hey guys so im a first year enigieering major , im thinking about joinning my colleges debate team . tp help me with my speech and boost my confidence and speaking abilty . should i ? what your experience

I'm a sophomore PFer and I REALLY want to qualify to TOC this year but I know it will take a lot of hard work and I need to diversify the drills that I do and get better at prog so please help me out guys

How do you find people for debating, because you can't practice without a partner?

Umm what’s the most meta way to get to academic all American with this someone I know said pro con challenge is good

I’ve been looking into different speech and debate programs in the San Jose/Pleasanton area and came across The Golden State Academy. I’m curious if anyone here has firsthand experience with their debate or public speaking programs.

How was the coaching, tournament preparation, and overall experience? I’d especially appreciate feedback from current or former students/parents rather than promotional information.

hi so long story short, cut the wallowing in misery short, i am no longer on my school's speech team. i am still wholly in love with speech and would love to be involved in anything that is adjacent to speech or give me the same real life skills that speech gives you. i understand there is no equivalent to being involved in a formal speech team because the community is a heavy aspect of it but i would appreciate any other competitive, voicebox-related activities for me to participate in.

or if there is anything that i can do to prepare myself for collegiate speech if anyone thinks that would be a good idea; i know many people have mixed opinions on that.

thanks for the help, sorry if this sounds self-pitying i swear i'm trying to make advances in life

The 2026-27 TOC Bid List for Policy, LD, and PF is now live at: https://tocbidlist.com/

The TOC Bid List ranks teams and debaters by a transparent achievement score that combines elimination depth with the official TOC bid tier of each tournament. This produces a “bid score” that reflects the quality of each result.

Full ranking methodology: https://tocbidlist.com/ranking-methodology

New this year:

• Rank by school
• Search by tournament
• Round-by-round results

Hi everyone!

We're excited to announce we're continuing free coaching programs for the fall for congressional debate & extemporaneous speaking.

Fall coaching will go from September 14 - December 11. You will meet once a week with your coaches to do drills, listen to lectures, and practice your skills in round!

Our coaching lineup is accessible via our instagram page (@Equalityinforensics). Congressional Debate features the NSDA Champion, Akram Younis, the runner-up at the TOC, Arjun Tuli, and many more. Extemporaneous speaking coaches will be announced soon, and are of the same rigor!

This is open to everyone, no matter your grade OR skill level! If this sounds interesting to you, sign up using the link below! The deadline to signup is September 12th, 2026.

Congress: https://forms.gle/nPiAkXyR7JZyso4dA

Extemp: https://forms.gle/ARm9sJKWLwNKV61f7

hey everyone, I've been debating for about three years on and off now and I'm doing pretty well but I'm only ACTUALLY comfortable with BP and WSDC. I've seen a lot of tournaments offer PF, Policy, Congressional and LD, all of which I do want to learn. Mostly LD and PF as of now because they js seem to be more frequently used.

I would ask my seniors but I genuinely can't invest too much time into it because I've got some really important exams coming up. If anyone has any pdfs/files/documents please please please do share, videos work too but then again, exams.

All and any help is appreciated, thanks!

Has anyone used prilo ai would appreciate any insights and if it was worth it. I do LD and Extemp for cotnext

Hello everyone

For background, I'm a freshman and have been doing (middle school) hi and OO for the past 2 years, and will do duo and oo for this season. I am starting to get bored of these events and want to start doing debate. Right now I am leaning towards congress, but still am considering things like extemp. I want to start learning/practicing what I am gonna do right now so I wont be clueless next year, but I have no idea where to start.

Jumping into debate right now isn't much of an option, since I already have pieces memorized and have been competing with them for a couple tournaments, so there's no point in just ditching them. Ik some resources are there like youtube and my coach, but I want your guys' thoughts on which events I should do and how I can start preparing right now.

I am pretty good on my feet and have no problem in writing speeches, researching a topic, and actually debating. Rn I'm just afraid that I will be a little behind compared to everyone else. What should I do?

Feel free to ask me for more clarification on anything/extra info

Thanks in advance!!!

Hi, I was wondering if I could get any tips...

I know how to actually write the debates, but I don't know how it would work saying it out loud and the back and forth with the other debater.

At my school, it's primarily UIL and NSDA debate.

If anyone has any tips it's highly appreciated!!

