Week 2: Post 2

Have I ever been influenced by a speaker? Definitely yes. My senior year of high school my coach took the varsity team to an "inspirational speech" made by a former professional athlete. My problem in swimming was that I never had the motivation to actually try my hardest, and the speaker had the same problem when she was my age. At the beginning I thought that it would be a super boring speech and that I would not be able to connect with the speaker at all, turns out I was wrong. It was a long time ago and I do not remember exactly what she talked about or the examples from her life that she used but I do remember that it was the first time in a long time that I actually thought I could succeed in my sport. She said things that related exactly with how I was feeling; it was nice to know that an adult actually understood me.
The worst speaker I have ever heard is Coach Bill Rose of the Mission Viejo Nadadores. He is the head coach of one of the most famous swim teams in the country and the team that I swam with for 10 years. Every year at our banquet people would dread the time when it was his turn to come up to the podium and speak. His voice was monotone, he never had anything interesting or funny to say, and most people despised him. His speeches would go on for about an hour and every year he would talk about the same thing. His message was always about how great the people he coached were. He coaches about 4 people a year, so just imagine the frustration of the 600 other people in the room.