Paras Kumar

Paras Kumar's headshot

Paras is a historically successful speech and debate, argumentation and public speaking coach. He received a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a PhD student.  He has been a trailblazer in popularizing private, online debate coaching as an industry and has personally completed 5000+ hours of 1-on-1 online debate tutoring with learners all over the world, ranging from young kids to adults.

Notable accomplishments include building DebateDrills, coaching two national champions (2017, 2019) and the youngest finalist in history (10th grade, 2018) in a 1-on-1 debate event at the most prestigious high school national championship in the United States: the Tournament of Champions (TOC). Paras has personally coached hundreds of students to success at countless local, regional, and national invitationals, overseeing a uniquely dominant competitive streak of success since he graduated as a top-ranked high school debater in 2011.

"I think Paras understands debate at a deeper level than anyone else in the United States. He is a subject matter expert at teaching complex cost-benefit analysis, debate theory, and debate strategy. Paras made sure to push me on critical aspects of debating that I often forgot about. He made sure I was persuasive, strategic and efficient."

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Parker Whitfill
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2017 National Debate Champion (TOC)

"Working with Paras improved my technical debating far beyond anything I had done before. His meticulous insistence on repeating speeches until perfection is particularly commendable."

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Ishan Bhatt
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2019 National Debate Champion (TOC)

"I worked with Paras extensively the summer before my 12th grade debate season and leading up to the TOC, and based on that time I honestly believe Paras is the most unique and exceptional coach in the entire business. I attribute a large part of my own personal development in debate to Paras."

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Regan Grishaber
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2012 National Championship (TOC) 3rd Place

"My time working with Paras was when I made the fastest and most rewarding improvement as a debater. His commitment as a coach and exceptional attention to detail will help you fix the mistakes and improve problems that never even occurred to you."

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Dan Alessandro
 | 
2015 Harvard Invitational, 3rd Place

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