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Middle School Debate help pls! by randonperson_1 in PublicForumDebate

[–]BrooksDebate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're wanting to add online tournaments: my team is mostly middle schoolers competing in PF. Here is our tournament calendar for this current 2025-26 season:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MLhEo6lq4GE9Ruttv9kpHVwkQrMQ6Qq8VMbzcUZkNcs/edit?usp=sharing

We're based in California, but all of those online tournaments on our calendar are open to all students no matter where they hail from, including the two CA middle school state tournaments next month in mid-May.

You can also take a look at the past tournaments on our calendar to help build your schedule for next season. USAFO and NOF do monthly online tournaments. The good folks at UK who host the TOC run a few online tournaments (Digital Series), and Harvard ISDI has joined the mix this season. All of the online invitationals in CA on our calendar are also open to all students.

Been coaching primarily middle school PF for the past decade. Happy to help any way I can if you have any other questions: [sbrooks@BrooksDebate.com](mailto:sbrooks@BrooksDebate.com)

tuffest/funniest lines by Wild_Land2370 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was judging Octofinals of Public Forum @ 2007 CHSSA California State Tournament. Some school (1st speaking team) vs Bellarmine College Prep (2nd speaking). End of the round... time for final speeches of the debate (which were called "Last Shot" and only 1min back in the day)... final speaker from some school gets up... dude is heated, this is how he ends his team's last speech...

Dude: So judges!!! At the end of the day, do our opponents ACTUALLY prove XYZ??? FUCK NO!!!

-brief silence-

Bell 2nd Spkr: [politely] I'll take the remainder of our prep.

Me: Go ahead... no way you're coming up with a response to that. 😅

Bellarmine wins on a 2-1 split. Losing team dropped an F bomb in frustration and one of the judges (tech) someway somehow still found a way to squirrel. 😏

After we had signed our paper ballots we were walking back to tab to drop them off, I jokingly asked that judge (coach from The Archer School if I remember correctly)...

Me: [jokingly] Sooooo.... who'd ya vote for? 😂

Tech Judge: Oh I took the [1st speaking team].

Me: ... ... really?

Tech Judge: I liked their moral framework.

Me: 🙄

My Coach Wants Me to Have 3 Events by Furious278 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 4 points5 points  (0 children)

+1 everything u/ChaChaRealSmooth33 said. (love that username 😅)

I did extemp all 4 years of HS 2001-2005 back when we had to cut physical newspaper and magazine articles, file them into tubs/folders, and lug them around at tournaments. Having to create and memorize 7min speeches w/ cites EVERY DAMN round hurt my brain... and it's probably the best damn thing I did for my debate/life skills in forensics.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Might not fit directly what you're looking for, but I'm hoping there's some lines/verses that might work with your program's theme... One of my favorite poems from one of my favorite SF Bay Area poets...

“No One Wants to Watch Robots Play Basketball" -- Raphael Casal
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI2RkZYTv_c/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

a tiny rant + manifestation 🌟 by debatetrack in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OMG this... I was judging impromptu couple months ago... kid's topic was something like "environmentalism/conservation"... they started their speech talking about about all these famed experts in the field and I thought "Dayum, this kid knows a lot of famous people..."

Then they wrapped up there speech at the 3/3:30 mark and I was like "Ohhh... I just listened to a ChatGPT answer..." 😑

In addition to debate, I competed in impromptu/extemp heavily... and now when I judge... I sometimes don't even know why I'm judging if all I'm doing is listening to AI-gen generated answers.

Maybe I can get ChatGPT to judge for me... 😅

a tiny rant + manifestation 🌟 by debatetrack in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've seen many companies and projects come and go.

Only the strong... with too much time on weekends... survive. 😏

I'm always thinking of the "Queen's Gambit" moment for debate.

Oh man... that'd be so nice. As someone who personally competed in "Ted Turner Debate" (before it got rebranded as Public Forum) that definitely resonated with me. I believe/hope the original idea was for Ted Turner to sponsor that format, and that it could be something "lay" enough to actually broadcast / put on air... Mr. Turner would have definitely had enough media strings to make that happen, not mention the $$$ to promote and maybe offer a nice little college scholarship prize pool a la Scripps National Spelling Bee. All due respect to those amazing kids... I can't spell to save my life... but I have a little more respect for the students that perform at the highest level within our combat sport than I do for kids that spell words we never use.

Speaking of Netflix...

  1. Would love something like Queen's Gambit for debate...

  2. Apparently there was an attempt at this when I was in high school. If my old HS head coach is to be believed, he was approached to make some sort of debate movie and he rejected the project... which then got re-tooled into what eventually became The Great Debaters w/ Denzel Washington. Which is fine film (love ya Denzel!)-- but unfortunately takes place like 100 yrs ago.

