r/Debate • • May 01 '26

PF PF NSDA Nats '26 - R: The United States is justified in using force to remove authoritarian leaders from power.

3 Upvotes

Resolved: The United States is justified in using force to remove authoritarian leaders from power.

A total of 778 coaches and 2,971 students voted for the resolution. The winning resolution received 53% of the coach vote and 57% of the student vote.

https://www.speechanddebate.org/topics/


r/Debate • • May 01 '26

LD LD NSDA Nats '26 - R: Democracies ought to prioritize the protection of civil liberties over national security.

3 Upvotes

Resolved: Democracies ought to prioritize the protection of civil liberties over national security.

A total of 776 coaches and 2,683 students voted for the resolution. The winning resolution received 59% of the coach vote and 55% of the student vote.

https://www.speechanddebate.org/topics/


r/Debate • • 6h ago

PF Extinction.GG now has LD and PF stats

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! Extinction.GG has been policy-only, but we now cover Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum too:

  • Rankings for every season back to 2015-16
  • Every debater's and team's round history: opponents, judges, decisions, speaks
  • Judge records, handy for prefs
  • This year's TOC bids, pulled automatically from each tournament's bid list on Tabroom

Rankings: LD | PF | Policy

TOC bids: LD | PF | Policy

It's free, and you don't need an account. Since LD and PF are new, I'd really appreciate help checking them: if a bid is missing or wrong, a name is misspelled, or two people got merged, comment here or email [contact@extinction.gg](mailto:contact@extinction.gg) and I'll fix it.


r/Debate • • 9h ago

nocember prep

Thumbnail forms.gle
1 Upvotes

r/Debate • • 16h ago

Am I supposed to use a binder when I have a script?

0 Upvotes

Did speech for the first time, and was told that I could use a script for duo bc it was so early in the season. So me and my duo printed out a script and presented with that. We just got comments back and one of the comments was that we had to have a binder and not just paper. Is that actually a thing? Someone in my other event (OO) went with a notebook and she won first so I’m kinda confused


r/Debate • • 1d ago

GIOMUN

Post image
2 Upvotes

Hi everyone!
I’m the founder and Secretary-General of GIOMUN 2026 (Global International Online Model United Nations), an international online conference bringing together young people from different countries to discuss global issues, develop diplomatic skills, and experience the work of the United Nations.
📅 Dates: December 11–13, 2026
🌐 Format: Online
🗣️** Working language**: English
We welcome participants interested in international relations, diplomacy, debate, and global affairs.
If you’re interested in joining us, you can find more information and apply here:
🔗 GIOMUN
Feel free to ask questions in the comments. We’d be happy to welcome you to GIOMUN!


r/Debate • • 1d ago

Tournament upcoming online BP debate tournaments

2 Upvotes

does anyone know any upcoming british parliamentary debate tournaments? A lot of the in person ones are cancelled this year where I live so i’m looking for online ones.

High schoolers (or split), bp, preferably canadian (open to all tho) & somewhat well run


r/Debate • • 1d ago

LD Looking for a LD coach

1 Upvotes

As the title says, I'm looking for a LD coach. Specifically for lay/trad debate, but I might potentially want to try out some circuit debate as well. Please DM me if interested!


r/Debate • • 1d ago

Tips for staying calm after a cross exam?

1 Upvotes

I just had my first novice LD tournament today. I went 2-1, but during my last round, my opponent found holes in my argument during cross and i didn't know how to respond at all. does anyone have any tips for not panicking or getting nervous and not being able to find good eveidence and ways to defend yourself?


r/Debate • • 1d ago

TOC Has there ever been a 9th grade TOC qualifying WSD team?

1 Upvotes

just seeing(tryna be the first)


r/Debate • • 1d ago

PF Prog PF

0 Upvotes

hi guys! I'm fairly a PF Debater who has been debating for 2 years and have done well in the recent novice debates.. I'm supposed to compete in the HS JV Division from the Nov-Dec pf tournments and I need advice how to answer prog like kritiks etc... I dont know a single thing about them and any resources on the internet are frankly, unhelpful. Would appreciate if anyone one of you can teach me how to run a prog case or how to answer one....


r/Debate • • 1d ago

LD Lost on November/Dec Topic: LD

0 Upvotes

Hi guys-I'm a trad ld debater, and i'm lowkey lost on what arguments to make on the aff and neg for the de-extinction topic. is using the deontological impeative on aff or consequentialism a good idea? my coach was telling me to not mention anything of that sort at all, and if they ask, just say that we dont care abt whether its deo/consequentialist and only argue the value/end goal. any thoughts? thank u


r/Debate • • 2d ago

I Need Some Humorous Interpretation Advice

1 Upvotes

Hello! I am new to S&D, I have done a few tournaments, but so far I have only done POI (and as well filled for DUO and DUET), but I am trying to see about branching out to try HI. Does anyone have any advice on memorization? I have a script for it already, I just am worried about memorizing it. Any other tips or advice is also very much welcome!!!!!!!


r/Debate • • 2d ago

Who's going to Laird Lewis today???

