As we launch into this 2020-21 unprecedented season of speech and debate, we are excited to see leagues and coaching organizations adapt.
Champions intuitively understand a foundational truth: mastery requires practice. In the face of last year’s canceled spring season, Lasting Impact! piloted an online tournament platform with a heart for providing a quality online tournament experience. The resulting tournament exceeded expectations. This got us thinking: why not provide a fall practice experience with the same level of quality? After all, we are not trying to replace in person tournaments, yet the art of communication needs to continue to grow and develop.
After lengthy brainstorming and planning, we’re incredibly excited to announce the Inaugural Lasting Impact Fall Circuit, hosted by Lasting Impact! and sponsored by DFW Speech and Debate. The Fall Circuit will provide lincoln value and team policy debate options for STOA and NCFCA students. It includes weekly rounds starting September 28th. After the six preliminary rounds finish, we will host a one-day outrounds experience November 7 (with awesome prizes). The entire experience will run on a seamless online platform. This will give students, parents, coaches, and clubs all the opportunity to check out a virtual tournament!
Registration opens at noon today!! Click this link to register! For the next two weeks, we will discount the registration price of $49.99. Without required affiliations, travel costs, and other associated costs of competing in person, this online fall experience provides high-level practice for preliminary and elimination rounds at a fraction of the cost. You won’t want to miss it. We’re excited!
The resolutions will be…
TP Stoa
Resolved: “The USFG should considerably decrease its military commitments.”
LD Stoa
Resolved: “Economic stability is more important than economic growth.”
LD NCFCA
Resolved: “In democratic elections, the public’s right to know ought to be valued above a candidate’s right to privacy.”
TP NCFCA
Resolved: “The European Union should substantially reform its immigration policy.”
We look forward to meeting with you, and experiencing debate in a wonderful new way! No affiliation necessary to compete.
Check out the Impact Tournament site at www.impacttournaments.com
We are excited to be uniting with DFW Speech and Debate. We are excited for the opportunities to still offer high quality competition and ways for our youth to grow. We are excited for what the Lord has in store. The question is – are you??
Now that the Lasting Impact! TP Sourcebook is released, we, the four authors behind it, are answering a few questions about the sourcebook in order to provide you with the context of how this sourcebook came to be, and what we hope you gain from it…
Buy the TP NCFCA Sourcebook HERE. Or keep reading…
We are excited to announce the upcoming release of Lasting Impact’s Team Policy Sourcebook! It will include a total of 6 full cases, each case including a 1AC, negative brief, and affirmative backup. These cases will cover a broad range of EU immigration subjects likely to be discussed throughout the year such as asylum procedures, search and rescue assistance, integration, humane treatment of migrants, and more. Not only will the Sourcebook include these full 6 cases, each averaging around 52 pages of evidence, but it will also include three full general briefs covering economic, security, and human rights issues surrounding the resolution. With these briefs, competitors can gain a better grasp of the topic and face unusual cases without being left empty-handed.
Finally, the sourcebook will contain one broad document outlining the major areas of this year’s topic, general tips for debating EU policy, and an overview of how the rest of the book is put together.
We are confident that this resource will help students new to Policy Debate, as well as seasoned competitors. Laid out in an easily digested format, with strategy notes and explanations on each case and brief, this resource is sure to give novices a better grasp of the topic, along with a developed collection of cases and evidence in their arsenal.
We are also excited for the opportunity this resource gives advanced debaters to broaden their scope of knowledge about the resolution, the workings of the EU, and common arguments that will appear throughout the season. From brand-new to seasoned debaters, this Sourcebook is highly versatile and perfect for any experience level.
Who are part of the Lasting Impact! Team, who spent their summer researching to give you an awesome product to prepare you for a fantastic season?
Sarah Fox Sarah is entering her third and final year in the NCFCA, having competed in Team Policy, platform, interp, and all the limited preps, and qualifying to Nationals both years. In her first year of competition, Sarah won two tournaments in TP and one in apologetics. In her second year, she and her TP partner Eli Mayfield won each qualifier they competed in and placed second at the Anderson National Mixer, earning 13th place nationwide in at-large points before the season was canceled. Sarah has also enjoyed competing in speech events, securing 22 top-ten finishes in two years, taking each of her speeches to finals this past season, and earning a 2020 Regional Championship Ironman award. Apart from the Christ-centered community and friendships in the NCFCA, her favorite parts of competition are TP debate, public policy research, and apologetics.
Logan Hickman Logan is entering his third and final year of Team Policy Debate. He qualified to Regionals every year and broke at each tournament he attended last year, winning one of them. Logan loves limited prep speaking and qualified to Regionals in impromptu, but Team Policy debate is his favorite event. One of his favorite parts of competing in Team Policy is researching real-world issues and being forced to think about things in a logical, tangible, persuasive way. He credits his ability to articulate his position in a persuasive manner, his research skills, and some of his logical deduction ability to his time in the NCFCA. Along with his partner, Anna Macklem, he compiled over 200 pages worth of evidence and research during the abbreviated previous tournament season. Logan will be a student leader for his club this upcoming season.
Anna Macklem Qualifying to Regionals both years she competed, Anna is heading into her third year of Team Policy debate. Along with her partner, Logan Hickman, she broke in every tournament she competed at this year. A student leader at her club, Anna’s favorite event is TP, though she’s also competed in extemp, impromptu, and informative. She spent an average of 20 hours a week researching debate during the previous season, which translated to winning a tournament before the season was cancelled. She and two other students also wrote, developed, and taught a TP summer camp this year.
Eli Mayfield Eli has competed in both speech and debate for three years, qualifying to the Regional Championship all three years, and to the National Championship the last two. His first two years of debate were in LD, which helped him build the skills of cross-examination and quick thinking. During his third year of debate in TP, Eli and his partner Sarah Fox won both Regional Qualifiers they attended, as well as placing 2nd at the Anderson National Mixer. He and Sarah were the 13th team nationally in at-large point totals at the termination of the season. In speech, Eli especially enjoyed apologetics, extemporaneous, and any platform category. His persuasive speech placed 14th at the 2019 National Championship. Eli will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall to pursue a career as a Nurse Practitioner or a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist.
The Lasting Impact! TP Source Book will be released Aug. 3. Check out the SHOP for all of the amazing Lasting Impact! products, online classes, clubs, and coaching.
The new topic options have been presented for STOA team policy debate and there is incredible potential for an extremely engaging and competitive year of debate across all three topics. Just like last year, I’ll be going over the pros and cons of each option and then offering my opinion on which I believe is the best resolution. I’ll be rating each category in two topics. First will be educational and engagement potential. Here I’ll basically be judging each topic on their ability to prevent the year from going stale, and value to students as a learning opportunity. Secondly, each topic will be graded on its ability to facilitate competitive debate rounds, basically which topic will generate the greatest quantity of fair, even debates. I’ll look at balance, breadth of aff and neg arguments, and the available research on the topic. Each category will be rated on a scale of 1-3, with 1 being the best topic for that category and 3 being the worst.
This article was submitted by an Alumni Debater (not pictured)
Debate was my high school sport. I participated in a high school homeschool Speech and Debate League, which values real-world skills over technical debate training, I developed the art of rhetoric, composition, and professional conduct. Yet the most important lesson I learned during that time was a lesson I learned from my brother.
