Tiggelaar,+Ben

I'm a coach at Sioux Falls Lincoln. I teach the novice debate course and assist with the Varsity Policy Program. Overall, I come from a communications background. I can follow most arguments, but it is your job to articulate it clearly. Trust me, you do not want to leave it up to my interpretation.

** K's ** Although I think K's are awesome on paper, I think they don’t work well in debate rounds. I don't find them that persuasive because they have generic links that don't specifically link to case. They don't have legitimate alternatives and most of the time no one has any clue what the author is actually advocating. I think disads with kritikal impacts and specific links to case are an extremely persuasive alternative to running it as a K. I will vote as a policy maker, which means you can win probability and time-frame with a kritikal. I find this outweighs magnitude are more persuasive than K's because the alternative is the status quo.

** Speed ** I understand that some speed may be necessary. But in general I am not a fan because this takes away from argument development and true clash. On the NFL scale of speed I am a 4 out of 10. Clarity I have learned is a poor standard for speed. I know some amazing debaters that are very clear, but you cannot actually process what is said. I hate the need to ask questions during prep because people could not understand what was said. I will yell clear once, then stop flowing. If the argument does not make the flow, it does not exist.

** Case ** Case debate outweighs all. If you have specific and relevant arguments on case, I will reward you. I believe case debate is at the core of the topic and provides the most educational debating.

** Generic Disads ** I'd prefer you not run them. I hate politics disads with a passion. They are almost always lacking internal links.

** Impact Calc ** Show me a holistic view of the round in your final speech. You need to tell me how to vote. As a policy maker, I rely on impact calc to summarize the debate. Time-frame, probably, and magnitude are my three favorite words.