Last changed on
Tue February 13, 2024 at 7:46 AM CDT
I was a long-time high school coach of CX, LD, PF and Congress and was a college policy debater MANY years ago.
If you want to put a title on my debate philosophy, I’d call myself a policymaker.
When I judge a round, I pay attention to my flow. I care about dropped arguments, and I don’t like the neg to run time suck arguments and then kick out. That said, be sure I can take a good flow by speaking at a reasonable rate of speed. If you feel you must speak quickly, at least give me a chance to catch your tag lines and source citations, or, better yet, provide a link to your case.
I have no issues with theoretical debate or critical arguments, so long as you make me understand them. That said, I still prefer to judge a round about the resolution instead of a round about whether or not someone was abusive.
LD should remain value based. Although some recent LD resolutions cry out for the debaters to present a plan, please don't neglect the value framework tradition.
In CX debate, I consider T to be an important argument in the round but will not vote on it unless I judge there has been actual in-round abuse.
LD debate should have a strong value component and avoid overt policy-making.
I judge Congress on content and delivery. This type of debate demands a strong and passionate public speaking style. Questioning is crucial to final score. I strongly dislike rehashed arguments. Clash is important, but it needs to have actual refutation and not just mentioning the names of previous speakers. I object to the recent trend toward doing all prep work in-round and the abuse of in-house recesses to allow this.
In all types of debate, don’t be rude to your opponent. Respect the activity with professional demeanor.