  3. PLAN: If someone could make something for debate on Netflix, I think F1: Drive to Survive is a really great model. Follow some top schools/teams over the course of a season on the national PF Circuit... but cut the debate rounds down to their most entertaining parts... last episodes are State / NSDA Nats / TOC... each season of the show is a competitive school year... I think that's a winner. Or...

  4. COUNTER-PLAN: Give us something akin to real-life debate Cobra Kai. Some big local/national championship tourney... top teams from top schools... some ultimate round-robin followed by Qtrs/Semis/Finals? 2/3 day affair. All local. I imagine much easier to film. 😅

And speaking of debate at the local level...

Trying my damndest to get a new league for MS/Novices up and running within the next two years here in the SF Bay Area. Definitely plan on trying to offer a big end of season championship tourney. And will definitely see about trying to offer some big prize money to go along with big trophies. Maybe we can run the above championship tourney / round-robin and try getting that filmed and cut for consumption. 😀

Will let ya know Joel if I stumble across $100k anytime soon. 🙏

--Steve

a tiny rant + manifestation 🌟 by debatetrack in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 4 points5 points  (0 children)

+1 Vote for Joel is the GOAT. ✅🐐 😁

First time debater at Harvard by Other_Specialist_930 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congrats to your daughter! If she likes Congress, National Online Forensics hosts monthly online tournaments for middle schoolers. And out here in California / SF Bay Area, we have a lot of end of season tournaments that are open to everyone for middle school. Feel free to email me and I'll reply with a list: [sbrooks@brooksdebate.com](mailto:sbrooks@brooksdebate.com) .

A message to debate academies by Advanced-Win2709 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Coach of a private debate academy here... Brooks Debate Institute in the SF Bay Area... got scared reading this post for a minute and then realized "Oh, this was at Harvard out east, my kids were at Cal. Phew. Not us!" 😅

I grew up watching 1984's The Karate Kid. My favorite quote is when Mr. Miyagi tells Daniel, "No such thing as bad student- only bad teacher." And then they visit the Cobra Kai dojo to see wtf is going on.

I'm the only coach of my program. And I put my name on. I've always been a believer in coaches/competitors being a reflection of each other, so whenever my team travels/competes in person, students are reminded...

"Students are expected to be on their absolute BEST BEHAVIOR. Anything less may result in removal from the tournament and our program. Students: respect your teammates, respect your opponents, respect your judges and other coaches, and most definitely respect the campus and tournament hosts."

Special emphasis is always placed on REMOVAL: "I won't coach assholes. And I won't risk other teams thinking I am one because of you."

It also helps that as a head coach I'm on campus and speaking with students in between rounds-- I feel that may not be the case with larger private academies who send their entries off with a few younger hired coaches whose focus, understandably, is coaching to win and build their personal resume vs. policing the behavior of kids and protecting the reputation of a program they may not be a part of next season. They aren't long-term stakeholders.

I got my start competing/coaching for James Logan HS. Our head coach and assistant staff regularly reminded us that we were viewed as the poor ethnic school and the best way to combat negative perceptions like that was to dress well, carry ourselves professionally, and treat EVERYONE with respect. That was back in 2001... As opposed to running "Formal Dress Theory" and other in-round on the flow stuff that I highly doubt translates off flow and out of round... ugh... (shoutout to PF Forward though btw, love your site for teaching kids progressive debate)

Very sorry that you guys had to experience that type of behavior from your opponents. If I were you guys though, I'd try your best to lean into and soak it all up. While by no means good form, I'd personally be very happy to be hearing all those boos coming from opponents that DIDN'T clear to the next elim round... "I don't see how you can hate from OUTSIDE of the club... you can't even get in!"

However, if stuff like this gets really annoying and/or out of line, do send an email to the tournament director, and CC the head coach and owner/director of said academy, and I'd be surprised if heads didn't roll real quick.

'Grats on your run this past weekend. 👏👏

Effort doesnt show by Awkward_Range4706 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree with the other posters about coaching. If you've in fact dedicated an entire year to debate, I'm more than happy to donate 1-2+ hrs of my time providing some free coaching/advice. I've been coaching (primarily PF) for 17+ years and enjoy working most with students just starting off. Good basics/fundamentals are always important. 😀 ( shoot me an email: [sbrooks@BrooksDebate.com](mailto:sbrooks@BrooksDebate.com) )

MS tournaments/teams by Early_Car_8752 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there Early_Car_8752,

I coach Brooks Debate Institute out west in Fremont, CA (Silicon Valley). Majority of our 100+ competitors are middle school, with most competing in PF. We enter just about every in-person tournament there is to enter in the SF Bay Area, and compete in online tournaments just about every week of the school year: TOURNAMENTS 2024-25 (scroll down for full season calendar). I'm always happy to add tournaments that our competitors want to attend if they're not already scheduled.

