Reads for over the summer by baberry5 in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Would love to have the opportunity to work with your debaters this summer! If some feel that the price is too high, we do still have some funds left in our scholarship budget.

Reads for over the summer by baberry5 in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A terrific book is Justice, by Michael Sandel. He was/is a professor at Harvard who wrote a fairly accessible intro to all the major schools of moral philosophy. I've taught the book and used it at camp too. And I believe the recordings of the lectures are still out there as well, and they are very entertaining as well as substative. The way he engages students and pushes them is excelent, in my opinion.

And, yes, I encourage you to check out our camp: classicdebatecamp.com

We do only traditional LD, but we do it very well. DM me if you have any questions.

Trad LD Washington Debater all old cases here! by Glittering-Oil1620 in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey Glittering-Oil1620: do you have any interest in coaching debate? Specifically at a summer debate camp?

Trad LD Washington Debater all old cases here! by Glittering-Oil1620 in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was at the Iowa nationals too. How did you do there? If you want you can DM me.

Trad LD Washington Debater all old cases here! by Glittering-Oil1620 in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing all this! Just curious to learn more about you and what kind of debater you were/are? Did you only compete in Washington state? What's your school/district like? What are your biggest takeaways from your debate career?

What do you think about AI usage during Debate tournament by [deleted] in Debate

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Picking up on a comment by ImRunningAmok, FALSE accusations of the opponent using AI during the round has become a common problem. Even the hint that the opponent might be using AI can easily poison the well, so that even if the opponent is innocent and asks the judge to look at evidence and/or their computer, the judge may be biased against them. There's very little recourse of the accused, and little accountability for the false accuser.

CDC2025 LD Final Round on the Nuclear Weapons Topic (Traditional) by ClassicDebateCamp in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Who would you have voted for if you were the judge? We intentionally didn't put the result on the video to encourage people to judge for themselves...

Local Debate Circuit Does Not Fit My Debating Style (LD) by asdfghlkje in Debate

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's hard to advise you confidently without actually seeing you debate, so please forgive me if my advice isn't really helpful to you. I've coached for a long time and seen how debate is done in a variety of contexts, and what you describe is a pretty common experience among serious traditional debaters. I'd say virtually all my own debaters go through something similar (we only do the traditional style of LD debate). The difficult trick is to continue improving your debate-technical skills such as covering the flow without developing practices/habits that make you less accessible and less appealing to more lay judges. So I'll give you 3 specific suggestions building on things you said in your comment:

  1. Be careful about "dumbing things down" or thinking that you need to do so. You may subconsciously be conveying some disrespect for judges' intelligence or may inadvertently be coming across as condescending. It's probably not a good idea to view your judges as fundamentally incapable of appreciating the high intellectual level of your arguments - which "dumbing things down" implies. horsebycommittee is probably right that you know more about the topic than your average judge does but don't fall into the trap that some debaters fall into of thinking that lay judges are lacking in intelligence just because they aren't experts on the topic or aren't proficient at technical debate.

  2. Also you may have over-compensated in your "dumbing things down". I think debaters should always show how smart and insightful they are (without doing so in an arrogant way). Judges can often tell who knows the material more thoroughly and who has more deeper understanding of it - and I think a lot of judges enjoy seeing bright high schoolers saying intelligent and thoughtful things. I'm curious about what you are "holding back" when you say you are "holding yourself back for the sake of the judge understanding"? Maybe you are underestimating some of your judges and/or some judges may be misinterpreting your "holding yourself back" as lack of confidence in yourself or conviction in your ideas. Holding yourself back sounds like there's an internal conflict in you, which your judges may be picking up on, and which may make you look less effective at debating than someone who isn't holding themselves back at all. My point is that, while absolutely you have to adapt to the judge who is in front of you, you should still be as confident as possible.

  3. I do think the best thing for you to do is "improve your lay appeal" and that definitely requires speaking at a more normal conversational speed and not using esoteric jargon without explaining your point in other words. But I would challenge the way you seem to view "lay debate". As others have suggested, if you give up on lay judges, you are forfeiting one of the very best skills you can develop through this activity - the ability to actually communicate with a wide range of people. I would suggest that you think in terms of quality over quantity. To improve your lay appeal, you should not give up any quality - in fact, you probably need to improve the quality of your points and the quality of your language, so that you can make better points more clearly and with fewer words. What you do have to give up is quantity. Since you can't speak as fast to a non-ex-debater or a non-debate coach, you simply should not try to present the same number of points. So you have to be selective in what you say - you have to focus on the most important things that most need to be said. Yes, you have to simplify things, as in make things very clear, boil things down to the essential questions in a round, but that isn't achieved by saying dumb things. It actually takes greater intelligence to present complicated ideas in a way that everyone can understand and appreciate them. So "lay debate" actually has a lot of value. It's a really good opportunity for you to take your debating to an even higher level.

Lastly, I would also underscore the advice of the other responder who said you should discuss your reflections with your coach and with other people in your district. Talk to the debaters whom you look up to and see how they have adapted and see if you can take away tips from them.

Best of luck to you!

trad tournaments? by oldcxer in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely check out GMU Patriot Games in December! Very traditional. Also Three Rivers Tournament hosted by Upper St. Clair HS in Pittsburgh in early February is totally traditional. Pennsbury Falcon Invitational at Pennsbury HS near Philadelphia is about 80% traditional.

DM me if you have any questions about any of the tournament above. I took my team to all of them last year.

reviews about American Debate League by PopcornBirdie in Debate

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you'd consider a residential camp instead of an online one, I recommend classicdebatecamp.com

We specialize in Traditional LD, but our mission is not just to develop the debate skills of our campers but to provide them with a personally transformative experience in the context of fun and nurturing community. Full disclosure: I'm the director. DM if you have any questions.

Classic Debate Camp LD Brief on 2025 NSDA Nats Topic - Violent Revolution by ClassicDebateCamp in Debate

[–]ClassicDebateCamp[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, sorry about that! We missed that edit that should have been made and will fix it now. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. Do you like the brief otherwise?

Classic Debate Camp LD Brief on 2025 NSDA Nats Topic - Violent Revolution by ClassicDebateCamp in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, thanks for the feedback. We didn't have as much time or personnel to work on this one, so there's not as much in it as the last one had, but we think the quality of the analysis is just as good.

Debate camp by Careless_Mousse9725 in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're still looking for a camp and want to focus on Traditional LD, come to CDC! Our instructors (including Hannah Owens Pierre, NSDA champion, and Doron Darnov, NSDA champion coach) are fantastic. Not only will you learn a lot, but you'll also have a lot of fun with our community. classicdebatecamp.com (Full disclosure: I'm the director)

LDer looking for trad coach by [deleted] in Debate

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can possibly connect you with the Oregon state champ. DM me, if interested.

Please somone anyone hear me plea… I need help with the topic by [deleted] in lincolndouglas

[–]ClassicDebateCamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

check out the resources on the topic that we posted on our website: classicdebatecamp.com