From Advanced to National-Class
Beneath the Surface: A Brief Look at the Kritik
I’ve found that a major downside of dedicating time to speech and debate instead of some other high school extracurricular is that it’s painful not being able to tell everyone about my amazing escapades in certain rounds. Sure, if I played basketball, anybody...
Running Counterplans Right
There has been no shortage of content covering counterplans over the years, but unfortunately there has been a lack of resources for those who already understand the theory. If you are one of those brave debaters who understands the risks and still wants to run a CP,...
Here’s How You Place At Nats Without High Speaks: Argument Construction
It’s halftime. You just got past the NEG block and the 1AR is about to start. You’re feeling pretty confident about your arguments and believe that there’s no way the other team can recover from your heavy onslaught. The rebuttals come around and you just solidify...
You Might Want To Start Thinking About Reducing or Recycling Prep Time… Here’s Why.
“Excuse me, sir, what’s your opinion on pineapple pizza?” You look down and see a child you don’t know talking to you. Confused at the initial question and needing to think about it for a bit, you pull out a pocket kitchen timer that you keep with you at all times...
Debate Is A Game. It’s Time To Adapt Accordingly
When it’s my opponent’s turn in chess, I don’t just look at the board. I look at my opponent’s eyes. His eyes betray him; through his eyes I can see everything. I can see which pieces he’s worried about, which pieces he might move next, and which pieces are going to...
Want To Run Theory On A “Hostile Judge”? Here’s How You Do It And Win.
“AWESOME!” you bellow out in your head. You just finished writing this epic counterplan, or an amazing T-press. Perhaps you’ve just written a fire procedure or a generic DA that will apply to more than 75% of all cases on a technical level. You’re super proud of...
What’s Your Catchphrase?
If I mentioned the book of Ecclesiastes, what's the first thing that would spring to your mind? For me, and I believe most others, your first thought would be Solomon's famous words: vanity, vanity, all is vanity. This famous phrase is memorable for a reason: it's...
Fact Check: Stock Issues Are Not A Required Burden. #DeleteStockIssues
Have you ever heard a negative team policy team come up in their first constructive speech and argue that “The affirmative has a couple of burdens. First, to prove that they are inherent, second to prove that they are significant, third to show that their plan solves...
Who Is Jesus?
Whenever we address the topic of theology or apologetics, we must ask ourselves who Jesus is. If this question tends you a little bit that's fine, it confuses most theologians too. This question really has two tenets, how Jesus was Revealed (and what we learn), and...
The Rules Have Changed… Now What?
If you’ve been reading my blog articles for a while, you knew that this was coming. Earlier this year, the NCFCA announced their rule changes for 2022, with this being one of the revisions: “Only the Affirmative speaker (LD) or 1st Affirmative speaker (TP) may...
Plancentrism: Purpose-Driven Debate Theory
What must an affirmative team do to win a policy debate round? The affirmative should win if they convince the judge that the audience and the debaters are better off if the judge votes affirmative. Conversely, the negative should win if they convince the judge that...
Mentoring: The How and Why
What were the biggest things that helped you really start understanding debate as you were first starting out? We all have a short list of things that really made things “click” for us, and if you can remember those things, there’s a good chance that you could make a...
The Benefits of Rapping Your 2AR’s
Anybody who’s been in TP or LD debate for any considerable amount of time understands the necessity of delivering a memorable 2AR. After all, being able to give the final speech of the round poses a significant rhetorical advantage to the affirmative--an advantage...
Revisiting the Burden of Proof, Part 2
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...
Why Debate Resolutions Are Getting Too Big… And What to Do about It
Each year, my debate club requires every student to go through the NCFCA’s “Comprehensive Guide to Policy Debate” curriculum in the fall, regardless of experience level. Having read it multiple times before, I was skimming the week’s assigned chapter twenty or...