Speech and Debate Online Club Team

What we offer:

Weekly Team-Wide Practices

Each Club Team holds weekly online practices for students during the season. Practices help students prepare for tournaments and include drills, lectures, practice rounds and prep days.

Guided Topic Preperation and Research

Led by coaches, our students conduct guided topic research and prepare methodically for each topic. Our teams consistently produce high quality prep that helps win high-stakes debates.

Proven Track Record

Our Club Teams are historically successful. We have produced 2 TOC Champions, the youngest-ever TOC Finalist, and our students have received over 150 bids to the TOC.

Community

Each team consists of students all across the USA, from 7th graders that are new to debate to 12th graders that are top ranked competitors. Our students form life-long friendships and bonds.

"The DebateDrills Club Team has made me a better debater, teammate, and leader. Coming from a school with no debate program, the sense of camaraderie I felt at tournaments with the other DebateDrills students as well as coaches was incredible."

Rex Evans | 3 Year Club Team Student
2018 TOC Finalist (2nd Place)
1st Place | 8 Major National Tournaments

"Before joining the DebateDrills Club Team, I debated alone so I produced all my own prep. After joining the Debate Club, the amount of prep I had increased at least 3-4 fold. That opened up a lot of variability for each round based on the opponent and the judge. Before joining I was usually pinned into a sub-optimal strategy because I just didn’t have the prep to compete, which was no longer an issue once I joined the team."

Parker Whitfill | 2 Year Club Team Student
2017 TOC Champion (1st Place)
B.A. University of Chicago

"I can't say enough good things about DebateDrills. My son, Max, attends a high school that does not have a program in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Nonetheless, as a result of working with DebateDrills this year, Max has become a competitive debater on the national LD circuit. To my mind, however, the impressive tournament results DebateDrills delivers are only part of the picture. My son's high school years are immeasurably richer and more rewarding because he has been lucky enough to be part of DebateDrills."

Casey Perin, PhD
Professor of Philosophy | University of California, Irvine

"I would highly recommend joining the DebateDrills Debate Club Team and I can’t imagine what my debate career would have been like without the support of the coaching staff and team. I joined the Team before 11th grade. Before joining, I was really disorganized. After joining, this changed immediately, which really helped me mentally go into debates prepared and confident."

Matt Chen | 2 Year Club Team Student
2018 Texas State Champion | 10+ Career Bids
1st Place, 2018 Lexington Invitational

"For me, the biggest benefit to joining the Club Team was the team atmosphere. The coaches are eager to answer questions and give advice - they are truly invested in improving your experience with debate. I made lasting friendships and was excited to see others succeed at tournaments. DebateDrills insists on playing the game right - I think you’ll end the year with pride"

Ishan Bhatt | 1 Year Club Team Student
2019 TOC Champion (1st Place)
2018 NSDA Nationals Champion (1st Place)

"Both my skills and prep improved immediately after joining the Club Team. I noticed people enthusiastically discussing the topic with so many different angles, and I was truly surprised how much discussion there was on the team. I enjoyed being able to talk about debate with people who were just as excited and much more knowledgeable than I was."

Ali Ansari | 3 Year Club Team Student
3rd Place, 2021 Harvard Westlake Invitational

"Before I joined the Club Team I thought that DebateDrills was an elitist squad where all the time was spent on the best few debaters. I almost never admit when I’m wrong, but I’m very happy to say that this was one of the times that I was completely and totally incorrect. The time I spent on the team didn’t just make me a better debater, but it made me a better person."

Amrita Chakladar | 1 Year Club Team Student
2020 TOC Qualifier

"DebateDrills is a collaborative team like no other. From anything about prep, drills or discussion of Afropessimism to Topicality to Policy argumentation, no other team in the nation comes close to matching the same diverse and in-depth expertise that DebateDrills coaches have. I would not be anywhere the same debater I am today without the help of DebateDrills."

Jonathan Jeong | 4 Year Club Team Student
3rd Place, 2021 UC Berkeley Invitational
2x TOC Qualifier

Offerings

Our LD and PF travel debate clubs attract students from all over the United States, ranging from 7th graders who are just starting out to 12th graders who are hoping to be crowned national champions. the national championship. Each team has ~50 students and competes as a team similar to established institutional programs. Our teams share preparation, hold weekly practices, gets unfiltered access to our award-winning coaching staff, and have 24/7 access to an unparalleled suite of resources to provide a holistic, elite learning experience. Members on the team have historically experienced significantly more competitive success due to the depth and intensity of preparation they receive. Students on the online club team are still allowed to compete within their school programs. Click on a tab below to learn more about what joining our team entails:

Exclusive Access To Topic-Specific Prep Written By Our Coaches

Each coach writes major affirmative or negative positions on every topic in their areas of expertise, giving each student on our Teams exclusive access to extensive major positions on the topic that are written by coaches with proven track records of success, in addition to all the other prep produced by students.

