Chang,+Winston

De Toledo High School

I debated in high school, took a long break, and am now coaching high school debate.

Because I only recently got back into the game, I don't know what the current fads are, so I'm in no position to say "I think people suck at theory so if you read it make sure you do it well" or "I will always reject performance cases because they're bad for debate." That doesn't mean I won't understand your topicality shell or kritik or whatever. It just means I'll probably listen to anything (at any speed) with few preconceived notions about the legitimacy of what I'm hearing, for better or for worse.

A few basic principles that I'll always live by:

1. How much I care about your argument is directly correlated to how much you care about it. So if you give me a bunch of blippy stuff then I'll treat it as such. When you extend, EXPLAIN. Don't just say "extend this argument." Fifteen different three-word-responses strung together in ten seconds is not good layered response in my book. Twenty arguments that are nothing more than tags are not necessarily better than two arguments with good warrants. You get the picture.

2. I care about the evidence. A strategy that emphasizes actually reading the opponents' cards, making the right presses, and comparing your vs. their evidence is a good strategy. But don't just say "my stuff is more recent so prefer mine" or "their sample size is too small so prefer my study." Explain why the recency or methodology actually makes an impact on the weight of the evidence. Bottom line: think about the evidence because ultimately that's why any of us know anything about the topic.

3. I care about the framework debate. I feel that unthinkingly accepting that the impact calculus in LD is just a body count takes something significant away from LD. I am all about the "you should tell me how to score this round" approach. So while I think that I -- like most judges -- have a policymaking mentality by default, I'm more than happy to judge the round differently if you convince me I should. (I'm happy to score it as a policymaker too. I'm just saying it's up to you.)

4. Maybe this has changed but I remember a lot of debaters, who were not the greatest at spreading, being very convinced they could spread. I will clear you, once, twice if needed, but if you don't fix it after that I'll just stop flowing. It's nothing personal, it's just because I literally cannot understand you. You'll be able to tell because I won't be typing at my usually furious rate -- I won't be typing at all.

That's about it. Have fun, be nice to each other, stay humble, learn a lot!