A speaker’s nervousness is linked to his or her level of preparation. The best, most consistent and direct way to minimize the level of nervousness you feel is through effective preparation. This is always true. More practice results in less nervousness.

All types of preparation and practice yield benefits, but there is a significant difference between merely helpful practice and sufficient practice, or “knowing what you are talking about,” and “knowing what you are going to say.” While thinking about your presentation can be helpful, that sort of preparation will not give you a sense of what you are actually going to say. Athletes know that the best practices will re-create game conditions and test their abilities to perform in real-life scenarios. Sufficient practice for public speaking re-creates those real-life scenarios.

Let’s look at a few elements of effective practice.

Before the Speech

Visualize Success

Athletes and performers are often coached to visualize what they are trying to do as a way of performing correctly. Football and basketball players must envision how each member of the team will move during a particular play because team success depends on speedy and flawless coordination among individuals. Dancers, body builders, and people practicing yoga are trained to visualize the form and positioning of their bodies as they execute their moves. Engaging the imagination in this way can improve performance.

Speakers, too, should visualize success. As you practice, visualize yourself presenting with confidence to a receptive audience. “See” your relaxed facial expressions and “hear” your confident tone of voice. Imagine yourself moving gracefully, complementing what you say with expressive gestures. Imagine the audience reacting appropriately—nodding appreciatively and giving thoughtful consideration to your points. Imagine the gratification of watching the audience really “get it.” When you can honestly envision yourself performing at this level, you are taking an important step toward achieving that goal.

Breathe and Release

Here, we will discuss a shortened version of the “breathe and release” technique. This relaxation technique could be useful for nervous speakers—especially those who are concerned with the physiological manifestations of nervousness, such as shaky hands or knees.

The key to “breathe and release” is to understand that when nervous tension results in minor trembling, the effort of trying to keep one’s hands from shaking contributes to the whole situation—that is, trying to stop literally makes the problem worse! Therefore, the best approach is through relaxation.

How to Breathe and Release

1. Imagine the nervousness within your body.
2. Imagine the energy bubbling inside you, like boiling water.
3. Draw that energy to a high point within your body through a deep, cleansing breath.
4. Imagine this cleansing breath like a vacuum, inhaling all of the bubbling liquid.
5. Release the energy by deliberately relaxing your upper body, all the way from your fingertips to your shoulder blades.
6. Imagine how keeping any part of your upper extremities tense would result in a “kink” in the release valve, and so complete relaxation is the key to success.

Minimize What You Memorize

Another important hint for speech preparation is to avoid writing an entirely scripted version of the presentation. A speech outline is not a monologue or manuscript; it is a guideline and should be used as a roadmap for your speech.

When you really know your topic, you can talk about it naturally—without memorizing every single word. That’s the goal for a good presentation: to understand your material so well that you can explain it in your own words.

Think about how this helps when you’re speaking in front of a group. Instead of worrying about exact phrasing, you can focus on keeping the flow going and paying attention to your audience. This makes your delivery sound more genuine and gives you the flexibility to respond to questions or reactions on the spot.

Beware of Reading

If you’re focused only on reading a script word-for-word, you can’t really pay attention to your audience or engage with them. Reading straight from a script can also affect how you sound. When you read out loud, your voice often becomes flat or takes on a “reading tone.” That tone can feel boring and make it easy for your audience to tune out.

Tip: Instead of memorizing every word, outline your main points and practice explaining them in your own words. This way, you’ll sound more natural and can easily adjust if someone asks a question or looks confused.

Practice Out Loud

Remember the very first time you tried to do anything – a game, a sport, an activity, anything at all. How good were you out of the gate? Perhaps you had talent or were gifted with a “feel” for what you were doing. But even then, didn’t you get better with more experience? Nobody does anything the very best on their very first attempt, and everyone—even the most talented among us—benefits from effective practice.

