by Justin Marwad | Sep 13, 2021 | From Intermediate to Advanced, Strategy, Thinking Strategically
You’re Researching All Wrong. These 4 Steps Will Improve Your Method. When I play chess, I watch my opponent’s eyes. As they peer across the board, I can glean massive amounts of information. I can sense fear. I can sense excitement. I can sense when and...
by Anthony Severin | Jul 11, 2021 | Advocacy, Counterplans, Fiat, From Advanced to National-Class, Negative, Uncategorized
What must an affirmative team do to win a policy debate round? The affirmative should win if they convince the judge that the audience and the debaters are better off if the judge votes affirmative. Conversely, the negative should win if they convince the judge that...
by Ellie Harris | Jun 14, 2021 | From Intermediate to Advanced, Team Policy
The 1AR presents a unique challenge: responding to two speeches in one. It’s probably the most difficult speech to give in a debate round, but it can also be the most fun. I’ve been the 1AR for most of my time in debate, and it’s my favorite speech by far. Sure, I...
by Ben Brown | May 20, 2021 | From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Team Policy
What makes a good affirmative case? Aside from one that wins, most debaters look for policies that they believe should be implemented in the real world, and more specifically, ones that create the most benefits. For instance, if one course of action would...
by Jeremiah Mosbey | May 13, 2021 | Coaching, From Advanced to National-Class
https://pixabay.com/photos/book-address-book-learning-learn-1171564/ What were the biggest things that helped you really start understanding debate as you were first starting out? We all have a short list of things that really made things “click” for us, and if you...
by Ellie Harris | May 1, 2021 | Advocacy, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative
In Voting Issues Part I, we discussed three common problems surrounding voters and how to avoid them by not running voters at all. But this doesn’t mean you should never run voters! It’s important to understand how to debate without voters, but at the same time many...