I have some good tips. I teach swing dancing semi-professionally and instead of using a mic ended up yelling a lot in big rooms with lousy acoustics.
Eventually I damaged my falsetto chords almost beyond repair. We're talking about having a hoarse voice for six to nine months straight before getting better. And it happened twice
(Kinda humorous side note: I had started a new job and so many people knew me less than 9 months so when my voice changed from hoarse back to normal it suprised the heck out of everyone)
I went to a voice coach to help me out. It was actually a good friend of my wife's so I got a very steep discount, but this is a professional voice coach who works with politicians, actors, etc. Basically the guy charges upwards of $500 an hour for voice lessons and is booked solid. He is really really good and I went to him for probably 10 hours total of work.
So here are my few tips
1) Most important # 1: Warm up your vocal chords. These are large muscles and need to be warmed up before thrown right into use. Think like warming up your car before you accelerate it instead of just turning on your car on a cold morning and accelerating it. There are specific exercises I do and I noticed that even after 5 to 10 minutes of warm up, my voice has a much deeper BOOM to it. I'll get into the warmups at the bottom
2) Most important # 2 ... R..E..L..A..X. My personality is that of a power lifter, and combined with the tendency to do "quick bursts of loud noise", my throat, jaw, and tongue would tighten up a lot. This also strains your vocal chords. So as much as possible when you open your mouth to yell, try to relax the jaw/face/tongue
3) Open your mouth wide as possible. The more air flow, the louder you will get and less strain on vocal chords
4) Air from the diaphragm. This is esp. hard when you use sudden bursts of loud vocals (like teaching a swing dance class, or cheering a team). Because it's such a quick reaction that much of the sound comes from the neck area..this will strain your vocal chords a lot. So do your best to take the breath from your stomach and let it flow through your more relaxed throad and vocal chords. This took me a bit to figure. Eventually I just figured when I breathe in, try to flex my stomach out, then open my mouth really loud and yell/speak
5) And my own thing from my acupuncturist: There is a chinese herb called "pang da hai". It looks like an almond. It is actually a flower. You put it in hot water (filtered works best), maybe two or three pieces for 8 ounce sof water, and let it sit for a few minutes. It then "blossoms" and then looks like a jellyfish. Turns the water brown, tastes a bit like dirt. Sip it slowly while it's hot, it does a good job of soothing your vocal chords. Don't consume the pang da hai itself, just the water. Then toss out the pang da hai. Same concept as hot lemon water/tea. This is what a lot of chinese opera singers use.
It should not look like an almond anymore. If it does, the pang da hai is old. It should really look like a jellyfish. I have found the lighter the color, more likely the older it is. Look for a darker brown color
I would sip two to three cups a day during those 9 months. That's pretty extreme. This is for AFTER the game to help your vocal chords heal up.
My warm up exercises: (do it 5 to 10 minutes before game time). Very important to keep tongue/jaw/face loose. First time I started doing these exercises I forgot to do that and my vocal chords got worse.
Start soft and get progressively louder.
1) stick tongue out, breathe in, start with an aspirated "h" and say "haaaa" (almost like the "Wasssaaaappp" commercial). Not too loudly at first, remember to relax the tongue and jaw. If you have a washcloth, use it to hold your tongue and waggle your tongue while you do this to keep your tongue relaxed. Do 5 reps
2) put your mouth in a formation to say "cheese". Put index finger in between teeth. Breathe, aspirated "h", and say "heeeeeeeeeee". Do 5 reps
3) hook first two fingers behind front two bottom teeth, and use it to open your jaw down, place tongue on top of fingers, breathe, aspirated "h", and say "hawwwwwww"... switch your tongue a small bit from side to side to keep relaxed. Do 5 reps
Then repeat all three, and get a bit louder each time.
Lastly: use all three positions again, but instead of aspirated "h" and the "haaaaa" "heeee" "hawww" noises, now breathe in and then "say" the things you will be yelling. It will totally be unintelligible audibly, but the thing is to get your jaw and mouth and tongue to move as it would during your 'performance'
So get in each position and yell what you're going to yell like "SEA ... HAWKS", "WE ALL WE GOT" ..etc.etc.
Anyway, the above seriously brought my voice back from near permanent hoarseness, and it's still what I do before every swing dance class.
Hope that helps!
