by Emily Rose | Oct 26, 2015 | From Advanced to National-Class, Strategy
“Effective debaters” are these elusive creatures, hunted by students year-round, at constant risk of being consumed by the masses. The hunt for debate-senpais is real. Everybody wants to be, or at least know, an effective debater. I won’t judge if...
by Zack Voell | Sep 24, 2015 | Strategy
This weekend, I will travel to Indiana for the first NPDA tournament of the fall semester with the Grove City College debate team. Debating with Josiah (my incredibly knowledgeable, skilled Californian partner) is nothing if not a privilege. Argumentative clash always...
by Cameron Bertron | Aug 12, 2015 | Parliamentary, Stoa, Strategy
“Interesting claims about history, government, economics, politics, and culture are often introduced in parliamentary debates… There are other, less obvious, factual inaccuracies in many debates. Many debaters claim to represent the factual world (at least the...
by Isaiah McPeak | Mar 21, 2015 | Strategy, Top Drills, Tournaments
As Chip and Dan Heath (also authors of our favorite communications book, Made to Stick) note in their book “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard,” improvement is often about capitalizing on the “bright spots.” A similar point is made by Charles Duhigg in...
by Isaiah McPeak | Feb 17, 2015 | Guest Posts, Strategy
What exactly is the 1AR? Take a second to think. Before you can learn how to use it to win, you must first understand what the 1AR truly is. Is it the most important speech in the round? Is it the compensation for Aff’s right to be the first and last word in the...
by Isaiah McPeak | Feb 11, 2015 | Coaching, Guest Posts, Strategy
Ryan Collins (2013 TP national champion) and I are planning this weekend’s teaching. We’re working with a group of experienced debaters who aren’t having the traction they should. We had both written down our own notes, and they were remarkably...
