“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
--Michelangelo
Park and Drive
The essential fundamental in becoming a great speaker is the Park and Drive technique. Tom Coffing, The Speech Doctor, created the method. Watch the video to see exactly how to use the Park and Drive to speak dynamically with a wide variety of gestures.
Watch the video:
The next technique separates the amateurs from the pros. It even separates the pros from what I call Pros of pros. This technique will seem extremely difficult in the beginning, but after some practice, it will be completely natural. I sincerely think that this is probably the most important technique you should master.
If you want to be a great speaker, teacher, salesperson, presenter, actor, or people-person, then you are about to learn a career landmark lesson.
One of my favorite quotes is, “Treat your friends like you would your paintings – put them in the best light.”
If you want to look like fine art, the most exceptional and most difficult communication technique in the world is called the Park and Drive. The first part of the Park and Drive is the Park position, which means standing with your hands at your side. The second part is the Drive position, which is when you gesture. We will get into more details on these positions below, but the most important thing about both areas is the light that you display between your body and your arms and the light between your fingers. The light will make you look like a Rembrandt with the potential to make a lot of Monet.
I had no idea the impact that light between my arms, body, and even within my fingers would play, but once I mastered it, I became a speaking phenomenon.
Human Beings have five senses, but sight is by far the most dominating sense. We interpret our entire world through our eyes. Nobody can see in the dark, so it is the light that attracts our eyes like moths to a flame.
So, let there be light between your arms when you are standing in the Park position. Let there be light between your fingers when you are gesturing in the Drive position.
I have trained millions of people in my career, and not one of them knew about this technique, but it is by far the most crucial factor in all body language.
After I teach you how to use light to your advantage, you will soon see this technique from your favorite speakers, TV news anchors, and movie stars.
The Park Position
The Park position finds your arms completely tension free and dangling by your side. Your arms should be so tension-free that if you moved or walked even a few steps, your arms would sway naturally like a Weeping Willow tree in the wind.
Look at the picture below. Notice how the woman in the pictures arms is complete tension free. Tension-free arms define the Park position. Most people have anxiety, so they clasp their hands or put their arms behind their backs. Letting your arms dangle and completely relax is the most important and most challenging communication fundamental to master, but once you practice, this will soon feel extremely comfortable. What is brilliant about this picture is how much light you can see between her body and her left arm, but also notice her left hand, and the fact you cannot see the light. Perfection!
Only because of the angle of the picture can you see the light between her body and her right hand. If people are directly in front of you, they should not see continuing light as we do with her right-hand. The left-hand example is perfect.
It seems a little daunting to try to speak, act, teach, or communicate while concentrating on complete relaxation in your upper body. Here is a tip - focus on relaxing the area in between your shoulder blades. This area is about the size of a quarter, and I call it the Tension Spot. If you focus on the Tension Spot and relax it, the rest of your upper body will also relax. You should only focus on two areas of your body when communicating professionally. They are your big toes and your Tension Spot. You use your big toes for tension control and to keep your lower body still, and the Tension Spot for 100% tension-free arms and hands.
When your arms are in the Park position, they dangle naturally at your side with zero tension. When you make gestures, you are in the Drive position. The Park position shows you are relaxed, comfortable, confident, and honest. The Drive position shows that you are powerful, dynamic, and in charge.
The real euphoric moment for those observing you is when you move from the Park to the Drive and from the Drive back to the Park. One of the most exceptional moves you can make is moving across the room with your arms dangling tension free. You look like gold.
One of my favorite moves to close a deal or show how confident I am is to move across the rooms letting my arms dangle freely due to the movement. Like a pebble that hits the water and causes the water to move, this natural movement shows that I am relaxing, have nothing to hide, and that I have been in this position many times.
There is no magic percentage on how often you should be in the Park position and the Drive position but consider your goal to be 70% in the Park position and 30% in the Drive position using gestures.
The best way to train yourself is first to learn how to speak with your hands in the Park position. If your fingers move even a little, then you still have tension. Learn to speak with zero movements in your arms, hands, and fingers, except for the natural sway of your arms if you are walking. If you can master speaking in the park position, this separates your voice from your gestures and teaches you to perform in the Park position, which is what will separate you from the competition. Once you can do this, you can then (and only then) use gestures effectively.
Let There Be Light
Notice in the picture below on the left and how you can see the light between her arms. This light is a massive key to looking powerful and confident, but not intimidating. People will judge you as immensely powerful by the light they can see between your arms.
