Table of Contents

Purpose

Frequently Asked Questions

This handbook has a shortened version in the Tournaments FAQ.

Responsibility & Accountability

Tournaments require your parent’s investment through dues and

Approaching Life Outside of Debate

Debate is a part of your life. It is not something separate from the rest of your life. Your family, health, your grades, and your friends matter. Understanding this will make your life in debate easier and more enjoyable.

Debate & Parents/Guardians

Talk to the people you live with, who you depend on for food, water, shelter, and transportation.

• Maintain a good, respect based relationship with them and make that task easier by planning your school year (including your debate schedule) well before the year starts. This should include vacations, religious observances, state tests, SATS, and other big days through the year.
• Make a plan for tournament communication with them. You don’t want your mom calling you in the middle of finals yelling at you for keeping her up late. If you ignore your parents, coaches have to deal with them, and coaches hate that. Manage the expectations of the people you live with so they are not making your life at debate tournaments harder.
• Ask them to help you with debate. They can listen to things you’re trying to learn (teaching is the best way to learn), nag you about drilling, and help cover judging. They might not want to do those things, and that’s okay. But they might also be excited to be involved in a part of your life. You never know unless you ask, and they could be a valuable resource for you. It’s low risk, potentially high reward.

See the self-care section for how to manage your health, but in summary: Sleep, eat nutritious foods, drink water, and use strategies to manage anxiety.

Debate & Teachers

Talk to your teachers, cultivate good relationships, plan ahead, and do the work to do well in school. 90% of success is just showing up and meeting the minimal expectations.

• Introduce yourself at the beginning of the year, shake hands, and tell them you are excited for their class. First impressions matter.
• As with parents, work to maintain a good, respect based relationship with your teachers.
• Coordinate with them about how missing class for debate will work before the first tournament. Try to develop a routine so that when you tell them you will be missing class later in the week you both know how you will deal with that.
• Be an active participant in class by participating in discussion and asking questions. Make sure you are staying on topic and don’t be adversarial. Your teachers can be allies in learning or they can be enemies. Try to get them as allies.
• Stay on task and complete work in class when possible. Bell to bell, class time is work time. You have more time to relax or work on debate at home if you don’t have a mountain of homework that you could have gotten done at school.