by Toby Rivas | Dec 21, 2018 | Affirmatives, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Strategy, Technique
Last time, we introduced spikes and preemption, and saw what they look like in the 1AC. Today, we move to the 2AC, and next time we’ll talk about Neg. 2AC spikes exist to mitigate the Neg block by making the 1AR easier. This article does a wonderful job of outlining... 
by Toby Rivas | Dec 4, 2018 | Affirmatives, Communication/Rhetoric, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Strategy
If you’ve ever played volleyball, you know the terror of a spike. A player slams the ball over the net so hard you have no hope of returning it. In debate, a spike is a little different, but still a powerful offensive tactic. Referring broadly to preemption, a spike... 
by Toby Rivas | Nov 5, 2018 | Negative, Technique
Last week, I introduced the Bad Precedent DA. It’s a great way to take a principle-based argument and turn it into a practical impact. We’ve already seen the big picture and one way to structure this kind of DA. Now, we’ll take a look at another type of... 
by Toby Rivas | Oct 30, 2018 | Disadvantages, Negative, Strategy, Theory, TP
There’s a common misconception that, in TP, moral arguments and pragmatic arguments don’t mix. That’s false. This article is about the Bad Precedent DA—one of the main ways you can couple your principle-based arguments with a pragmatic dimension. We’ll discuss it in... 
by Toby Rivas | Oct 6, 2018 | Inherency, Negative, Strategy, Technique, Theory
This is the first post from one of our new team members, sixth-year debater Toby Rivas. Keep an eye out for more practical strategy tips from him coming soon! Debaters have lots of silly quirks–“debaterisms,” if you will. Things like always quoting Ronald...