Grimes,+Matt

I debated locally and on the national circuit for four years in high school and have coached high school debate for the last 10 years with the Rhode Island and Boston UDLs. I judge a half-dozen rounds a year, so I am pretty familiar with the topic but not immersed in it. Please don’t take too many shortcuts in explaining what your arguments are about.

I’m open to all sorts of approaches to winning the debate--competing policy proposals, critical engagements with the topic, and performative approaches to the round. I find it extremely helpful when debaters tell me how I should decide who wins the round and then explain how their impacts/advocacies earn them the ballot within that framework. When teams disagree on how I should evaluate the round, they should explain the differences between their approaches and give me explicit reasons why I should prefer one over the other. Evidence is very helpful in these situations while blippy theory arguments are not.

Speed is fine, but know that I’m out of practice for super fast rounds. I think persuasion is an important skill in debate and will probably find arguments delivered persuasively are stronger than ones I can barely make out. Feel free to get heated but please don’t be rude. Have fun.