Shipley,+Blake

name: Blake Shipley experience: 4 years of HS debate at Washburn Rural in Topeka KS (gave me great experience on a tough local circuit as well as multiple chances to travel national circuit) current involvement: I'm not debating anymore but I like staying involved by judging as much as possible

In terms of specific argumentation this is just my default or my general perspective on a particular part of debate. I can be persuaded to vote for and against a lot of things that I did not think I would otherwise.

T/Theory: I've always loved a good T or Theory debate, unfortunately as enjoyable as those debates are when they're good they're also immensely frustrating when they're done poorly (which more often than not seems to be the case). I think that summer camps have done a lot of good things for debate, however, I also think they've played a big part in hurting the quality of debate that happens on T and Theory flows. If you really want to win a theory argument then you're going to have to do more than stand up and read the camp block, analysis is pretty much the reason I would be voting for or against someone on theory anyway. That doesn't mean that you can't have your theory blocked out it just means that your block needs to be specific and have analysis which is why I always recommend that teams write as many of their own theory blocks as possible. Same idea on T, it should take you more than six seconds to get through the standards and voters section on topicality. I'm not afraid to pull the trigger on an untopical affirmative or a theoretically abusive argument so if you know what you're doing here its probably well worth your time.

Counterplans: I'm a fan. I'm going to default neg on a lot of counterplan theory because I see them as an important part of neg strategy but that doesn't mean that the neg doesn't have to justify what they do. The one problem I do have is that there are lots of teams out there that will run counterplans that are in absolutely no way competitive and then won't understand when they lose on a perm. So do yourself a favor and just stick with counterplans that are going to be competitive. One way I don't like to see counterplans run is when its like the 6th of 8 off case positions or when the neg is running it along side other advocacies.

Kritiks: I'll listen to them and a lot of times I'll enjoy doing it but I think that the threshold of explanation on a kritik is going to be higher for me. Kritiks without frameworks are probably a real waste of your time and mine because I don't want to have to be the one that weighs alll of your arguments out for you. I have a general understanding of what a lot of the authors out there are saying, at the same time however, I have very minimal knowledge about the specific literature. I do expect you to be able to explain more about the literature than I knew without having ever read the stuff. I also prefer it when K debates really get fully flushed out in the block and there is something more than just the 1nc shell being read on the K prior to the 2nr.

Disads: I have very little problem with generic disads. What I do have problems with are disads that don't make any sense (i.e. are missing one or more internal links). Essentially run whatever disad you want because I'm not going to vote you down for running a dumb disad. I think that its quite possible for an aff to beat a disad using only defensive arguments, however, I also really enjoy watching an aff just go for a straight impact turn.

Performance: I'm going to have a very difficult time signing my ballot in support of a performative position. That doesn't mean that I won't do it if one team clearly won the debate, however, I think it would be pretty easy for a team to convince me that voting a performance down is essential to preserrving the activity and that thats a good thing.

Speed: I'm know there are teams out there that can go a hell of a lot faster than I can possibly flow, but those teams are few and far between. Feel free to go at whatever speed is most comfortable for you but just because I can take speed doesn't mean that you should try and go a lot faster than what you're capable of because it only makes you sound like a tool when your breathing sounds like you only have half a lung left. Oh and be clear for God's sake please be clear or I will not flow your arguments and quite frankly not feel guilty about missing it.

I'm going to try and avoid intervening whenever possible because I think that thats unfair to both teams, however, the more arguments there are in the 2nr the more likely you are to force me to intervene. I don't care if there are 14 different flows in the block but if you seriously plan on keeping all 14 in the 2nr then I'm going to despise you for the kind of work I'm going to have to do after the round, which may include things like reading lots of your cards and finding out how crappy they really were. But yeah, I think thats about all there is for me but if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at jblakeshipley@juno.com.