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Hi Dave,

I just found your posting regarding golf - it was last Thursday. I introduced my use of Golf in 2001 at either Swindon or Bristol and it takes the form of an interview between a well know golf pro and a golf commentator;

Commentator: - Well Tiger, why do people refer to you as the luckiest golfer?

Tiger: - What do you mean, Barry?

Commentator: - Well, every time you find yourself in the ‘rrrrrough’ you put yourself back on the fairway with just a simple shot. You pause - - - to assess the situation and decide which club or iron to use, you swing a few p p p p practise shots (block release) then with your eye on the ball, draw the club right back and assertively hit the ball and follow through (eye contact, long hit and hold, and assertive first sound and keep moving forward, no holding back) and each time your ball lands back in the middle of the fairway. The same thing happens when you land in a bunker, you pause – assess the situation, choose a wedge, swing a few p p p p practice shots (block release) then with your eye on the ball you draw the club back and assertively but controlled you hit the ball with follow through (eye contract short hit and hold, keep moving forward, no holding back), your ball lands on the green next to the pin/hole. That’s what I mean. It always looks so easy for you, no matter what difficulty you have it doesn’t seem to worry you. You just take your time to put it right. You must feel very lucky.

Tiger: - Well, I must think about this (pause - resist time pressure) Well Barry, all I can say is this, the more I practise luckier I seem to get. A club could be used to demonstrate the various points.

Regards,

Geoffrey

A group of McGuire graduates will be challenging themselves to the extreme in December by performing two short plays on stage. The plays, "Ways and Means" and "Red Peppers" by Noel Coward will be performed in the London Oratory School in Earl’s Court on Saturday 9th December 2006.

Please come along and support these recovering stammerers in what is an enormous personal challenge in terms of speech, guts and remembering their lines!

Saturday 9th December @ 7.30pm
London Oratory School (Earl’s Court)

Tickets £10 available by sending a cheque to payable to Expand Theatre Group to Tom Skinner, 32Buckland Road, London, E10 6QS.

Further details from vertical187@yahoo.com, Brian Richmond (07799077230), or Tom Skinner (07877804896)

The McGuire Programme will be taking a workshop session at the BSA London Open Day this weekend on Saturday 19th August at Oxford House, Bethnal Green. Our session will be from 4-5pm but people are invited to come along for the whole day from 10.30am onwards.

You can find out more information on the BSA website at http://www.stammering.org/events_lonod.html

We will be holding an Open Day in London on Sat, July 29th. This will be a chance for anyone to come along at 2pm and find out all about the programme, meet other McGuire graduates, speak to them about their recoveries and ask any questions you may have.

We will also be doing public speaking at 5.30pm at the world famous Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park where the likes of Winston Churchill and Karl Marx practiced their speaking. So if you’d like to come along to watch or even just to heckle you are very welcome.

Please feel free to join us on the day to answer your questions. The details are as follows:-

Date - Sat, July 29th, 2006
Time - 2pm   
Venue - LEWIS Media Centre, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RS.
http://www.lewismediacentre.com

UK graduate Robert Sproats, after being on the programme for 18 months, had really been working hard on his speech and was speaking extremely eloquently in most situations. He felt, however, that he needed a new challenge and so put himself forward for various job interviews. Not with the ultimate desire to get the job but merely to practice his speech in more challenging situations. One such interview was for a job in which he had no experience and had no expectation whatsoever of even being asked back for a second interview. It was an interview for an Business IT Trainer. Training people and coaching them with his speech.

Robert went into the interview with full honesty and good McGuire technique. He told them about his recovery from a debilitating stammer and how he was now proud to be a recovering stammer and was constantly pushing out his comfort zones including developing coaching skills when teaching new students on the programme, all the time demonstrating great communication skills with the interviewer such as eye contact, pausing and formulation.

To cut a long story short Robert got the job and has now been flown out to work in their New York office for a 3 month contract. All flights paid for and being put up in a luxury Manhattan apartment. See below for the view of the Empire States Building from Robert’s apartment. Not bad for someone who just wanted to improve his speech.

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