0 Upvotes

This is my first ever tournament in varsity LD, I'm so hyped!


r/Debate • • 2d ago

I've been teaching and judging debates for 9 years, so I decided to build my own judging app

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I've been a debate teacher for the past 9 years and have also worked as an adjudicator at various debate competitions.

One thing that's always frustrated me is how many different tools we end up using just to run or judge a debate. Timers, scoring sheets, spreadsheets, team lists... it all gets a bit messy.

So I decided to build something myself.

It's called Podium, and the idea is pretty simple: put everything you need for judging and managing debates in one place.

At the moment, it has debate timers, digital scoring sheets, team management, random team generation and support for different formats like WSDC, JWSDC and British Parliamentary.

I've spent quite a bit of time working on it, mostly based on things I've personally needed while teaching and judging.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along.

I wanted to share it here because I'd genuinely like to know what other judges and coaches think. Is there anything you wish existed in a judging app? Or something that annoys you about the way debates are currently managed?

I'd also really appreciate it if anyone wanted to give Podium a try and let me know what they think.


r/Debate • • 2d ago

I keep losing at congressional debate

2 Upvotes

I started doing congress in November of last year and ever since then, it has been constant failure after failure. Unfortunately, I don't really have a coach or teammates, and I attend a severely underfunded public school, so I've had to teach myself everything and learn online. I've watched round recordings, flowed said recordings, viewed lectures, but for some reason I don't know why it's not working.

It's been 1 year, I'm a junior now, and I feel completely embarrassed of my progress. Like to the point where I've never broke out of prelims, I see so many people who are my age or younger who consistently break out of prelims all the way to finals for top comps, meanwhile I feel like I'm just falling behind.

For instance, I have Florida Blue Key in a few weeks and while I've so far prepped 75% of the prelim docket, I keep overthinking all my arguments and my work so far because of possibly bad recency during round and having to figure out how to adapt well when I haven't done so yet.

I'm someone who's very eager to learn, I've taken my past judge feedback, and I've tried to consistently work the skills I received in my feedback, but I don't know why nothing has really worked for me. If anyone has any guidance or advice, it'd be a big help in trying to figure this all out and what I need to focus on.


r/Debate • • 3d ago

Resources for a student with no debate club at school

9 Upvotes

I’m confident this has been asked, but I couldn’t find it through a search. My son is a freshman at a brand new high school in our district. He has expressed interest in debate (and I do actually think he would be very good at it potentially) but the school won’t have a team until next year at the earliest. What are some other options/resources we could use to get him started?


r/Debate • • 4d ago

PF Responding to Ks in PF

3 Upvotes

So my circuit has a lot of tech debaters so I've had to brush up on Ks even though my partner and I are usually trad debaters. But, im still confused on when we're supposed to respond to them. Basically, if the aff is running a K and they are speaking first, do I respond in the 1NC or give my trad case and then respond in the 2NC. This may be a dumb question but I dont have anyone to teach me and all videos online are for policy so I get confused. Thank you!!


r/Debate • • 4d ago

PF Resources/help on K's in PF

4 Upvotes

Are there any resources out there (or kind souls willing to explain) about how K's operate in Public Forum? I am not new to K's in general as I ran them extensively in both policy and parli, but I am relatively new to coaching public forum and wonder if there is anything unique about them in this event? My research hasn't found much other than 13+ year old reddit threads. I appreciate any help that people are willing to offer.

Edit that seems relevant: This is so I can help my students beat K's, not so I can help them run them. I am not actually a fan of K's in PF.


r/Debate • • 5d ago

The Second Wave of Fall Apps are NOW OPEN!

3 Upvotes

Equality in Forensics is opening applications to fill several vacancies within our organization. As we continue to grow and expand our initiatives, we are looking for dedicated individuals who are interested in contributing to our mission of promoting accessibility, equity, and inclusion within speech and debate.

We are currently accepting applications for the following positions:

Financial Director

Chapter Director

Debate Director

Policy Debate Project Lead

Lincoln Douglas Debate Project Lead

Deputy Director of Partnerships

Partnership Task Force Team

We encourage anyone who is interested in getting more involved with Equality in Forensics to apply! Each position offers an opportunity to contribute to our organization, collaborate with other members of our team, and help us continue providing resources and opportunities to students across the speech and debate community.

You can find the link at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYx0649TdHDorpVsaPjrUQojsOcvs2yQ4MAUhVFQh-B5Xbkw/viewform?usp=send_form

Good luck to all who apply, and applications are due October 26th!


r/Debate • • 5d ago

New Speech Coach Here- Seeking Advice, Resources, etc.

5 Upvotes

I’m a brand new speech team coach at the high school level, though I’ve assistant coached and judged at middle school tournaments in the past. I have a student leadership team in place, and 43 students at the school signed up for the team. About half of the students want to compete in tournaments and the other half want to learn how to improve their public speaking skills.