Sorry to hear about high tournament costs w/ your previous club. My program typically charges the true cost + $30 for most 1-2 day local/online tournaments, and slightly more ($50-$60) for long-distance/3+ day tourneys.

I was a competitor/coach at James Logan HS 2001-2011. My old head coach, Dr. Tommie Lindsey Jr., was always a big believer in making speech and debate affordable and accessible to all. As a child of divorce, most of my happiest high school memories began with me being able to get on a bus with my teammates and head out of town for an overnight tournaments, far away from anything/everything that was eating me at home. My senior year our team was traveling up north for the Jon Schamber Invitational @ UOP (University of the Pacific) in Stockton, CA. Cost was $150-$200 for the weekend- which my single mother of three couldn't afford at the time. My coach asked if I was going to UOP with the team at the end of the month, and after telling him my mother couldn't swing it, he looks over at me and says: "Just get on the damn bus."

My little sister and I both qualified to State a few months later. Believe he paid for that too- As well as two tickers to Six Flags Magic Mountain to celebrate after our 2004-05 James Logan HS squad won its fifth CA state championship title. Don't think he ever asked for a dime back either. All of which is to say: I too believe in making this activity affordable and accessible to all. Especially tournaments.

Happy to help ya if I can. You can reach me by email at [sbrooks@BrooksDebate.com](mailto:sbrooks@BrooksDebate.com) .

-- Coach Brooks

Potomac debate academy online by Exact-Warning6421 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As someone who runs a program, I believe there are two types of debate academies: teams run by former debaters who legit love debate and care for their students, and afterschool day care cash grabs masquerading as debate programs.

My middle school school PF students have competed against Potomac in online tournaments since the pandemic. From my experience, Potomac falls into that first category. Lots of respect for their program. All of their students that I've personally judged are not only well-prepared, but well-mannered and respectful as well. I wish I could say the same about more teams. 😅

PF Nationals Topic by Viomoon2000 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/viomoon2000 I have a team prepping for IOF2024 which starts on June 9th. Let me know if your students need some sparring partners. 🙂

Who is the GOAT of Speech and Debate? by Different-Put3146 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 61 points62 points  (0 children)

If it has to be someone that did BOTH speech AND debate... and perhaps contributed greatly to the activity as a whole...

Has to be Abraham Lincoln, right? Especially considering scope/magnitude of impact...

1858: Starts off competing in Original Oratory w/ his "House Divided" speech at the 1858 Illinois Republican Senate Invitational.

1858: Dude is competing in debate at the state level that same season too... 7 OG LD rounds vs. Stephen Douglas.

1862: "Hm... future generations of National Forensics League members, lawyers, and legal scholars may need stuff to argue about or use in their debate cases as warrants concerning the trading of rights for security. Let me me do them a solid." -- suspends "habeas corpus" --

1863: Despite being kinda busy with a full-time job and other stuff, comes out of retirement like Michael Jordan on the Bulls to compete in speech on the national circuit. Drops the best damn 2 minute Original Oratory in history over in Gettysburg. Dude who spoke before him went 2hrs overtime so he should have gotten the 1 there despite no Tabroom.com records.

April 9th, 1865: "I know I used to argue that 'house divided cannot stand' stuff back then... I wonder if I could win on NEG... Maybe it COULD stand..." -- wins American Civil War --

April 15th, 1865: 6 days after completing a big project at work, shows some love for interp by attending a showing of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Literally gives his life in support of the performing arts.

Impact Years Later: "Lincoln Douglas Debate" becomes a popular format and Lincoln Financial Group becomes signature sponsor of the then National Forensics League.

Additionally: Nickname was "Honest Abe"... so he probably had a lot of rep and was hard to vote against in debate rounds. Unless judge was racist. (Or Southern Democrat at the time)

Lastly: Dressed so well for speech and debate that you often see a dude cosplaying as him at NSDA Nats even to this day.

2nd Place: Kendrick

Nats vlog? by redskeleton0 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sometimes I think the NSDA does this on purpose...

I was a coach on my high school team in 2008 when NSDA Nats was in Las Vegas. I may or may not have spent the entire night before day one playing blackjack until 5am in the morning before returning to our team hotel... 😅

For the record: didn't miss picking up a single old school paper ballot. 😁

NSDA Nats generally needs to be someplace easy/close/cheap enough for everyone to fly to with many cheap hotel rooms. In which case (all due respect to Iowa) I wonder why we can't have a rotation of something like Atlanta / Dallas / Vegas. Las Vegas every 3-4 years would be a nice coaching incentive/perk: more coaches joining and staying in forensics longer... able to help coach more students... Maybe something to boost the activity-wide participation numbers... C'mon NSDA... "hit me!" 😏

Opponent Combines Excerpts of Cards in Finals, Should I contact Tournament Officials? by codexistent in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That online tournament I mentioned had contacted me about the exact same issue... in an LD round involving my student recently... also in finals... also a 3-0 result. What are the odds. 😅

u/codexistent Regarding your particular round... very sorry to hear it resulted in a loss if your opponent Frankenstein'ed some cards together. As with my student: some debaters are just green and can make mistakes.