In this way, speaking in public is no different from any other activity. To maximize the chance that your presentation will come out smooth and polished, you will need to hear it all the way through. By practicing out loud, from the beginning to the ending, you will be able to listen to your whole speech and properly gauge the flow of your entire presentation.

Additionally, without at least one complete out-loud practice, there will be no way to accurately estimate the length of your speech, and your preparation will remain insufficient.

The out-loud “dress rehearsal” is the single most important element of your preparation. Without it, you will be delivering your presentation in full for the first time when it counts the most. Putting yourself at that sort of disadvantage is not wise and is easily avoided.

Prepare for your public presentation by speaking and listening to yourself, rather than by writing, editing, and rewriting. Remember that when you are having a conversation, you never use the same sort of language and syntax as you do when you are writing a formal paper. Practice with the goal of becoming conversational in your topic, not fluent with a script.

Customize Your Practice

Depending on your personal level of PSA, you may choose to implement techniques previously mentioned in different ways. Take a moment to reflect on what triggers your PSA. Do you dislike the feeling of being the center of attention? Are you more concerned with who is in the audience and what they might think of you? Or are you worried about “freezing” in front of the audience and forgetting what you wanted to say?

Write some of these concerns down and put them into a priority order. If you are worried about a particular issue or problem, how might you prepare to minimize the chance of that issue arising?

Now, consider your current method of preparation. Remember that dealing with PSA often requires breaking a mental habit. It is a good idea to change what you have done previously. Be deliberate. Observe what works for your situation.

As stated earlier, everyone deals with PSA most effectively through increased self-awareness and a willingness to complete each of the steps in the entire process. After you acknowledge your reality, then take the steps necessary to overcome apprehension.

After reading about the ways to overcome the debilitating impact of PSA, experiment and see what works best for you. Do not continue to prepare in the same way that you did in the past. Speak more; write and revise less. Be sure to practice out loud at least once during your preparation to prepare yourself sufficiently. Reflect on your personal concerns and try Cognitive Restructuring to reframe them. Take your time. Do the work. Have confidence that your preparation will yield positive results.

During the Speech

Don’t rush your start. Make sure you have everything set up the way you need it to be, including visual aids. Get the first thought in your mind of what you are going to say, take a quiet breath, swallow, and then start talking.

If you make a mistake, do not bring attention to it and GET OVER IT! Be able to laugh and have a sense of humor. For those of you that play sports, think of it this way. If you make a mistake in a game and cost your team a point, if you dwell on it, what happens? You tend to make another mistake. You psyche yourself out. Same thing happens with public speaking. Don’t dwell on little mishaps . . .  just laugh it off and keep going. Remember, public speaking is not about perfection, it is about making a connection with the audience, so they want to listen to what you have to say.

Please watch the short interview with Will Smith discussing his perspective on anxiety.

Will Smith – Facing Your Fears: AI Audio Described Version (note AI can make mistakes)

Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA) is real, but it doesn’t have to stop you from doing well. The first step is to understand how it shows up for you—everyone experiences it differently. Then, take small, positive steps to manage it. Your effort and your attitude matter most, and they’ll help you succeed.

Licenses and Attribution

CC Licensed Content, Original

Speech Communication was created by Lana Iapicco and Marie Torres. Independently created original and AI-assisted content developed specifically for this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

This educational material includes content generated or revised with the assistance of large language models. Lana Iapicco and Marie Torres reviewed, edited, and take responsibility for the final published content.

CC Licensed Content, Previously Shared

“Managing PSA” is adapted in part from “2.3 Learning Confidence” by Douglas Marshall, James Yeargain, June Pulliam, Sara Kim, and Victoria VanNest, published in It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network.

The source material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The material was revised, reorganized, condensed, updated, and supplemented with original and AI-assisted content for this edition.

Adapted portions derived from this source, including revisions to those portions, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Independently created portions developed specifically for Speech Communication are licensed under the book’s Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Other Content Included

Multiracial students and an instructor celebrating during a collaborative activity

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Will Smith – Facing Your Fears
Video published by Benjamin Hero – Motivation on YouTube.
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