There probably needs to be some sort of approach where students can start with something small - perhaps introducing themselves to the class - rather than just

There probably needs to be some sort of approach where students can start with something small - perhaps introducing themselves to the class - rather than just jumping into memorizing a 5 minutes speech. Your comments on practice also apply to the classroom and public speaking. It is easy as a teacher to say students need to give eye contact to the class while speaking, but unless they have practiced it and been given time to get better, it will likely be the same scenario you describe in PE with no real improvement.