Unfiltered Access to Every Team Member's Prep For Each Topic

We only accept debaters to our Club Teams that are serious about competitive success—as a result, every person on the team works hard and produces valuable prep. Instead of having 2-3 teammates that help you prep for a topic, you’ll now have 10+ teammates working in harmony and divvying up the most pressing assignments according to each person’s strengths as a researcher.

“The best part about joining the Club Team was hands down the prep, specifically the diversity of it. The sheer number of good debaters on the team ensures that you have numerous positions from every side of the library (Util, Kritikal, Framework, Theory, etc).” –Parker Whitfill, 2017 TOC Champion, Phoenix Country Day HS ‘17

A Community of Teammates Across the Country

Last season our Debate Clubs consisted of coaches and debaters from California, Arizona, Georgia, Texas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington D.C, New York, Florida, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Using a messaging application called Slack, the debaters and coaches on our Club Teams sent over 200,000 messages during the season, allowing for regular communication about all things debate. This community facilitates robust organic conversation to develop where students asked questions and received real-time feedback and support throughout the season. Alumni have consistently told us this is one of the best parts of being part of our Club Teams.

“I think the best thing about the Debatedrills Club Team was the community/family I was able to meet. The mix of debaters that included debaters who topped the bid list to debaters who were just trying to get their first bid really motivated me to never stop trying.”–Aisha Sheikh, 9th Place 2017 Harvard Invitational, George Ranch HS ’17

Weekly Practices

Each week, students have 1 to 2 practices with a similarly skilled group of teammates led by our Coaches. Small group practices help students learn about positions, execute strategies, and make sure they are focused on debate. Practices include coach lectures, drills, practice debates, prep days, and more.

“Having a lot of teammates to do practice rounds with was really helpful…It was great having constant check-ups on preparation and getting easy materials to do redos with – i.e. the rounds.” -Matthew Chen, Champion of 2018 Lexington Invitational + Strake Jesuit RR + Sunvitational RR + TFA State, Strake Jesuit HS ‘18

High Quality Topic Analyses

Each coach on the Club Team is a subject-matter expert in a different aspect of debate. Within 10 days of the topic being released, we will upload several 20-30-minute topic analyses that discuss a) what we anticipate debates to look like, b) major positions and strategies we have brainstormed, and c) a comprehensive historical analysis of the topic. Additionally, we circulate a reading list of helpful articles to get started on topic research. The coaching staff will also puts out regular topic updates where we discuss trends we are observing as the topic progresses, allowing for us to adjust our strategies as topics progress versus popular arguments.

Weekly Office Hours

We hold open Office Hours weekly. During Office Hours, students get the chance to speak with coaches about their upcoming tournaments. In these sessions, we synthesize all the preparation the team has, discuss strategy vs. common positions, and answer any questions the student has.

Assignment Delegation For Every Topic

Winning major tournaments and qualifying to the TOC requires understanding the topic at a very in-depth level and from multiple perspectives. Doing this work alone is daunting. We assign students tasks to complete based on their strengths as a researcher. This allows us to divvy up the seemingly never-ending amount of work that needs to be done into more bite-sized pieces that allow students to simultaneously thrive in other extra-curricular activities and school while also being nationally competitive in Speech and Debate.

I was apprehensive at first because I wasn’t used to splitting prep work and I was wary of the potential that not everyone may carry their weight. Within the first few weeks, I was proven wrong. My coaches and fellow teammates always produced consistently high quality prep along that was understandable and usable to all styles of debate. For once, I didn’t have to do all the work and I got more free time for non-debate related activities." Amrita Chakladar, TOC Qualifier

Comprehensive Backfiles

We have over 250 battle tested, ready to use debate files on every debate topic that regularly comes up in debate rounds. Our files are elite in quality and updated every summer by our Head Coaches. These files were hand-written by our coaches, refined over the years, and have won countless important rounds.

"The amount of backfiles that DebateDrills had was absolutely amazing. The backfiles helped me out in a lot of rounds because I no longer needed to spend time cutting cards on what everybody else thought was generic research. I could focus more energy on cutting cards that were more pertinent to the topic at hand, and that reassurance of having responses to generic positions greatly helped my debating." -Ali Ansari, 3rd Place, 2021 Harvard Westlake Invitational

Guest Seminars

Throughout the season, we hold optional seminars for our students on a variety of pertinent topics, including how to leverage debate for college, careers debate prepares you for, inclusivity in debate, literature reviews on popular debate philosophies and debate-specific skills like learning how to research more effectively.

Logistical Help (e.g. Tournament Registration)

Navigating high school national circuit debate can be daunting, especially if you are unfamiliar with the procedures used in the community for tournament registration. We will help you through this process and show you how to register for tournaments, in addition to helping you find judges and communicating with the tournament director as necessary.

