by Jeremiah Mosbey | Mar 23, 2021 | From Intermediate to Advanced, Judging/Judges, Strategy
A couple of years ago, Harrison wrote a couple of excellent articles (here and here) delving into the different types of debate judges, and the pros and cons of each style. While we all understand the fact that there are different kinds of judges, it’s still very...
by Kyle Lee | Mar 17, 2021 | Best Resources, From Intermediate to Advanced, Strategy, Technique, Thinking Strategically
In the last article (found here), we covered why over-practice is a real threat to competitive speech & debate success. That article wasn’t saying that practice is inherently bad. It isn’t. Practice is fundamental to improving at anything. But there...
by Patrick McDonald | Feb 25, 2021 | Speaking, Strategy
Dear friends, not unfriendly acquaintances, others, I have a confession to make. Several days ago, I unearthed the script of the first full-length speech I ever wrote. On a hunch, I opened up the search function via Ctrl + F and punched in a solitary question mark....
by Patrick McDonald | Feb 11, 2021 | Speaking, Strategy
He’s asleep. He’s literally asleep. When that thought pierced into my mind, my initial reaction was one of astonishment. I was roughly halfway through my Persuasive speech, and five feet in front of me was the head judge, his head peacefully at rest on his chair,...
by Ben Brown | Feb 4, 2021 | Concept Analysis, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, Negative, Strategy, Team Policy, Uncategorized
In part 1, we looked at the argument for net benefits being the superior framing as compared to the burden of proof in Team Policy. The short version is that 9 times out of 10, the burden of proof boils down to net benefits anyway. That is, first, if there’s a net...
by Patrick McDonald | Jan 28, 2021 | Strategy
In my novice year of debate, I had a time distribution problem. Perhaps this was because I enjoyed hearing myself ramble on about irrelevant points or demolishing the applicability of my opponent’s introduction. More likely, it was because my brain had yet to come to...
