The Eleven Top Ten Items, deconstructed

This is like the ultimate trip down memory lane:

Top Ten List for Successful Debating

I think this was originally written during the early years of the reign of George III, but I may have the date wrong. It evolved over time, but was still relevant five years ago, when it was published. I bring it up because I'm going to start something comparable for PF, but it might be instructive to look at the list in its own right, as it might relate to LD today.

11. Physiological management
Control of your body leads to control of your mind. Get the right amount of sleep & food at tournaments. Drink plenty of water all day long.

This one's a no-brainer, and it's true for all branches of forensics, and plenty of other things as well. If you're going to a tournament, you're away from home, maybe in a hotel, there's adrenaline around every corner. Yes, you can stay up all night prepping for the round you're pretty sure you'll have tomorrow morning, but unless you have a team of assistant coaches to work with you on it (and some of you do, which was unheard of when this was written), you won't get all that much better. It's like cramming for exams. It might work, a little. Then again, it might not. What is true, though, is that debate competitions tend to be marathons, and the more you think about the endurance aspects of the race, the better you'll be. I would suggest that half of the late rounds are not won but lost, and the debater with the most legs has an advantage. This one stays in.

10. Having fun
You should be enjoying yourself. Everyone who has a winning record in this activity enjoys batting around ideas with like-minded individuals. A sense of your enjoyment will infuse everyone in your round, including your judges. Of course, you don't want to take it too far -- many judges have the same sense of humor as cheese pumpkins. So play it straight, but enjoy yourself. If you don't like debating, why aren't you on the chess team instead?

Fun is a lot different nowadays. How many big yucks have you heard in LD rounds lately? Seriously? There used to be plenty of strong debaters who infused their work with humor; there's not much room for that anymore, certainly not stylistically. I would even question if the activity has anything to do anymore with batting around ideas with like-minded individuals. The fun, alas, seems to be gone. Not terribly bad advice in PF, though, where often everything is terribly mean-spirited. Lighten up, people!

9. Simplicity of cases
The more simple your case is, the easier it is to understand. The easier it is to understand, the better it will sound to the judge. The best rule of thumb is, try your case on the youngest person in your household, down to about age 6. If they look at you like you've got beans in your brain, simplify it. Keep in mind too that the better you understand a resolution, the easier it is to explain it, and vice versa.

Read this one as if it was proposed by Martians. There's nothing here that holds true today in LD. I would suggest that this will almost inevitably go into the PF list, however.

More tomorrow...