NFL Scout - "It is now 12 Months and My Stuttering Is Nearly Gone" |
Speech Drills:
NFL Scout Enjoying Fluency of Speech
Calling college coaches on the phone and public speaking used to be excruciating
for me. I am an NFL scout who needed to tackle my stuttering problem.
My stuttering began in childhood and perplexed me through high school and into
college. I was the equipment manager for a Division 1 football program in
college.
After college I started a career as an NFL Scout. Like many people who stutter I
was afraid to call new people- in my case coaches I didn’t already know- and
introduce myself. I would change the order of my words trying to prevent
stuttering. That avoidance trick would postpone the stutter but not prevent it.
I learned this is called circumlocution.
Several past and present NFL players stutter. They include: Bo Jackson, Adrian
Peterson (Chicago Bears), and Lester Hayes. Atlanta Falcons owner, Arthur Blank,
stutters.
A scout’s biggest test is public speaking in front of dozens or hundreds of NFL
personnel. Several times a year we sit on a platform in a big hotel banquet room
and verbally report on up to 100 players. We have to read some of the player
descriptions verbatim. I use to remove words or change words I feared stuttering
on. The audience had the same information in their hands in some situations.
People did not know my fumbling was called stuttering and blocking. My employer
suggested I get help.
In December of 2007 I started working with
Tim Mackesey.
Through cognitive reorganization, or reframing, he helped me remove old anxiety
and fear about stuttering.
This helped me gain the confidence to stop word changing and quickly improve
on specific words and sounds I had feared. We removed mindreading when calling
coaches. Mindreading is when you presume to know what people will think of you:
it is always presuming judgment by the listener. Mindreading leads to
anticipatory anxiety and that triggered my stuttering.
Tim also taught me some basics of fluency shaping. By taking a pen and marking
my reading passages into phrases I developed a tempo to control my rate and ease
into target words. I do not change or remove words anymore.
Some therapy programs I researched teach you to talk like a robot but they
neglect the anxiety part that is a huge part of stuttering. Tim told me we were
not going to “reinvent the wheel.” I already had pretty good fluency in some
social situations. Tim gave me a football metaphor: “you are like a kicker in
football who nails the field goals in practice but misses the game winner as the
time runs out.” I could relate to it being largely stress related.
Being a football player I was no stranger to drills and practice. I used
cognitive strategies and visualization I learned from Tim to mentally prepare
for the meetings and calls. This helped remove anxiety before ever entering the
situation. I would also take my pen and mark passages before practicing them out
loud. If Tim said: “Dig a well before you’re thirsty” one more time, I was going
to body slam him.
It is now 12 months later and I am a new man. I have several
successful meetings behind me. My stuttering is nearly gone. I believe that once
I have a couple more good meetings behind me I may be stable in fluency.
Scouting in the NFL is close knit community. Several people have complimented me
on my new poise and fluency.
Those compliments were music to my ear.
My advice to kids out there is to hit back at the stuttering. Do not let
stuttering take you down. Tackle the stuttering. Look at cornerbacks in the NFL.
Cornerbacks are some of the smallest guys on the field but they deliver the
biggest hits. They have courage and grit. Do your drills and work at overcoming
stuttering.
Go for it,
A.P.- NFL Scout
©2008 Bob Bodenhamer All rights reserved