Coordinating Onsite and Remote Coaching

Over the last 2 years, we have had onsite or remote coaching at over 90% of octofinal and quarterfinal bid tournaments. We coordinate all logistical (e.g. flights, hotels, food) and operational (e.g. communicating with and making sure costs are evenly split) tasks required to fly coaches across the country to help our students compete at the highest level.

Mentorship

From help with college applications to navigating high school, all of our coaches were high-performing students themselves and understand first-hand the rigors involved in being a successful high school debater while balancing schoolwork / other extra-curricular activities. We are constantly available via Slack to help mentor students through the inevitable ups and downs that accompany competitive debate.

Individual Learning Assessments

We help each student understand what their specific weaknesses are and create game-plans to attack those weaknesses relentlessly throughout the course of the season. Regular check-ins during the season help ensure students iteratively improve and have a guided, focused process.

Mutual Judge Preference (MJPs) Help

We provide students customized judge ranking forms based on their individual strengths and weaknesses for all octofinal and quarterfinal bid tournaments. How a debater ranks their judges before a tournament significantly affects chances of success. Some judges are better for certain styles than others, and we’ve mastered the algorithm by which computer software’s assign judges. This allows us to strategically prefer judges we want our students to debate in front of and maximize the probability that we get judges that suit the students’ style in important debates.

“A very underrated part of joining the Club Team is getting help with your MJPs. The coaches help you do prefs strategically which both quickens the process and increases your chance of getting the judges you want in the back of the room.” – Parker Whitfill, 2017 TOC Champion, Phoenix Country Day HS ‘17

DebateDrills Alumni Rex and Tej pose for a photo with Coaches Raffi and Whit

Exclusive Access To Topic-Specific Prep

We provide at least one major affirmative and negative position on every topic, giving each student on the Club Team exclusive access to extensive major positions on the topic that are written by coaches with proven track records of success, in addition to all the other prep produced by students.

Unfiltered Access to Every Team's Prep For Each Topic

We aim to only accept debaters on to the Club Team who are serious about competitive success—as a result, every person on the team works hard and produces valuable prep. Instead of having 2-3 teams that you coordinate prep with for a topic, you’ll now have 10+ teams working in harmony and divvying up the most pressing assignments according to each person’s strengths as a researcher.

Weekly Practices

A Community of Teammates Across the Country

Using a messaging application called Slack, the debaters and coaches on the team regularly communicated with each other about all things debate, allowing for robust organic conversation to develop where students asked questions and received real-time feedback and support throughout the season. Alumni have consistently told us this is one of the best parts of being on the team.

Practice Rounds

Having teammates across the country gives you the chance to have practice debates with teammates who don’t compete in the same region as you, giving you exposure to a wide variety of debate styles. This ensures that every student on our Club Team is more successful when they travel to tournaments outside their region.

High Quality Topic Analyses

Within five (5) days of the topic being released, we will upload a high-quality, private 20-30-minute topic analyses that discuss a) what we anticipate debates to look like, b) major positions and strategies we have brainstormed, and c) a comprehensive historical analysis of the topic. Additionally, we circulate a reading list of helpful articles to get started on topic research. The coaching staff also put out regular topic updates where we discuss trends we are observing as the topic progresses, allowing for us to adjust our strategies as topics progress versus popular arguments.

Prep Delegation For Every Topic

Comprehensive Backfiles

We have lined down, ready to use backfiles on every generic topic that can come up in a debate round that you can think of. These files were hand-written by the coaches and their students over the years and have won countless important rounds.

Seminars

Throughout the season, we hold regular (optional) seminars for Club Team students on a variety of pertinent topics, such as how to debate specific topics, literature reviews, debate-specific skills like learning how to research more effectively, etc.

Logistical Help (e.g. Tournament Registration)

Coordinating Onsite and Remote Coaching

Mentorship

Morgan Swigert and Jack Johnson in the middle of a debate round.

Learn About Our Track Record

Pricing

The DebateDrills LD Club Team offers nine months of elite coaching at the same price that residential summer debate camps charge for three weeks of education. Spots are reserved on a first come, first serve basis. National Circuit Lincoln-Douglas debate is an expensive activity and we want to make sure families understand and are comfortable with the expected costs of national circuit debate prior to joining our program. We recognize that debate can be expensive and as part of our commitment to make debate more accessible, we offer one student a full scholarship for the LD Club Team.

Offerings

Pricing

Tuition Per Student

$4,275

Duration

Aug 1 - April 30

Discounted Tutoring Package

$20 Discount On All 1:1 Sessions Purchased

Private Slack Server

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Backfiles

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Coach Prep

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Team Practices

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Case Edits

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Remote Tournament Coaching

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Additional LD Debate Club Costs

Due to overwhelming demand for our services, we strongly prioritize families who are willing to commit to the following additional costs to joining our program. We are happy to discuss any concerns you have, but we have had over 150 families participate in our LD Club Team since 2016 and find the additional costs to be both reasonable in price and extremely valuable to accelerating their child's growth.

