by Joel Erickson | Jan 24, 2022 | Basics, Technique, Top Drills, Uncategorized
Quality flowing—debate vernacular for “notetaking”—is instrumental to competitive success, yet many intermediate and advanced debaters don’t enhance their flowing capabilities beyond the techniques they absorbed as novices. There’s a prevailing mindset that flowing is...
by Joel Erickson | Nov 10, 2021 | LD, Top Drills
You just pulled an all-nighter pounding out your LD case (or commandeered one from our widely acclaimed sourcebooks) and want to ensure it’s airtight before tomorrow’s tournament. Here are five strategies for your arsenal. Strategy 1: The Five Whys Debaters could...
by Anna Johansen | Mar 13, 2019 | Basics, Coaching a Club, From Novice to Intermediate, Technique, Top Drills
For TPers in the throes of tournament season, evidence can seem like the be-all, end-all. They desperately scrounge for cards and trade for briefs, then head off to a round, gripping those pages like they’re Ben Gates making off with the Declaration of Independence....
by Anna Johansen | Jan 11, 2019 | Communication/Rhetoric, Speaking, Top Drills
Have you ever played Mousetrap? You know, the game with the epic contraption: you turn the crank, which pulls back a sign, that slams into a bucket, that sets loose a marble, that slides down a pipe, that jostles a pole, that drops a marble, that flips a diver, that...
by Joshua Hu | Sep 9, 2018 | Coaching, Coaching a Club, Debate Blog, Parli Resolutions, Parliamentary, The Parli Station, Top Drills
To improve in Parliamentary Debate, debaters must consistently break down a variety of resolutions across a wide range of subject areas and have high-quality practice rounds. Here are 20 resolutions to jumpstart your practice! This is the only the beginning—Ethos will...
by Anna Johansen | Apr 11, 2018 | Technique, Top Drills
You remember Charlie Brown’s teacher from the old cartoons? In the animated adaptations, teacher Miss Othmar sounds exactly like a trombone honking (that might be because they actually used a trombone to make the noise). This is what it sounds like. And unfortunately,...
