I was rereading my posts on how to win the International Speech Contest and a few things occurred to me.
First, I should link to the articles in one place:
Next, I fear I may come off as too cynical about these contests and turn people off from competing. That’s the last thing I want to do! I do get cynical when I see armpit, manipulative speeches win over gullible judges at the Division and District level, but the vast majority of the time (%80) I agree with the judges.
I also realize that some of my advice is for the more hard-core speaker who’s as determined as I am to win. I fear in doing this I may be scaring off newer Toastmasters from jumping in; again that’s the opposite of what I want to do. If you’re new (assuming you’ve given six manual speeches, which is an eligibility requirement) throw your hat in the ring by all means! Just be aware that it gets much, much harder as you progress.
It’s possible you’ll deserve to win the contest but won’t. As the Bible says, “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). TM judging is like figure skating.
More optimistically (or cynically?), you may be unjustly rewarded; you may not deserve to win but will anyway.