Tacderan,+Mica

I am a first year PFD coach. I did compete in LD debate for 3 years and 1 year of PF Debate back in high-school. I personally view PFD as a hybrid of policy and LD, but still uniquely it’s own form. As such, my perspective of LD did not come out entirely unscathed.

Speed: I’m fine with you going as fast as you can speak, but in my book spreading is for policy, and policy alone. If you attempt to speak very quickly and you are not speaking well (ie. enunciating, making sure I can follow your train of thought and argumentation) your speaker points will suffer. If you see me having trouble flowing or stop flowing, it would be best if you slowed down a bit.

(LD ONLY!) K’s and Theory: I will listen to your arguments; if I find them persuasive and impactful enough to the given resolution then I will consider them against a typical Value/Criterion -> Contention debate. Best way to say it plainly is that I am open to the possibilities, though you walk a slightly subjective road.

Extending: I will listen to you when you tell me to extend dropped arguments, but only if your opponent truly did drop it. If he did not, all he needs to tell me is that he didn’t and point back to the flow. Obviously, if he tells me to look back at it and nothing is there, then I extend. Consider this as a vice versa scenario as well, but the point is you need to tell me to extend or refute that you did not drop something etc.

Crystallization: Key moment in the rebuttals; tell me why you are winning. Don’t just say “I win” give me the rationale, give me the impacts on both sides of the argument and tell me why I should weigh yours over your opponents.

Presentation: Overall I really just want to see a good debate. Be courteous to your opponent, to me that is not just in what is said during the round, but also your demeanor during the round. Speaking well is valued only slightly behind making good arguments in my opinion, though argumentation wins you the round, speaking well can help convince me that your arguments are superior to opponents.

Cross Fire: Though I will not flow these, I love to see good questions and answers during CF. If a question or an answer has important weight in a round to the argumentation/rebuttal I want to see you bring those up into consecutive speeches given. There is a fine line towards being courteously assertive and aggressive or abusive during the round.

Most of all, have fun with the debate! And be civil!