Discounted Tutoring Package

Our students on the Club Team supplement the work they do with 1-on-1 tutoring sessions to make sure students successfully execute the top-notch preparation and resources they receive from being on the Team. Students on the Club Team who regularly tutor are much more likely to experience success. Club Team students receive a significant discount (average $20/session) on tutoring AND exclusive access to Club Team coaches for tutoring. We ask all families on the Club Team to commit to (at least) 15 hours of tutoring during the season, which costs $1500.

Tournament Coaching

We coordinate tournament coaching (both onsite and remote) at major tournaments throughout the season. Families are asked to split the costs of Tournament Coaching, which averages to ~100 per tournament, per family. We usually have 2-3 of our coaches at every tournament, ensuring every Club student receives 1-on-1 help at tournaments.

Join us for the Season

The DebateDrills PF Club Team costs equivalent to attending a two-week residential PF summer camp. Our services, which last for 9 months, provide families interested in elite public forum debate coaching a superior service at an equivalent price point. We recognize that debate can be expensive and as part of our commitment to make debate more accessible, we offer one team a full scholarship for the PF Club Team. The price below is per student.

Offerings

Full Year

Tuition Per Student

$2,750

Duration

Aug 1 - April 30

Individual Tutoring

2 Hours Complementary
20% Discount On Sessions Purchased

Private Slack Server

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Backfiles

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Coach Prep

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Team Practices

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Topic Analyses

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Case Edits

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Remote Tournament Coaching

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Join us for the Season

Coaches

Our LD coaching staff is like no other in the United States. The LD Team has close to a 3 student to 1 coach ratio, ensuring each student gets consistent access to personalized attention. Most of us were top-20 ranked debaters in the US nationally as competitors, all of us have taught at major debate camps, and several of us have been trusted to lead the instruction at top labs at the largest debate camps in the country. Several of us also compete at the highest levels of competition in college debate, ensuring our collective debate IQ stays ahead of the game. We have strategically hired subject matter experts in every core content area and skill in contemporary debate. Click on a profile below to view specific coaches bios:

Vishnu Nataraja

Instructor

Texas A&M University

Aadit Walia

Instructor

Johns Hopkins

Paras Kumar

Founder & Partner

UC Berkeley

Tej Gedela

Instructor

University of Pennslyvania

David Asafu-Adjaye

Instructor

Rutgers University

Beatrice Culligan

Instructor

Carelton College

Samantha McLoughlin

Instructor

Vanderbilt University

Advay Chandra

Instructor

UC Berkeley

Max Perin

Instructor

UCLA

Jackson Hanna

Assistant Director of Club of Team Operations

Weber University

Michelle Gong

Instructor

Wake Forest University

Sarah Li

Instructor

USC

Jonathan Jeong

Instructor

Princeton University

Nathan Liu

Instructor

TBA

Ben Waldman

Instructor

University of Chicago

Elizabeth Su

Instructor

UCLA

Pranav Kaginele

Instructor

Johns Hopkins University

Iris Chen

Instructor

University of Massachusetts | Amherst

Jack Wareham

Instructor

UC Berkeley '21 / New School for Social Research

Anushka Valsan

Instructor

American University

Rajvee Patel

Instructor

UC Irvine

Christian Han

Instructor

UC Davis

Aerin Engelstad

Instructor

Emory University

Adam Mimou

Instructor

TBA

We will help you prepare for the topic, lead the direction of content creation on the team, understand what the most popular positions will be and teach you how to debate them. We are constantly available to answer questions you have about all things debate, from substantive questions about debate strategy to logistic and administrative questions like how to sign up for tournaments. Our track records of success as both competitors and coaches speaks for itself. The best debaters in the country consistently approach us year in year out to help them think through their strategies in our respective areas of expertise. We look forward to potentially working with you!

Our PF Club Team coaching staff is like no other in the country. We will help you prepare for the resolution, lead the direction of content creation within the team, understand what the most popular positions will be and teach you how to respond to them. We are constantly available via Slack to answer questions you have about all things debate, from substantive questions about debate strategy to logistic and administrative questions like how to sign up for tournaments. Our track records of success as both competitors and coaches speaks for itself. The best debaters in the country consistently approach us year in year out to help them think through their strategies in our respective areas of expertise. We look forward to potentially working with you!

