Montgomery,+Fielding

Experience Policy debater for 4 years at Dowling Catholic HS in West Des Moines, IA, 09-13. (Poverty, Military Withdrawal, Space, Transportation Infrastructure) Attended the Jayhawk Debate Institute 3 years, lab leader at the Baylor Debate Institute 1 year. Freshman policy debater at Baylor University on scholarship.

Top Level I'm down with whatever you want to debate. Do what you've got to do to win. I'll listen to anything you want to bring up. If an argument is dropped and then explained to me, I will vote on the drop. I haven't judged the high school topic yet this year (although I have a brother in high school debating this topic, so we have discussed some aspects of the topic). That being said, don't assume I know all the topic specific lingo and acronyms and what not.

Ks I like K's. K tricks are fine with me. Just make sure you explain to me why your K is important and outweighs the aff, either straright up or through framework. Don't make me do work for you after the round. Make as many plan specific links as possible. Just reading generic link cards isn't going to cut it in most K debate rounds, unless it is a really good card.

T Topicality was never really my cup of tea. I will vote on it, but you need to really explain to me why I should down a team on it, especially if they are a pretty blatantly topical affirmative. If you are going for T, topical version of the affirmative is an AWESOME argument you should make.

DAs Yes. Read them. Tell me why they O/W and/or turn case and do a good job of arguing. Pretty straightforward. I do think that DA and case is a very viable (and underutilized) strategy. Also, if you're really reading my thoughts on DAs.. congratulations! Any reference to Star Wars will up your speaker points by 0.1.

CPs Counterplans are always good. Make sure you explain at least for a brief moment what the CP does if you read a huge, complex CP text. CPs aren't cheating in my book. Affirmatives, make sure you perm the CP. Negatives, make sure you answer the perm and prove why the CP competes. Also, if you read a multi-plank plan, please don't make each plank conditional (unless you have a good reason to do so). Having multiple conditional planks makes condo a really easy voter in my mind. Let's say you have three conditional planks. That means you actually have 7 conditional positions just within that one counterplan. You could go for all planks (1), two planks (2), individual planks(3), or no planks (1). Just don't do it unless you need to. If you do, have a good theory justification for it.

Case Aff should have a coherent case. I'm down with critical stuff. Performance is something I have only encountered a few times (although much more in college than before), but if you make the arguments I'll vote on that. Neg should probably read case defense and do as much damage as possible. I think case defense is valuable in almost any round. It makes it much easier for me to vote negative on the DA, K, and CP in some instances. I alos think case turns and case defense is a viable strategy.

Theory I will vote on any conceded theory as long as the story is coherent. If we're getting into the "nitty gritty," counterplans are fine, PICs are probably fine, vague alts are fine, Floating PIKs are probably fine, Condo is okay with 1 CP and 1 K, severance and intrinsicness are probably bad but probably just "reject the argument" arguments, object fiat is probably bad, performative contradictions are probably fine UNLESS you read something that is dependent on discourse or something like that and then violate it... even then though, my threshold for voting on perf con is kinda high. Anything beyond that is up for discussion. Look under CPs for my thoughts on multiple condo planks.

CX I think CX is one of the most underutilized aspects of debate. I have seen debates won and lost after the CX of the 1AC/1NC. A good CX will go a long way towards good speaker points and a win, a bad CX will hurt your speaker points. CX is binding in my book.

Speed Read as fast as you want. I debated nationally and have had plenty of experience with fast debaters. That being said, you need to make sure you are CLEAR. I will yell clear once if I can't understand you. If I have to do it twice, speaker points will begin to drop. If you are concerned that you might be unclear, slowing down just ever so slightly almost always helps the problem.

Speaker Points 27 is the low end for me unless you really do something bad. Conversely, you need to do something amazing to get a 30. The majority of my points probably come in somewhere between 28 and 29. You can refer to the speed section above for deductions based on that. Also, if I see that you aren't flowing and you start dropping arguments or claiming the other team dropped arguments when they didn't, your speaker points will drop.

Prep Time/Jumping Speech Docs Once you are done working on your speech, you can stop prep. I won't penalize for flashing, just make sure it doesn't take too long. If I suspect you are stealing prep or it is just taking way too long I will start taking prep again. If you do an email chain, I would like to be included. You can find my email below...

Questions Email me at fielding.montgomery@gmail.com

Sic 'em!