Klaren+Josen

Hello. The best thing about policy debate is the educational value it brings to students, coaches and judges. I debated policy in high school for four years (with no coach) and at UC Berkeley in the days when it was an entirely student run sqaud. I've qualified for the NDT twice and reached elimination rounds at CEDA Nationals 3 times. As a debater with no coach, we worked very hard at cutting cards and gleaning comments and advice from our judges. I love this activity for its fun and educational benefits as well as it being an intense mental sort of game. Recently, I've coached small high schools in policy debate. The last time, however, that I judged was 2012. So it's been a while since I've experienced the activity. What's best to win my ballot is to make sure you are clear on all tag lines, do superb 2NR and 2AR story telling, have intelligent strategies rather than trying to win by speed. If you go relatively slow and at a moderate pace where I can actually flow everything your speaker points will go up. I enjoy PIC and DA net benefit debates as well as well done kritical debates. If you're running kritik's make sure you are clear about them, articulate or over articulate the different levels and ways the kritik should work out. There's a kritik called "gift kritik" which is probably the worst argument I've ever heard in HS debate. Don't run it. Don't run ridiculous and stupid arguments that I will be annoyed at. If you have any questions, dont' ever hesitate to ask. Best of luck!