John Nahas

PF Director

UC Berkeley

Morgan Swigert

Curriculum Director

University of Virgina

Sully Mrkva

Instructor

Virginia Tech

Alec Boulton Molero

Instructor

Vanderbilt University

Sasha Haines

Instructor

Ohio State University

Martand Bhagavatula

Instructor

University of Southern California

Grace Homan

Instructor

New York University

Sanjita Pamidimukka

Instructor

UCLA

Ishan Rao

Instructor

Emory University

Gautam Mohandas

Instructor

UC Irvine

Felix Leonhardt

Instructor

Yale

Neval Mulaomerovic

Instructor

Georgetown University

Claudia LeDuc

Instructor

Wesleyan University

Sebastian Dunbar

Instructor

UCLA

Nicole Rodriguez

Instructor

University of Chicago

View Team Results

FAQs

Are there any rules I have to abide by to join the Club Team?

Yes. In order to create a high-quality resource for the Club Team, it must be a closed loop and everyone must contribute their share. The three most important rules are a) you must agree to be 100% transparent, i.e. everything you produce must go on the dropbox, b) you must agree to not share any content on the dropbox with anyone in the debate community who is not part of the Club Team, with the sole exception of prep you produce and share with your school teammates, and c) you must agree to carry your own weight prep-wise. We assign case positions, blocks, and research to each student depending on their strengths and thus the Club Team becomes holistic, with a combination of high quality util, critical, and framework oriented cases.

Can you keep my participation in the Club Team confidential?

We do not view our services as a replacement for school teams. We've had students from established programs such as Strake Jesuit Preparatory School join our team. We are happy to sit and talk with your school administrators about their concerns about joining our Club Team.

I’m not sure I am good enough to join the Club Team—should I still sign up?

Every year, we purposefully accept 3-4 novices. We want to create a team atmosphere where more experienced debaters have the opportunity to also work with less experienced debaters since teaching is the best form of learning. We are confident you will be pleasantly surprised by how approachable all of the “good” debaters on the Club Team are, and how much you learn through the year. We strongly encourage you to join even if you think you are not good enough—the whole point of the Club Team is to help you get better!

I can’t afford this service—do you offer discounts?

The only discount we offer is to returning students. We recognize debate can be expensive and we encourage you to utilize our free resources if this service is outside your budget. We are offering a full scholarship to both the PF and LD Club Team.

If I join this team, can I still hire other coaches and work with students not in the Club Team?

We will make exceptions on a case-by-case basis, but in general, we will strongly prioritize accepting students who do not hire other coaches and instead are 100% committed to the Club Team. We have a strong desire to create a sense of community within members on the team, and that’s best done when everyone is fully committed to working together.

Does this service include private tutoring and/or on-site coaching?

Membership on the Club Team does not include private tutoring sessions or on-site coaching. We believe that having top-notch preparation is vital to success, but we also know that preparation is less helpful if students don’t feel comfortable executing in high-pressure situations. Over the years, we have noticed that students who maintain a consistent practice schedule experience the most success, and accordingly, we will strongly prioritize students who indicate they are willing to supplement their work on the Club Team with private tutoring.

What is the per-week hourly commitment students must make to be on the Club Team?

Students should be willing (and expect) to spend around 3 hours per week on Club Team related tasks, be it practice rounds, strategy sessions, seminars, tutoring, prep-assignments, or Slack conversations.

Still have questions?

Get in Touch

Club Team Policies

We strive to provide the highest quality debate education in the United States, and our track record speaks for itself. Accordingly, joining our Team is a privilege and comes with certain requirements to ensure that we can all maximize the possibility for education and growth for debate students. Historically, these team policies have been well-received and we are confident that you will find them to be reasonable and mutually beneficial. Please email us at leadership@debatedrills.com if you have any questions or concerns and we will reply promptly.

LD Team Policies

PF Team Policies

Reporting Harrassment | DebateDrills Coaches and Students

We are adamant that our students maintain high standards of conduct at tournaments and respect their competitors and judges. You can access the full-text of our policy below and report incidents here or at this URL: https://forms.gle/c4npvCuawT9Kgv9n7

Full-text of DebateDrills bullying and harassment policy:
“DebateDrills does not tolerate harassment or bullying of any kind toward any student, staff member, or judge, whether or not they are on the DebateDrills Club Team. This includes discriminatory, prejudicial, or stereotypical comments about groups, such as women and minorities, even when the comments are not directed at an individual. We expect all staff and students to treat each other and all opponents with respect and cultivate a community of inclusion and respect, whether it’s on Slack, in person, or any other forum. Harassment or bullying can take many forms and are judged based on the effect that they have on the person experiencing the harassment or bullying.We are committed to supporting any student or staff member who has experienced or witnessed harassment or bullying.

If you have felt harassed or bullied by a student or staff member at DebateDrills and wish to report it to us, please follow the steps below. Likewise, if you have witnessed discriminatory, bullying, or discriminatory behavior or comments, we encourage you to report them to us.

DebateDrills will strictly enforce the following policy.

