Rhoads,+Dean

Dean Rhoads
I have coached LD for years and have become increasingly disappointed in what I was hearing on the national level. I have not judged a single round on this resolution because I determined that I would no longer coach the event after November of 2006.

I cannot flow speed of any kind or speech which is monotonous and boring. If I don't flow it because your speech is difficult for me to follow, I will not credit you with arguments that I pick up on later in the round.

Debate the resolution. Debate the issues in the resolution. Do not debate tangents to the resolution because you feel they are more important than the resolution. I do not care for the vast majority of policyesque argumentation that occurs in most debates these days because is has virtually nothing to do with the resolution. I will not listen to kritiks, for example.

A debate is a chance to educate and persuade a third party--the judge--about which issues in a resolutional question are most important. Debates which assume I am only there to be a flow machine and weigh out the number of arguments addressed at the end will be disappointed. I do not approve of debate as a chance to game. Debate is not all about strategy.

I try to be impartial. I try to be objective. I will recuse myself from judging anyone I don't believe I can give a fair hearing to.