Online debate coaching for students

What debate coaching should actually include

Plenty of debate instruction is a lecture about argumentation followed by a homework prompt. Students do not improve from being told about debate; they improve from debating, being judged, and hearing exactly what to fix. Whatever program you choose, ours or anyone else's, look for four things:

1. 01

   A curriculum with an order

   Skills stack: claim construction before rebuttal, rebuttal before weighing, weighing before whole-round strategy. A coach with a syllabus beats a coach with a topic of the week.

2. 02

   Real rounds, judged

   Practice debates against other students, adjudicated by someone qualified to say who won and why. Reps without judging turn into habits nobody catches.

3. 03

   Written feedback

   Oral adjudication fades by dinner. A written note after every session gives the student, and you, a record of what was fixed and what is next.

4. 04

   Format depth

   Every format rewards different things. Coaching that is generic across formats tends to be shallow in all of them, which is why we coach one format deeply.

One format, coached deeply

We coach World Schools Debate, the international 3-on-3 format debated at the World Schools Debating Championships and at NSDA Nationals. It is the format we would pick for a young debater even if we did not teach it: judging weighs persuasive delivery equally with content, half the motions are impromptu, and the team structure means every student speaks every round. Students coming from Public Forum or Lincoln-Douglas convert quickly.

Three ways to work with us

Common questions