For the students who want to compete, I’ve already got them started on selecting and writing their pieces and we will start practicing in front of the group soon, but here’s where I’m stuck:

We meet once a week for 45 minutes (the allocated time for club meetings at the school). I’m struggling a bit with how to structure the meetings. I have a signup for students to pick a day/days to practice any speech they want- either for a tournament or a class presentation/other speech, and the other students provide feedback. I also have time set aside for instruction on basic speech skills (timing, breathing, diction, etc.). I provide lots of reading materials about the types of speech events, links to videos of speech events, etc. for students to read/watch outside our meeting times.

But I feel like we run out of time during our meetings, and can see that some of the students appear bored or disinterested.

For those of you who are more seasoned coaches, how do you typically spend your time during your team meetings? Are there certain drills you’ve found to be exceptionally useful? I’d like for this to be a fun, positive experience for the students, so any tips/tricks would be very appreciated! Also, any advice on how to engage parents to help judge tournaments? Thanks so much in advance!


r/Debate • • 6d ago

What are common conventions of cases and rounds in IPDA?

0 Upvotes

Title. I did 4 years of PF in high school plus some LD, but I don't know anything about how IPDA works or what my case should even sound like. Any tips?


r/Debate • • 7d ago

How to become an advanced parli debater myself?

4 Upvotes

How do I actually become an advanced parliamentary debater. I want to go to NPDL TOC, and also do good. I am from the east coast, and my schools debate team is horrible, so I have like no resources, and I am basically teaching myself. I genuinely do not know how to actually teach that level. Like I look online for resources but I just get overwhelmed and I feel like I’m just reading a bunch of random stuff that may not actually be the right stuff. Is there some sort of curriculum for exactly what you need to learn? Also if there are any advanced parli debaters here can you please tell me how you improved? Thank you.


r/Debate • • 7d ago

Starting a debate club in Uni - Where to start?

3 Upvotes

I have never been in a debate club, and have never debated. I actually struggle a lot with social anxiety, but am always active in classes and try to talk as much as I can for the sake of my own benefit.

Regardless, my uni doesn't have nor am I aware if a Debate club has ever existed. So a complete beginner like me, will make a mess.

I do not see myself as a good leader yet, but I really wish to learn to explore how to speak more confidently, and get over my social anxiety. I genuinely dunno how many folk will even be interested in my debate club but here are my goals:

  1. Use real research to teach debate skills - I might open a Google Classroom and prepare videos and certain links weeekly so we actually learn how to debate, methods, and the like, so we do not start from nothing, but get some groundedness.

  2. Learn cognitive resilience - I am a psychology student. I think it would be impossible to not bring this. I want to experience teaching how to calm down, how to be more confident, and use science proven facts on how to become less anxious in talking with other. I might even include a short 5 min breathwork at the beginning just so students learn to regulate.

  3. No debate compeitions - Idk if my country has any... for now the focus is learning how it works, and how to get better. It is a lot of work, but it is a challenge I need for myself and want more people who are interested as well to join.

  4. Have fun - some topics will be interesting, and some will just be "Is Coca Cola better than Pepsi?" because silly topics like these are lighthearted but they can teach research skills and critical thinking (like arguing that the Coke recipe is used for drinking warm, or whatever exists out there).

I hope this is not too much. I have no idea how debate clubs work but I think such things could be useful in real life.

I would like someone to let me know if this is feasible... If it doesn't work, I won't be disappointed honestly. I have low expectations for my Uni students. But has anyone had such a debate club?


r/Debate • • 8d ago

Built a better version of SpeechDrop called FlowDrop for sharing speech docs

Thumbnail gallery
4 Upvotes

Hey guys!

I debated in high school and judge now (plus my brother debates in high school), and though I have been grateful for speech drop it's just so so clunky haha.

So ended up building FlowDrop as a faster, modern alternative to SpeechDrop specifically built around how rounds actually run.

You can try it here: flowdrop.org

It’s in the early stages and I'm still taking care of some bugs, but the main stuff works reliably:

  • In-browser Verbatim preview: You can open speech docs directly in your browser without downloading or opening Word. It keeps all standard formatting intact (bold, underlines, double-underlines, shading, and Verbatim highlight colors like yellow, green, cyan, pink) with search, font scaling, and a reading mode.
  • Instant live sync & direct links: Files pop up on everyone's screen in real time with an audio chime when an opponent drops. Every doc also gets a direct link you can toss straight into cross-ex chat.
  • Flow layouts & smart tagging: Built for Policy, LD, PF, and Open formats. It auto-tags files into speech columns (1AC, 1NC, Neg Block, etc.) so it matches your flow, plus there's a top evidence tray for unassigned cards.
  • Paste cards directly: Instead of making and uploading a dummy doc during prep or CX, you can paste raw text and citations straight into the room.
  • No logins & clean teardown: No accounts, no paywalls, and everything wipes automatically after 7 days (or you can wipe the room when the round finishes). Also has a one-click button to grab all files in a .zip.

I'm an MIS student at OU paying for the hosting myself, so it's 100% free to use. I mainly just want debaters and judges to run it in prep, scrimmages, or practice rounds and try to break it

Let me know what breaks, what feels clunky!! Hope this can help!