Sheaff,+Timothy

Timothy E. Sheaff Head Coach Dowling Catholic High School LD and Policy for 20 years

I am rarely in the judge pool. My major issue is my shortcomings as a note taker. I flow very poorly.

I am not opposed to much (I am pretty Catholic and to that end I find life to be pretty sacred, so pro-genocide and other such arguments are not going to sit well with me... I do not want you to swear at me or each other either) but I am open to all other type arguments... HOWEVER...HOWEVER, I have to understand them... so you are gonna have to explain high level theory arguments, or deeply-rooted philosophy arguments to me or I will probably jump to conclusions and they will most likely not match what you wanted me to understand... I am SURE you understand it better than I do... I am SURE of it... I am not saying you are wrong, I am saying, I can't grasp it without some thought and explanation down to my level. So if you do not think you have time to explain it like you would explain it to your uncle (assuming your uncle is not a national circuit coach) than it might not be advisable.

As a coach I basically train novices to get them started and then I send them off to camps and allow a trickle down from the varsity... so do not understand debate theory really anymore than is needed to train first year debaters for the first 2 months... after that they are beyond me.

Stuff that is hard for me: T... just because it is so blippy and requires me to flow so very rapidly and I am bad at that

The K... I do not know how to word this, but a "basic" K like cap or security I get at a basic level, but when you start to get into K's where it is the authors name and it is all post-modern-y and deconstructive, I just don't get it... I AM NOT AGAINST THEM, I just can't understand what is going on with them, so if you really want to run them... be prepared to give me the "dummies" version and even then, get more basic than that.

Theory.. yep (explained it above) I have no idea what "dispo" is or why any particular "spec" is good or bad, "severance", "intrinsicness" or how a PIK can float are all outside my realm of comprehension. I am sure they are fine arguments and if a team is really being slimy to take advantage of my ignorance and you can get me to grasp it... tell me...explain it... but it does not seem like a good strategy to try to win my ballot on a technicality that is not really preventing you from debating well, but you are running just 'cause its all you got.

I also can't get out of my head that I am trying to make a policy, so I just operate in that mental framework I will go elsewhere if you can tell me (and win) why I should and how to do it (again not opposed to other world views, I just know my own predilections)

For LD I am not obsessed with the value/criterion. (cant quite figure out why they are needed) but again, if you have a case you tend to run for local circuit/lay judges, it would be advisable, I think, to pull that one out for me.

I love this activity, I anguish over not giving kids a fair shake... but I suppose I am equally limited for both sides.

So I am trying not to hide anything, I am bad at some stuff. I hope this helps you figure out how to get around it.