Kosmach,+Alex

=**POLICY DEBATE PARADIGM**=

**FORMER AFFILIATIONS:** __COLLEGE__: UNLV, __HS__: Green Valley HS, Capitol Debate, Juan Diego
 * ME: ** Alex Kosmach

**SCHOOLS I STRIKE:** __COLLEGE__: UNLV, __HS__: Green Valley HS, Juan Diego, Fullerton Union, all schools affiliated with Capitol Debate **NUMBER OF ROUNDS ON 2016-17 TOPIC:** __COLLEGE__: 0, __HS__: 0 **YEAR JUDGING:** 7th **EMAIL:** kosmacha@gmail.com

Philosophy last updated 9/9/16


 * PAPERLESS CHEAT SHEET **
 * Prep goes until you pull out the flash drive.
 * Jump all cards before the speech - if you add cards during the speech that were not in the original speech doc, they have to be jumped by your partner during the speech or before the start of the ensuing cross-x.
 * I will dock points for not following these guidelines. Usually a .2 point penalty for every time I have to restart prep because of paperless nonsense.

I've been out of debate for about a year now after being a coach at Capitol Debate and at Juan Diego Catholic High School, formerly the assistant coach at Green Valley High School in Henderson, NV and I debated at UNLV from 2009 to 2011. I taught at the Sun Country Forensics Institute and Capitol Debate Summer Camps. You are individuals participating in an activity which is a complicated game that can be a lot of fun and incredibly valuable. Thus, you should treat it with the respect it deserves. Ethos is key. Act like you're taking the debate seriously, and I'll take you seriously. Reciprocity, simple as that.

I also think that, while raw factual information is often much more reliable than verbal spin, the two are mutually complementary. In simple terms, present a bad argument persuasively and with passion, and the argument becomes more believable. If you're poorly evaluating a good argument, it doesn't look good to those evaluating the argument. I don't care how good your cards are, you have to convince me that they're even worth reading or thinking twice about. That's what makes debate so tricky. You have to set a trap for the judge to always favor you when taking a second look at your arguments. Those who do this well will be rewarded with things like ballots, speaker points and nicknames.

As for substantial debate matters, I don't have many predispositions. Most affs are //probably// topical, most counterplans are //probably// competitive, and most K alternatives are //probably// not as vague as you think they are. I think a better way to get you all to debate the way I want you to would be to give you a general list of things to do and not to do in terms of the substance of most debates.


 * DOs:** Make deep link analysis; explain what your [alt/CP/perm] functionally does, and what the world after your [alt/CP/perm] looks like; make overviews that are efficient and make the rest of your speech more efficient; do good line-by-line debating, but know how to strategically group arguments; answer the other team's theory block; split the block properly; be clear; be concise; tell me to call for cards if you don't have enough time to explain how terrible they are; explain your cards and how spectacular they are, instead of having me call for them; frame theory voters as impacts; treat topicality like a disad; experiment with new arguments; read arguments you believe; debate well


 * DON'Ts:** Call your [opponents, opponents' arguments, judge, partner] any sort of slur, epithet, or other disparaging name. Besides, it's much cooler to call something "asinine" than it is to call it "crappy"; read the Khalilzad 1995 evidence; read any card by a debate coach that says kritiks are bad; drop arguments; ignore arguments; underviews; overviews that are 2+ minutes long; say "it's a voter" without explaining why; put "that's an independent voter" on 7 2AC arguments; read a K when you don't know the fundamental philosophy it is rooted in; "brief off-time roadmap"; be wrong about historical facts; only extend taglines; forfeit; fail to give 100%

Also, when you go for T, it has to be all five minutes of the 2NR. It's a single world and needs to be treated as such. I don't ever recall voting on a topicality argument that the round wasn't fully staked on.

I'd also like to address a few pet peeves of mine.