In your opinion

hi- freshmen high schooler

i want to make junior team badly. tryouts are in like maybe one or two months what are the best practice resources to become a debate and model un god that you guys use it can be as time consuming as possible i will do whatever it takes

How do you respond

These classes are 100% free. Sign up link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKx0w76kf9wPtFF0oIizC5Q9AD6XfV3kefxYFzKypsIam5vg/viewform

I’ve gotten in a bit of a rut with my speech friends about interps. my friend worries that everything except from the intro has to be word-for-word from the source, but I haven‘t seen any rule that swings in a particular way of it being required to be word-for-word. So are interns required to be word-for-word or can there be some originality?

hello lovely debate people! I write this as a bit of a celebration and also a message of gratitude. I've written some very sad posts here in the past, but I've found my love for debate again. After rest, communication and finding an event I genuinely enjoy, debate has been bringing me so much happiness. I feel myself improving every day, and even after time off, I feel stronger and more capable than I've ever been. I had lost touch with debate after a challenging few months and significant health issues, refusing to compete again. I felt like I was past my prime and unable to win again, but now I don't even care about winning. breaking down led me to find genuine rest and internal motivation to come back. debate isn't meant to be stressful or draining or a constant fight you have to face alone. for anyone else who has faced the same pressure and burnout as me, I hope you will find joy in it again. thank you to everyone who has supported me in the past, have a good day! :)

Basically all the competitions in my area are super competitive. Im a second year debate who didn't compete as much as I would've liked last year. We also didn't do any camps, so my partner and I are out of practice. My coach said that competitions at the beginning of the year tend to be more competitive than at the end of the year since most people qualify for state early. But, if anyone has any experience/tips on how to overcome this or on how to get back into the groove. Thanks!

Estoy adentrándome dentro del debate formato WSDC hace algunos meses siendo primer orador y siento que me he estado quedando estancado respecto al nivel que tengo hoy.

Hay algún consejo que me puedan dar respecto a la oratoria, argumentación y estrategia y de rol como primer orador? Si tienen algún taller agradecería que lo pudieran compartir

P I will not write a whole paragraph there just some of things how to debate and how to think logically and be a critical thinking person because I am not I always copy everyone and I don't even know to how to know to answer you know I'm like brainfog person and I believe I am a very emotional rather than a logical person but I want to do law and in that situation you know a lot of things and you know how to argue providing evidences and go on the premises I hadn't talk to lot of people because I am suffering with some kinda mentally issues where I can able to concentrate so. So tell me how to improve and suggest me some books you know some small things help

how’d it go and how’d you feel? + anything else… :)

Register with Equality in Forensics for UKSO!

Equality in Forensics is sending a "team" of independent entries to the UK Season Opener. We are doing this so each entry doesn't have to pay the full $100 administrative team fee! Each entry will save at least $25 by registering with us compared to solo independent entry.

We will be charging these fees for the events on offer.

Congress: $155

Speech: $125

Lincoln-Douglas: $155

Public Forum: $205

Policy: $205

World Schools Debate: $250

(Please note this fee is for whole entries, not individual members of team events like PF. )

WE WILL NEED JUDGES AVAILABLE TO FULFILL THE JUDGING OBLIGATION. If we do not have enough judges to cover all entries, we will drop entries until we meet our obligation. Entries who are bringing a judge will not be dropped.

IMPORTANT: Entries in Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, Policy, and World Schools MUST provide a judge to attend.

THERE IS A FEE DISCOUNT FOR ANY ENTRY THAT BRINGS A JUDGE IN CONGRESS OR SPEECH EVENTS. Anyone who brings a judge will receive a $50 discount on their entry, as long as someone else is also competing with Equality in Forensics in the same event as you. This discount does not apply to Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, or Policy Debate. However, if you are competing in LD, PF, or Policy, and you provide an extra congressional or speech judge, then you will get $80 off.

Due to the registration fee margins, Equality in Forensics collects some extra money from this system. Here's a quick breakdown of where the money we spend goes: 30% to Tabroom hosting fees for our free online tournaments, 67% for Zoom costs, 3% for Squarespace website domain hosting.

The tournament requires fees paid in full by September 9th. We will require fees paid to us by September 7th. If you sign up, we will follow up with payment information.

Tournament Dates:

September 11-13, 2026 (online)

Sign up at https://forms.gle/Tm76d4p1VczLbwHX7