Coaching Philosophy

“My goal in coaching is helping push and guide students to excellence – both as critical thinkers and as polished communicators. This is a high bar that requires drive, commitment, and hard work. I prefer to coach by coming alongside students to encourage them where they excel while helping identify areas of weakness. My role is to direct their efforts to improve to the places that will make the biggest difference in round-outcomes. This includes teaching high-level debate strategy, research methods, cross examination, rhetorical, and brief writing techniques, as well as giving students a thought process that will enable them to consistently defeat surprise cases without research.

But I also believe building the kind of mind that is successful in debate (and life) has just as much to do with the formation of good habits of character as it does with research and rhetoric skills. In a sport that is fundamentally a search for truth, integrity, humility, and intellectual honesty are paramount. Making the strongest arguments requires searching for their flaws with an open mind and acknowledging weaknesses. Helping students learn to identify and question the assumptions behind their arguments is crucial to helping them identify and question their opponents underlying assumptions. Persuasive communication requires understanding. Working hard to understand your opponents arguments and assumptions better than they do is a mark of a great debater – and my end goal for students as their coach.”