1. Reporting to DebateDrills
Please contact Elyssa Alfieri via Slack or email (her personal email is ealfieri1@binghamton.edu). You can describe what happened via a written message or you can schedule a phone call. We will ask you if you are okay with us talking to the person who harassed or bullied you, and if you wish to remain anonymous. We will also ask you what you would like us to do and how we can help you. We will try to respect your wishes to the utmost extent possible.

We encourage you to talk to us about behavior that makes you uncomfortable, even if you do not think it rises to the level of harassment or bullying. We are here to support you and find a solution that makes you feel safe and valued on the Club Team. That may take the form of having a Club Team -wide conversation, talking directly to an individual, or other non-disciplinary action.

2. Evaluation
Elyssa will discuss the incident with Paras and Nicolette. If you decided to remain anonymous, Elyssa will not disclose your name during that discussion to Paras and Nicolette, and Elyssa will not tell the person who harassed or bullied you. If you are okay with Elyssa disclosing your name and/or talking to the person who harassed or bullied you, we may schedule a conversation with that person.

If you are uncomfortable with this process at the time of incident, please reach out to Elyssa and we will work with you to figure out an alternative.

3. Final Decision
Elyssa will contact you once an evaluation has been made to let you know what is happening next. If you wish to remain anonymous, we will make every effort to keep you anonymous, but please remember that it may not always be possible, or the transgressor may guess that you disclosed to us.

We use a restorative discipline model to deal with students found to be harassing or bullying anyone within the DebateDrills Community or the broader Debate Community. This model underscores the importance of corrective and supportive measures to address harm; as well as the importance of the community in the process of repairing harm. The process under this model is as follows:

On the first offense:
1. A discussion occurs with the student, specifically regarding the behavior that is at issue, the harm of this behavior to the team and individuals on the team, and the exact expectations of how this behavior will change;
2. Students are required to identify ways they can make amends with students harmed, and ensure the student makes direct amends to those students if it is desired;
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On the second offense:1. The student’s parent(s) or guardian(s) are contacted, and we will collectively discuss the expectations for remaining on the team
2. Involvement in team activities (practice debates, coaching sessions, tournament attendance) is suspended, with the requirement that the student reflect on the following: the event in question, the student’s thought process at the time of the event, the student’s thought process since the event, the harm caused by the student’s behavior, and the steps required to repair the harm caused
3. The student takes actionable steps to repair the harm caused with the individuals involved and the individuals harmed are consulted in the process of the student returning to team activities

On the third offense:
1. Expulsion from the team, with a transparent discussion with the team on our decision

4. Appeals
Once someone has been removed from DebateDrills because of harassment or bullying, they will not be permitted to return for any reason. In the exceptional case that there has been an error or there is new information available, they may appeal directly to Paras via email or text. Appeals are discretionary.”‍

Pre-Round and Post-Round Disclosure Policy

All DebateDrills students will open-source disclose constructive positions and provide round reports ASAP after debates. Students may occasionally forget due to post-round logistics and human error (e.g. short turnaround time for next debate, flight to catch). If this happens, please let Lucas (lucas@debatedrills.com) know and we will fix that ASAP.

Pre-round, we will disclose the affirmative 30 minutes before the debate and ask our colleagues to do the same. If it is a new aff (meaning it has not been read by anyone on DebateDrills), we will say “new aff” and will not disclose any portion of the affirmative.

Judging Policy

When tournaments have an entourage rule, we will ensure all DebateDrills coaches are registered as an entourage for our top debater(s). When tournaments do not have an entourage rule, we will input our judges for 1 round obligations for our top students to increase the judging pool quality. Our students are required to avoid using their parents or other lay judges to fulfill judging requirements barring exceptional circumstances.

DebateDrills Official Team MJP and Conflict Policy

As part of our commitment to transparency, we will err on the side of caution to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. The rest of this document contains the official DebateDrills MJP and conflict guidelines we require students to abide by at any given tournament. It also contains a roster of students on our team. While we will strive to check every single conflict to ensure that we are constantly leading the charge in best practices, it is possible we will occasionally make mistakes. If you have any concerns about who is judging our students at any time, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Official Policy

“I think the real test should be this and the question is a simple one. Did you or persons with whom work closely have a direct and/or regular influence on or presence with the preparation, development, articulation, and presentation of arguments for this competitor for this tournament or tournaments within this competitive season… that they may use for this tournament? If the answer to that question is "yes," then you need to conflict yourself from judging those competitors. If you did not do those things, then there should be no conflict.”

-Dave Houston, April 22nd, 2018
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In the spirit of this email sent before the 2018 Tournament of Champions:

1. Every DebateDrills student will be required to conflict an independent coach any DebateDrills teammate brings to any given tournament. By way of example, if Student A has Person X coaching them privately in addition to the DebateDrills Coaching Staff, every other student at the tournament must conflict Person X at said tournament. For further clarity, if DebateDrills Club Team Member Rex Evans (Santa Monica RE ’19) hires coach Cameron Baghai privately in addition to the DebateDrills Club Team Coaching staff, and, Rex decides to bring Cameron to Tournament Y, all other DebateDrills students at Tournament Y must conflict Cameron Baghai, regardless of any previous affiliation with Cameron.

