I went to my first tournament two years ago. As a first-timer for a tournament, I can remember not really being sure what to expect. I was nervous, but beyond that, I wasn’t sure how things were going to work, or how I was going handle everything. I’ve been to quite a few tournaments since then, and one thing remains consistent; I always learn a lot.
There are a lot of things I can think of personally that make a tournament experience valuable, and...almost none of them have anything to do with competition. ICC’s focus is on blessing the community, so it isn’t really a surprise that it worked that way for me.
When I went to my first tournament, I learned that tournaments are helpful because they help to set a deadline. I was working on a speech for YSG at the time, and was dragging my feet on it. When I decided that I was going to do that speech at the tournament, I suddenly had a deadline that was very fast approaching. Because I’m a person that’s pretty deadline-driven, I found it helpful to have a set time that I had to be done, and a standard that was beyond something that I could give myself.
Another thing that the tournament gave me is a good grasp of ways I could improve my speech. Since I’d be giving my speech in the community, having evaluators from the community is great guidance. The short two or three minutes of critique that we give at chapter are useful, but having two or three ballots for one speech in just one round, really helped me get a good perspective. I was able to see patterns with many people telling me the same things, which helped me to weigh which things I should keep in my speech, and what exactly I could improve on.
On average, most of us don’t speak on a platform two or three times a day with up to four or five speeches. The tournament gives the opportunity to do just that. Like so many other things, the more you speak in the public, the more comfortable you get with it. Being scheduled to speak as much as I was at the tournament boosted my confidence so much. It didn’t make me want more competition, but it did make me more confident and willing to command the public platform.
The tournament isn’t something that’s necessary for communication, but it does teach you a lot in a short amount of time. I’m still learning from the tournaments. Chances are, if you go to one, you’ll see me there. Until then, though, I hope this gave you a good glimpse of what a tournament is all about.
Jocelyn
