Chisum,+Derek

Derek Chisum Graduated 2013 from American Christian School (Bartlesville, OK) Graduated 2017 from Hillsdale College (Hillsdale, MI) Assistant Coach for BASIS Phoenix Event: LD

I want to be able to flow the round. I'm not a fan of speed, and I will say "Clear!" if I want you to slow down. In terms of general style, being too aggressive or condescending to your opponent will likely lose speaker points with me. Passion and confidence make for great speaking style, and as a former Extemper I tend to find that more persuasive than rushing through to jam in extra cards in your time. Be respectful to your opponent, the audience, your judge, and anyone else around.

I'm a more traditional LDer, so framework arguments are important for me. LD is value debate, so show me why your value should be upheld and why your case upholds it. Other types of argumentation such as theory, kritiks etc. are acceptable, but you need to show me the impacts and why it should matter in the round. If you're going for an impacts based argument, be explicit about impact calculus and how your impacts outweigh you opponent's. All arguments must be backed by evidence or solid logic, and should be easy to follow. I'm not going to do work for you, nor am I going to judge based on anything outside the debate in front of me.

In my view, a good round is one with two strong frameworks clashing directly and the debaters letting me easily weigh the impacts of each. If you're dodging arguments or claiming drops that didn't happen, that's a good way to lose my ballot.