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Facing Debate Celebrities

by PFDebate LLC on February 10, 2007

There is an inter­est­ing thread over at Vic­tory Briefs Daily titled Fac­ing A Debate Celebrity.

It is always dif­fi­cult to debate a team with a rep­u­ta­tion for win­ning. With Pub­lic Forum’s empha­sis on lay judg­ing, this is a men­tal game since the judge is unlikely to know the rep­u­ta­tion of either team.

I had a coach in col­lege that would tell me two things before an elim­i­na­tion round:

  1. Comb your hair.
  2. Look like you are winning.

That’s still good advice.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

chris February 11, 2007 at 6:48 pm

its a bit odd to say that debate coaches (those who’ll be judg­ing you in out­rounds) dont know who wins on the cir­cuit. the best advice that any­one can give is to sim­ply go into the round, and win.

nick February 14, 2007 at 9:57 am

there arent any real national debate celebri­ties since there are so few peo­ple who rou­tinely travel. how­ever, i sup­pose there are peo­ple who are locally dom­i­nant, and then judge recog­ni­tion is definetly an issue.

Grace October 27, 2007 at 8:36 pm

The best thing to do when fac­ing a debate celebrity is to remem­ber to walk in with con­fi­dence and intim­i­date them! Remem­ber they may have a rep­u­ta­tion but rep­u­ta­tions can be lost … and replaced with … yours!

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