First, **PAPERLESS DEBATE IS NOT HARD**. As someone who has put things on flash drives many, many times in my life, I don't understand why it's so difficult to put things on flash drives. If you show up at the tournament, debating paperless, and your computer is not paperless debate-ready, that's the equivalent of showing up to a tournament with your files printed front-and-back on the paper or without a timer or pens or flow paper. The introduction of computers into the common //accoutrement// of debate is likely the greatest advancement in debate since digital research, the K, or energy drinks. Thus, I treat the use of computers as part of the greater debate round. This means your level of courtesy and skill at paperless may affect your speaker points, positively or negatively. A basic rule of thumb so as to not make me frustrated with you: //**ALL CARDS YOU INTEND TO READ OFF YOUR COMPUTER IN ANY SPEECH MUST BE JUMPED TO THE OTHER TEAM BEFORE THE SPEECH.**// In the event that you have to add cards mid-speech, put them on a jump drive FIRST, THEN give your partner the laptop, THEN give the flash drive to your opponents, and then and only then can you go back to flowing or whatever it is you were doing. That's only fair.

Prep time ends when you pull the flash drive out of the computer, because it's the only way I can know conclusively that you're done prepping the speech.

Second, never ever ever read a card from an email in front of me, ESPECIALLY if you weren't the one who the email was sent to. I cannot tell you how disturbed I am at the renaissance of "email cards" in debate. It's the intellectual equivalent of having someone do your homework for you. It's nothing more than emailing the author of a card and tricking that author into writing a new, different card that directly answers the argument that you can't seem to figure out how to answer on your own, using your brain and the Google machine. I hate it, it's a sign of the beginning of the end of debate.

Third, debate should be a welcoming and safe place for any and all people who choose to take part in it as an activity. That being said, if I perceive in any way that you, as a member of a debate community within a debate that I'm adjudicating, are making debate an unwelcoming, unsafe, or discriminatory environment for your partner, opponents, or me as a fellow member of the community, you will be punished with speaker point deductions, sometimes even losses if the infraction is a big enough deal, and I will almost always go out of my way to make your coach aware of your behavior. Does this apply to a framework argument that says "your K isn't good for policy debate?" No. But am I looking out for behavior that can make people want to not debate anymore? Yes.

It's all pretty simple. If you have questions, make them good, but feel free to ask them. I'm with my friend Kyle here, the term "threshold" doesn't mean much to me. Judging's subjective. You'll never pin me down to ALWAYS voting one way or another on specific arguments.

Enjoy the debate and enjoy debating.

=PUBLIC FORUM PARADIGM=

Capitol Debate, Juan Diego CHS Green Valley HS Centennial HS (Maryland), The Master School, any school affilated with Capitol Debate
 * ME:** Alex Kosmach
 * CURRENT AFFILIATIONS:**
 * FORMER AFFILIATIONS:**
 * SCHOOLS I STRIKE:**
 * I am currently in my SECOND year of coaching Public Forum and THIRD year of judging it**
 * EMAIL:** kosmach@capitoldebate.com

I come into most PF debates with the perspective that it's my job to determine who makes the best arguments. My threshold for a "good" argument is relatively high compared to most laypeople that judge Public Forum debates, but even those people still have an idea for what makes a good argument.

That being said, I look out for debaters who have the ability to control //context// and //content//. Those are the ones who can steer the direction of the debate in their favor by having superior evidence, superior "spin," and superior knowledge of the topic/arguments. All this means is I want you to sound pretty, don't be mean or curt, and confidently use your evidence to defend your claims. I can handle a bit of fast-talking and will not have a problem keeping up with whatever it is you do. So, just get up there and do what you do best. In my own humble opinion, that's the easiest way to win a Public Forum debate in front of me; do what you do best better than your opponents do.

Here's a quick list of dos and don'ts to help you make me enjoy the debate:


 * DOs:** Make deep link analysis; make overviews that are efficient and make the rest of your speech more efficient; know how to strategically group arguments; be clear; be concise; experiment with new arguments; read arguments you believe; debate well


 * DON'Ts:** Call your [opponents, opponents' arguments, judge, partner] any sort of slur, epithet, or other colloquial insult that would make you look like a tool; drop arguments; ignore arguments; underviews; overviews that are 2+ minutes long; be wrong about historical facts; just extend taglines; forfeit; fail to give 100%

Also, debate should be a welcoming and safe place for any and all people who choose to take part in it as an activity. That being said, if I perceive in any way that you, as a member of a debate community within a debate that I'm adjudicating, are making debate an unwelcoming, unsafe, or discriminatory environment for your partner, opponents, or me as a fellow member of the community, you will be punished with speaker point deductions, sometimes even losses if the infraction is a big enough deal, and I will almost always go out of my way to make your coach aware of your behavior.

Enjoy the debate and enjoy debating.