by Thad Burson | May 5, 2020 | Debate Blog, Debate Rounds, Online Debate
“Online debate.” I am not going to lie, when I hear that phrase, I cringe. Or at least, I used to. After partaking in an online debate tournament, I have found that online debate provides a viable, beneficial, and even fun alternative to debate tournaments during...
by Thaddeus Tague | Feb 7, 2019 | Affirmatives, Bonus Evidence, Debate Blog, Debate Rounds, NSDA, Uncategorized
This topic post is for Gov/Aff/Pro. Between watching practice rounds, and helping teams prep, it seems like Pro/Aff is definitely fighting an uphill battle on the PF February motion. Why? It can be daunting to argue against a really well run Fill-in DA, especially...
by Joshua Hu | Jan 3, 2018 | Affirmatives, Basics, Debate Blog, Debate Rounds, From Advanced to National-Class, From Intermediate to Advanced, From Novice to Intermediate, Strategy, Technique, Top Drills
There is no one right way to structure rebuttals, no special formula your speeches should follow so that the judge must vote for you. However, there are certain fundamental elements of great rebuttals. When well-developed, these elements will tremendously increase...
by Noah Farley | Nov 14, 2017 | Debate Blog, Debate Rounds, Parliamentary, Strategy, The Parli Station, Theory, Uncategorized
Time for some new theory. Only a couple weeks ago, I was doing some Parliamentary debate. We were Opposition, and the debate had come down to the mass of historical examples on our side vs. the Government’s contention that the resolution was necessarily true. They...
by Noah Howard | Nov 1, 2017 | Basics, Debate Blog, Debate Rounds, Strategy, Technique, Theory
It was 10:30 pm at NITOC 2016, and I was about to give the last speech of the last out round of the day. I had almost everything prepared. Almost. The problem was, Neg had run an argument that I just couldn’t come up with a response to. But it was okay, I had two...
by Joshua Hu | Aug 8, 2017 | Basics, Debate Blog, Debate Rounds, Soapbox
It was the National Tournament of 2017, my final and most important high school tournament. I sat outside room E217, waiting for the first Lincoln-Douglas flight to finish for round five. My opponent still hadn’t arrived, but when the first flight let out, I was...