Notice the picture below on the right, and we see there is no light between her arms, so she is perceived as less powerful. Even if she is trying not to convey that, the lack of light causes your mind to view her as nervous or shy immediately. Sometimes you want to look less intimidating, and having no light is a technique to make that happen. The most stunning pictures of people have a component that you probably never consciously noticed before, and that is light between their body and their arms.
Continual Light is a Problem
Because light represents power, too much can make you look aggressive, unlikeable, and mean. Notice the individual in the photo below on the left has light from his arms to the ground, which I call continual light. It is the constant light that makes him look aggressive and overconfident. You want your arms to relax by your side, and you want light between your body and your arms, but not continued light.
The woman below on the right has light between her arms, but not continued light, which is why she looks confident, powerful, and appealing.
I was teaching a Speech Doctor class at a major Telecommunications company. A man came up to me and said, “Are you the Speech Doctor?” He was standing precisely like the man below in the yellow shirt. He told me, “Please help me. Every time I meet someone, they think I am cocky and arrogant.”
I took his hands and placed them like the example of the woman below, and I said, “Problem solved.”
The Drive Position
Let us now talk about gestures and the Drive position because gestures are equally as crucial as the Park position. When you drive, you are using a gesture. You are either raising, dropping, or performing a gesture.
I almost always start all communication in the Park position. I rarely gesture within the first 10-20 seconds of a presentation or even in one-on-one conversation unless it is a 30-second commercial. My Park position gives off the impression that I am not aggressive but comfortable, engaged, and confident. The first 10-20 seconds of any presentation has the audience scanning you with their eyes and looking for any flaws. There is nothing negative at all about the Park position, so once the audience quits scanning you with their eyes and are ready to listen, you are prepared to drive with your gestures.
Although many speech books want you to do something dynamic immediately or say something brilliant in the first 5-seconds of your presentation, this is not what you want in a business setting. Remember, nobody is hearing you in the first 20 seconds of your performance because their eyes dominate all humans. The audience will see you to size you up for the first 20-30 seconds, and only then begin to hear everything you have to say. So, it is often best to start with small talk like, “Thank you,” “It’s great to be here,” “I’m excited to speak to you today,” and just general light talking points while staying in the Park position to set a positive, but conservative, welcoming tone.
After about 10-20 seconds, I begin to gesture. It is best to start with only single-hand gestures. Bringing up both hands at the start is too aggressive. Because you started in the Park position, the audience will be pleasantly surprised as you make your first single-handed gesture. Think of it as pleasantly surprising your audience. The audience watches you the first 20 seconds and still is not sure if you are going to be a good speaker, but then you kick in a gesture, and they think, “Wow, this speaker might be good.” They will begin to pull for you, and then you can show them your incredible skills. You can’t win in the first 20 seconds of a talk, but you can certainly lose!
How to Physically Perform a Gesture
The key to a grand gesture is to use your elbow as the driving force. Slowly move your elbow forward as if you were reaching to shake someone’s hand while you bend your arm. Moving your elbow forward will bring your gesture up just below your chin. You want your gestures to be land below your chin and above your sternum, in many cases. Other times you will want your gesture to land a bit lower.
The picture below shows a perfect gesture. As the elbow bends and the hand rises, the elbow begins moving in front of the body. The combination of elbow bending, hand rising, and the elbow moving towards the front of the body allows the height of the gesture to be the perfect height.
Watch this video to see theories on gestures in the drive position. This video will show you how to master the use of gestures.
Watch the video:
Light Between Your Fingers
In the picture video, there is a light between the fingers, but the hand is relaxed. Having light between your fingers shows intelligence. You will often see some of the smartest people naturally gesture with an enormous amount of light between their fingers.
Watch the video:
Although the picture below is not a gesture because he is touching the glass, it is an example of the perfect components of a gesture. It is the light between his fingers with no tension that makes this picture amazing! Light is power.
Power Moves – A Plethora of Gestures
In every speech, class, or presentation, there comes a 30-second timeframe to have the most impact. It is “close the sale” time where you make as many gestures as possible. Make a quick one-second right-hand gesture and drop it immediately, followed by a one-second left-handed gesture, and drop it quickly. Follow that up with a two-handed gesture. Follow that up with a series of gestures that move your hands smoothly and rhythmically—experiment with using as many nice-looking gestures as you can.
Watch this video of Tom Coffing, The Speech Doctor, in action doing a wide variety of gestures.
If you want your team to improve their speaking skills %1000 percent, please contact Tom Coffing, "The Speech Doctor."
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