2. If any DebateDrills student hires a judge at any given tournament solely to fulfill the tournament’s judging obligation requirement, other students attending said tournament may not conflict said judge given that the judge isn’t coaching the student in question. By way of example, if DebateDrills Club Team StudentTej Gedela (Enloe TG ’19) hires Tara Norris to fulfill a judging obligation at Tournament Z, no other DebateDrills student attending Tournament Z may conflict Tara Norris.

3. All previous DebateDrills Club Team Coaches will be conflicted from judging DebateDrills students’ until they no longer have a relationship to any student on this year’s roster. By way of example, if Paras Kumar worked on the Club Team from 2016-2018, Paras may only judge students affiliated with DebateDrills after there are no students on DebateDrills’ current roster from Paras’ tenure with DebateDrills.

4. All previous DebateDrills students who graduate from our Club Team and then judge on the national circuit will be conflicted from judging DebateDrills’ students until either a) 4 years have elapsed or b) they no longer shared preparation with any current members on the team. By way of example, San Marino ED (Eric Deng) was on our Club Team for 1 season (2017-2018). He will be conflicted from judging our students until either a) the 2022 season or b) he no longer shared preparation and materials with any of the students on the current DebateDrills Roster.

Wiki Disclosure

We are pro open-source disclosure. You are no longer part of a “small school” (if that distinction even makes sense, which we personally think doesn’t). By being part of our Club Team, you are amongst the most prepared debaters at every tournament you attend. We require every student to follow the protocol below for disclosure – we promise you that you will not lose rounds because of this. We know that this is a major departure for some of you from how you debated in the past, but please trust us on this. The “disclosure hurts your ability to win” argument is silly and empirically disproven over and over again by our collective team success. If you have concerns about disclosure or think it’s bad, please talk to us ASAP. We will spot check your disclosure pages throughout the season to ensure you are abiding by our team rules.

General Overview:
• If you are a novice, please message your head coach and they will help you get set up with a wiki page on the NDCA wiki.
• We should all be disclosing on the wiki properly. If anyone has a problem with this, we are happy to explain to you why disclosure is a good practice.
• We should be disclosing in good faith - this means we aren’t engaging in any shenanigans involving disclosing all analytic cases, disclosing on the Public Forum wiki, disclosing incorrect arguments, or anything ridiculous of the sort. Disclose and disclose properly.
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What follows may be a departure from what you have previously done. Please follow the guidelines below. They may create some more work for you in the short term but will yield long term benefits and establish good norms for the whole community.
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Cites:
• We will post cites for a position including tags for every new position that we break (i.e. new aff, DA, K, etc) and the first three and last three words of the card text.
• We should NOT be disclosing pre-written analytics. You only need to disclose a quick summary (3-5 words) of what each analytic argument says.
• You don’t need to create a new cite entry for every round you read a position - just one for the first round you break something.
• Cite entries should be clearly and appropriately labeled with the topic and quick 1-2 word label for the position
• e.g. “SEPTOCT - Kant Aff”
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Round Reports:
• Must be posted for every round
• Information that should be included:
1. Tournament and round
2. Opponent
3. Judge
4. Round break down (what the 1ac was, what was in the 1nc, what the 2nr went for, any new 1ar arguments, and what the 2ar went for)

Open Source:
• Should create a doc with all the cards that you read in the round
• Cards should be sectioned off by speech
• All 1ac cards should be under a separate header labelled “1ac” and all 1ar card should be under a separate header labelled “1ar”

Disclosing Participation in DebateDrills
In years past, we have had coaches request that we ask our students to disclose they are part of DebateDrills. We agree with the reasoning of our colleagues - being part of a prep-sharing network like ours puts you at a significant advantage, and the rest of the national circuit should have the right to know who is working with whom. Accordingly, we will require all students to have the top entry on their aff and neg wiki indicate that they are a member of the DebateDrills team. The entry should go as follows.

1. Title: 0 - DebateDrills
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2. Tournament, Round, Judge:
Tournament: All | Round: 1 | Opponent: All | Judge: All
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3. Cite box:
I'm on DebateDrills! Here's a link to:
- List of Members and Coaches:
- Relevant Team Policies:
- Harassment/Bullying Complaint Form:

https://forms.gle/c4npvCuawT9Kgv9n7
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4. Open Source: Not Applicable for this entry.

If you have any questions about this or need some help to get started, please get in touch with us. You will be in direct violation of our Service Agreement if you do not abide by the policies above, so please make sure you are crystal clear on how this all works before the season begins.