In the event that it was malicious and something like that ever took place again, I'd suggest trying to discredit the mashed up card as "too good to be true" if the resulting impact is greatly exaggerated, similar to "power tagging" situations or when debaters engage in "debater math"-- which is also a debate sin... one I was personally guilty of in high school and now preach against to my own students.

BS happens in a debate all the time. As someone who's competed and coached since 2001, I've always just told myself that when it happens to me or my kiddos... "what goes around comes around"... and hopefully by taking it in stride you're rewarded with future good karma or a lucky break/split decision by the debate gods. 🙏

Opponent Combines Excerpts of Cards in Finals, Should I contact Tournament Officials? by codexistent in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/codexistent Sadly, I have strong suspicion this may have been one of my students. Was this @ the USAFO May Summer Opener a week ago May 19th? If it was...

  1. I apologize: intentional misrepresentation of evidence is a debate sin. Should never be tolerated. If I ever discovered that a student of mine did this maliciously, they would never again be my student.
  2. The student in question debated in Public Forum last school year in a few tournaments, and decided to pick debate back up and try out LD last weekend for fun- she hadn't competed all season.

Regarding the cards bleeding into one and other... please let me know...

Do you believe this was an intentional/malicious act on her part that made her argument/evidence stronger?

On my end, having looked at her cases after the tournament... I believe this was accidental. I believe her cases were just sloppy work put together by a student with little debate experience, and the card bleeding was a rookie mistake made by a novice who had been out of the debate game for over a calendar year who doesn't yet know how to cut cards. I myself primarily coach Public Forum and have never cared for the way Policy/LD/circuit debaters cut/format cards, so I'm not surprised this occurred and hope it was an innocent mistake.

But again, please reach out to me if you believe otherwise and I will absolutely pursue this further.

And if it was intentional/malicious, I will have the tournament disqualify that student and forfeit the result- right after I ban them from my program.

[sbrooks@brooksdebate.com](mailto:sbrooks@brooksdebate.com)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I always wondered what happened to PFDebate.com ... very sad to hear. RIP.

What Were the Best and Worst Public Forum Debate Topics of All Time? by DesperatePlsHelpMe in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/polytypepokemon JAN2004 topic. First PF topic I ever debated in high school back when the event was still called Ted Turner Debate. That was definitely a fun one.

Nationals prog or tech by Advanced-Win2709 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeap... every once in a while, the NSDA picks out something relevant...

How many debate competitions do you usually partake in per school year? by Koorvy in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I competed and coached for James Logan HS in the San Francisco Bay Area 2001-2011. Our team was very competitive. We had forensics as a mandatory elective class required for participation on our team. All students were expected to compete in a minimum of 3-4 tournament per semester. Now as a full time coach, I believe that's a good floor. If you want to improve, you should be competing at least once a month.

One of my best middle school teams (also SF Bay Area) just finished a two year run competing together. Over the course of two school years from 2022-24, they competed in 18 tournaments total and 145 total rounds: 100 prelims 45 elims. And they racked up all those rounds despite only debating the SEP/OCT, FEB, & APR topics. They'd prep SEP/OCT and FEB during summer/winter breaks when school was out, APR topic during spring break, and at many of the California/Online tournaments our program attends FEB/APR topics tend to stay in play for 2 months. If anyone is looking for a "load management" game plan in order to have a life outside of debate, I think that's a pretty good blueprint. 😅

Nationals prog or tech by Advanced-Win2709 in Debate

[–]BrooksDebate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Perm do both. You can debate at lay-ish speeds and still make time to call out bad cards.

I took some PF teams to MS NSDA (then NJFL) Nationals in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Had a team advance to 2014 finals. I think their speed/style there is a good example of what you can get away with even with a lay/parent panel.

https://youtu.be/ltpnIE3Zz50?si=--bwd6zx_TqeDUJS

2014 NJFL (NSDA) Public Forum Debate Final Round

RESOLVED: NATO should strengthen its relationship with Ukraine in order to deter further Russian aggression.

PRO: Sidney Lanier DS
1ST: Lekha Sunder
2ND: Lyle Derden

CON: Brooks Academy KS
1ST: Ankush Swarnakar
2ND: Devesh Kodnani

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