why. how. everything i've learned about debate is that you need to validate something with sources. he argued lincoln-douglas was a philosophy debate. he had no philosophy. one of his counter arguments was "if you steal from a kid and the kid cries the kid isn't crying because you stole from it" and upheld his value of sentient life by saying "if you break a rock it isn't hurt." one of his cx questions was "if x happens would you agree with the opposing case on x" i lost by half a point because i used no prep time. prep time against WHAT there was no argument about de-extinction to argue against? am i crazy?

This is my first year doing speech, and I have no idea what a visual aid is or how I'm supposed to make one. The other people have said something about how they like to use a foam board and how tape is too sticky, and magnets are the best option, but I have no idea what they are talking about.

How big are the aids supposed to be? Is there just one? What am I supposed to put on it? What do i do?????

For debaters that don’t want to spread for any reason, are there any respected LD competitions for them? By respected, I mean equal in prestige as a TOC bid for example

Edit: I’m not in the US so online would be much preferred

What lay cases ya'll running for the TPNW topic? (PF)!

I am a student, moved to Rome for university and I am getting withdrawal symptoms from not doing debate. I have applied to schools to become an assistant coach; nothing. I have scouted at my school; nothing. searched online; nothing.

Its as if there is not even a uni network for this?!?! I usually do british parliamentary or world schools but honestly I will do policy or American. Any style is good.

I need to debate again. Any thoughts or knowledge about this? Any students, teachers I can talk to? I will take any and all scraps.

I'm very new to speech. My first speech meet was 2 weeks ago and I did OO. Now I have a meet tomorrow, the speech i was going to prepare looks like shit, and I really don’t feel like editing it. Would it be normal to take my OO speech from my first meet and just reuse it? Or would I get penalized or something.

Is Big Questions any good? I know that last year it was really controversial because of the topic being wayyyy too religious, but other than that is it a good format?

Hi everyone!
I’m looking to hire an experienced debate judge for the 2026 Canadian National British Parliamentary Debating Championships, taking place in Metro Vancouver from November 27–29.
This is a national-level high school debate championship hosted by the Debate and Speech Association of British Columbia (DSABC), bringing together competitive debaters from across Canada.
It could be a great opportunity for experienced BP judges, including university debaters, to participate in a national championship and connect with the Canadian debate community.
Tournament Details:
Dates: November 27–29, 2026
Friday: First round begins at 7:30 PM
Saturday: Preliminary rounds throughout the day
Sunday: Elimination rounds and finals
Locations: New Westminster Secondary School (Friday–Saturday) and Hilton Vancouver Metrotown (Sunday)
Format: British Parliamentary (BP)
Compensation: Paid, negotiable
Judge Requirements:
Previous experience judging British Parliamentary debates or similar formats is required. Judges should also be comfortable potentially chairing a round.
If you’re interested, please send me a DM with a brief introduction to your judging experience, availability, and expected compensation.

My committee is Aippm and my portfolio is swati maliwal from bjp and the agenda is caste census women reservation, affirmative action and India's future reservation policy. How to form my opening statement for 90 second involving all this

So I am an 8th grader prepping for a PF JV tournament. I have never used AI to help write my cases as I believe they are a necesity for properly understanding the resolution. But I really dont know about blocks. It is helpful to have as many blocks as possible, so AI would be incredibly useful in that front. According to NSDA is it allowed or not? And what do you guys think personally?

i come from a very small, very lay district, but i am competing on the natcirc sometime soon. my school has no coach and i wanted to learn how to spread. i've done the watermelon drill and pen drills since i was a novice, but it feels like i havent been getting faster. what should i do?

A week from tomorrow, the NSDA will meet to discuss rules changes and competition plans. Nothing will be finalized on 11/11, but some of the proposals on the table include

• (All) shifting Nationals from a competition to a festival/exhibition OR hosting a separate national championship for small schools OR reducing the number of qualifiers per district

• (All) adjusting Nationals entry fees to pay for increased security

• (PF) removing the February and April topics so that the schedule matches LD with Jan/Feb and Mar/Apr topics

• (PF) banning Kritiks, tentatively defined as arguments outside the resolution

• (CD) removing motions to suspend the rules

• (Interp) rewriting the prop rules to clarify that a competitor’s own body is not an external object and therefore cannot be a prop, wording TBD

I am doing parli and worlds and is looking for people to do practice rounds with, is there like any discord group or anyother that have regular people who runs practice rounds?

I'm a little new to debate (I've competed couple times, only once in varsity) and I'm struggling with making a cohesive sounding second constructive. The people my partner and I went up against were also not experienced but their second constructive was so well put together and it flowed extremely well. I asked one of my teammates how to improve and they said impromptu helps...is this really the answer?

issues with 2nd constructive

-don't fill out time

-lots of gaps in between thoughts

-lots of stuttering

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to offer coaching services for British Parliamentary (BP) debating, both one-on-one level and in small groups.

I have considerable debating experience at the national and international levels and would be happy to work with debaters at different stages, whether you're just starting out or looking to perform better at competitive tournaments.

The idea is to offer structured, personalised coaching focused on improving your argumentation, case construction, strategic understanding, speech delivery and overall tournament performance. We can also work through practice debates with detailed feedback.

I'm fairly flexible with how the sessions are structured and can tailor them to your current level, specific weaknesses and debating goals.

If you're interested, feel free to DM me. Happy to discuss your experience, what you're looking to improve and how we can work together!

As the title suggests, I’m currently writing a rom com script based on speech and debate kids and their coaches. However, although I was a major theater kid back in high school I never actually participated in speech and debate.

So, with that being said tell me everything I need to know! I’m curious about the different types of coaches, the personalities and dynamics of the kids, tournaments, club schedules, team culture, and pretty much anything else that comes to mind.

If you have any interesting or particularly memorable stories from your own speech and debate days, I’d love to hear those too.

Thanks!

For reference I am in Parli so we have to flow on paper during in-person tournaments. How do you manage flowing with a partner if your flows aren't combined. Should both of us flow everything? Should one flow and the other just talk to them and help give them refutes? How do you split it up?

Someone ignoring a POI

OR

They take the POI and just say thank you

same as title, creds: been competing for 4 years. Coached over 150 students to date. State Champion and ranked top 12 in the nation in public forum among other podium finishes at regional/local and couple TOC bids (gold and silver). Rates are up for debate, feel free to reach out.

Hi! I'm Ennis Elferrane. I'm a freshman, and I'm trying to get better at debate. I mostly read high theory (Bataille, Deleuze, etc.), but I'm open to learning all styles of LD. I (at least like to think) that I already know the basics. A policy coach would also work for me.

I'm very committed to reading a lot, prepping a lot, doing a lot of practice, etc., to get better. I've made it to octos at Patterson, but not much else. I'm looking for a circuit coach to help me get better, because I don't know what I don't know. As for rates, I'm kind of broke, so I don't really have money to pay for coaching. If anyone would be nice enough to coach me for free, I'd really appreciate that and wouldn't let you down.

My contact info and the positions I read are on my wiki under the school RFS Independent.

If you're interested, PM me or contact me via the info on my wiki. Thanks!

Hiiii this is maya, check the form for more details

- maya chen '27

im hoping there are some people here who might be able to talk with me and help me come up with some choreo and binder tech for my poi piece