Navigation Function
Please put, under identifier 0, the following 3 things each as their own wiki entry:
• Contact Information
• Disclosure of participation in DebateDrills (see above)
• Navigation Toolkit

Please check the software stack and Tej Gedela's wiki from a past season to see what best practice looks like.

Pre-Round Disclosure

Part of good disclosure practices is not only disclosing post-round, but also following best-practice pre-round. We have put a lot of time and thought into these pre-round policies, so if you have questions or concerns, let us know. And again, if you are just getting started with debate, don’t worry, this will all make sense soon.

[AFF] If not breaking new:
• Disclose 30 mins before the start of round. If flight B, disclose 30 min before the start of flight B
• Disclose which aff and point to relevant entry on the wiki with proper plan text, advantages, etc
• Important Note: If someone else on the team has read the affirmative before, that means the affirmative is no longer new. When asked what the aff will be, refer them to your teammate’s wiki

[AFF] If breaking new:
• Disclose that it is a new aff 30 mins before start of round. If flight B, disclose 30 min before start of flight B
• We strongly recommend that you do not tell them plan text or advantages, though we will ultimately leave that to your discretion. If your opponent wants to make it a procedural debate, we will teach you to engage and respond substantively to their concerns

[NEG]
• After being told what the aff is, disclose past 2nr’s as soon as possible and point to any relevant cite entries
• Ask for aff disclosure as soon as possible but you should get disclosure at minimum 30 mins before the start of round
• Do not disclose what the 1nc will contain. If your opponent wants to make it a procedural debate, we will teach you to engage and respond substantively to their concerns

Cheating in Debate Rounds

We have no tolerance for any type of cheating in debate rounds, including, but not limited to: clipping, communicating on Slack with teammates or coaches during debates, stealing prep time. Consequences are as follows for cheating:

Exceptions will be provided on a case-by-case basis in cases where the cheating was not intentional and truly accidental. We hold absolute discretion on the decision of whether any given instance of cheating is intentional.

Providing Qualified Judging at Debate Tournaments

DebateDrills requires families to make a good-faith effort to find qualified judges to fulfill their individual judging obligation for all TOC Bid Tournaments.

While we understand it is an additional cost to hire qualified judging for every tournament, it is essential that we operate in good-faith and make meaningful efforts to provide judges we would want to debate in front of. The community relies on qualified judging. Parents do not count as qualified judges - just as we do not want to have important debates in front of the parents of our competitors, they do not want to debate in front of the parents of our students.

The question you should ask yourself is this: would you feel comfortable staking an important debate round in front of the judge you have provided for this tournament? If the answer is no and you did not make a good faith effort to source qualified judging, you are in direct violation of our Qualified Judging policy with the following consequences:

Please note that, because we provide MJPs for Bid Tournaments, we will notice if you are violating this policy. Additionally, our colleagues have done a good job of informing us when our families are in violation of this policy, so it is unlikely you will go unnoticed if you enter unqualified judging.

Exceptions will be provided on a case-by-case basis to families who made good-faith efforts to source qualified judging and were unable too. We will ask families to send us documentation of their efforts to verify accuracy. We hold absolute discretion on the decision of whether you provided a qualified judge and whether your family made a good-faith effort to find qualified judging.

We will provide a suite of resources to help with the process of finding Qualified Judging at the beginning of the season. This will include a list of marketplaces from which to find judges, a sample legal agreement you can use to ensure you are not taken advantage of, email and Slack support from us, tips and tricks for emailing Tournament Directors, and a compiled list of available and interested judges by region.

Travel Debate Club TeamLincoln-Douglas & Public Forum

What we offer:

Weekly Team-Wide Practices

Guided Topic Preperation and Research

Proven Track Record

Community

Offerings

Pricing

Additional LD Debate Club Costs

Coaches

Vishnu Nataraja

Aadit Walia

Paras Kumar

Tej Gedela

David Asafu-Adjaye

Beatrice Culligan

Samantha McLoughlin

Advay Chandra

Max Perin

Jackson Hanna

Michelle Gong

Sarah Li

Jonathan Jeong

Nathan Liu

Ben Waldman

Elizabeth Su

Pranav Kaginele

Iris Chen

Jack Wareham

Anushka Valsan

Rajvee Patel

Christian Han

Aerin Engelstad

Adam Mimou

John Nahas

Morgan Swigert

Sully Mrkva

Alec Boulton Molero

Sasha Haines

Martand Bhagavatula

Grace Homan

Sanjita Pamidimukka

Ishan Rao

Gautam Mohandas

Felix Leonhardt

Neval Mulaomerovic

Claudia LeDuc

Sebastian Dunbar

Nicole Rodriguez

FAQs

Club Team Policies

LD Team Policies

PF Team Policies

Travel Debate Club Team
Lincoln-Douglas & Public Forum