Last changed on
Tue September 17, 2024 at 5:15 AM PDT
I am a debate coach whose decisions are incredibly flow based. I am a great judge for technical, mechanical line-by-line debate at any speed where I can crisply hear every syllable of every single word. My background is in policy debate, but I have primarily coached/judged LD for the past 5+ years.
Clarity and judge instructions are axiomatic. I find myself most often intervening (which I dislike) when debaters are unclear and when I lack directions. I unabashedly cannot flow analytical arguments at unclear card text speed - please slow down on important parts of the debate you want me to get down verbatim on my flow. Almost every paradigm regardless of ideology says "more judge instructions please" because debaters hardly ever do enough! The best rebuttals always start and end with directions. I implore you to treat the round like a fine dining prix fixe experience where you let me savor several courses thoroughly that you have exquisitely chosen and explained, rather than reading me the entire Cheesecake Factory menu at top speed while telling me everything is 'good'.
Debate is for the debaters, not for the judges or coaches. Debate is what the debaters want it to be. I believe in a student/debater centered model of debate. The arguments you choose to read should not be based on ideologically pleasing me. You should run whatever arguments you are passionate about, enjoy, think are strategic, are studying, and/or are just trying to get better at deploying and want some feedback. I appreciate debaters who take time to craft strategies they want to read and do not think my ideological beliefs should play a factor in the debate.
I do not have a preference for how you debate or which arguments you read. I try not to intervene and insert my personal biases or beliefs for arguments presented into the debate. I am not bias towards any particular style, content, or form. That being said, while I like to consider myself an incredibly flexible coach and judge, I am not an expert in all styles, content, and forms. You should assume I am a debate coach that is referentially familiar with what you are saying, but not a subject area expert that has flow shorthand abbreviations for the SAT words you expect me to get down perfectly. Even if I am particularly knowledgeable about the substance matter of the debate, I purposefully try to not fill in the gaps. Robust explanation is likely necessary.
I think the role of the judge should be to evaluate the arguments presented and reach the best decision requiring the least intervention. I think it would be highly improper and interventionist for me as a judge to impose certain argumentative burdens on the aff or neg. I do not ideologically care if you defend the resolution or not and will leave that up to the debaters. I do not believe that it is the judge's role to come in with beliefs that make them unwilling to believe or vote on issues like conditionality, zero risk, terminal defense, presumption, or affs that do not defend a topical plan - you get the point. I am just as willing to vote on conditionality bad as I am conditionality good - and am just as willing to vote on zero risk as I am "there's a risk so try or die". You should not assume I will "ignore" arguments like "instrinsicness", "fiat solves the link", "you misspelled a word in the plan/counterplan text" or RVIs, if these arguments are properly explained. Are these likely winning arguments if evenly debated by both sides? Probably not. But I am not going to ignore arguments presented with warrants just because I do not "believe" or "don't vote" for that argument because it is "not a thing". I do not have any preconceived ideas about debate arguments or theory when in the role of the judge and tend to vote based on only my flow. I am willing to vote on any claim that has warrants and implications with instructions. Just because your opponent is "trolling" or reading "tricks" does not mean you get a free pass to not answer these arguments and still win the debate. I do not carve out exceptions for arguments like wipeout and spark. While I personally think there is zero risk that I will win a gold medal in the 100m dash at the 2028 LA Olympic games, as a judge who takes their beliefs out of the debate at hand, I am willing to entertain explanations of the risk of my seemingly impossible quest towards gold.
I do not auto judge kick a counterplan/alternative without being explicitly told to do so in the last neg speech act as doing so would be judge intervention.
During the debate: I will flow unless instructed otherwise. I flow the speech not the speech doc. Please do not speak or organize your speech in a way that assumes I am following along in the document. I usually look at cards during cross and prep if they are being discussed.
Reason for decision process: I actively think about the debate during the actual debate itself. I often have the debate mostly figured out when the timer beeps for the last speech. I do not reconstruct the debates afterwards. I use a double check method where if I am going to vote neg, I go through the entirety of the flow of the 2AR after I have made my decision and try to make sure I am not missing anything and have an answer to every "what about this" question that is on my flow from the last speech. I generally type a written reason for decision on the ballot (typically several short paragraphs) before I submit my ballot where I explain how I decided the core issues of the particular debate.
Speaker point floor typically 29.0.