I could say it a thousand times: Adaption to online tournaments will be essential for the upcoming debate season! Raise your hand if you want to try out online debate for the first time at an actual tournament with check marks or at-large points in the balance? No hands? I agree. The speech and debate world is undergoing a huge shift to try and balance speech and debate while protecting people’s lives. This shift is towards online debate. As students, we can choose to either resist it and just hope that something changes, or embrace it and learn to adapt. I am with most of you in that my initial gut reaction to online debate was: “Yuck!” Yet, after participating in several online tournaments, one of which was hosted by Lasting Impact!, my perspective has entirely changed. I believe that online tournaments provide a more than viable way to continue speech and debate in the Covid era.
Lasting Impact! is offering a chance to prepare for these online tournaments in the form of their Fall Circuit. It starts Sept. 28, 2020. Go to www.impacttournaments.com for more info or to register. In the meantime here are some expectations that you can have for this circuit and future Impact Tournaments…
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??
Are Online Tournaments even worth it? Is speech and debate as we know it over? What about my friends? I won’t be able to see them in person for ages! If you’re asking these questions, Eric Meinerding is empathetic to your concerns. He lived, breathed, and ate speech and debate in high school. Immersion might even be an understatement. Here is his take on the new world of speech and debate…
Summer is quickly approaching. Do not let this quarantine thing stop your speech and debate progress! I know a lot of summer events have been canceled, but that doesn’t mean you should just sit on the couch a binge the next season of whatever is trending. There are a ton of things that you can do to promote growth and build your speech and debate skills. I get that students feel the need for a break, and being on Zoom can be exhausting. But there are tons of ideas to explore! First let’s go over reasons why you should make the most of your summer, then we will give you options for growth….
Lasting Impact! is excited to announce we are going to run another Online Tournament… a Speech AND Debate Tournament!! For the first time (that we know of) speech will be offered online! We are calling it…
Parli and Platforms – Trailblazers Tournament
June 5-6, 2020
Blazing a trail of new experiences for Online Tournaments through Parliamentary Debate and Platform Speeches to leave a Lasting Impact! ? Come explore Parli – which will include 4 preliminary round resolutions centered around on the NEW 2020-21 Stoa/NCFCA resolutions!
Bring a Platform Speech (or possibly two)!! This could include – Persuasive, Original Oratory/Informative, Visual Presentation, Oratorical Examination, Biographical, and AFTER DINNER!!
Dust off a platform speech from the past, write a new one, give your favorite, or finish this year’s speech with a bang and experience your SPEECH in an online event!! Even if Platform Speeches aren’t your thing… give it a try! You might like it! In addition to being a great learning experience, this is a great way to connect. Kids all over the country come to compete, as well as connect, grow, and have fun! Remember, practicing to compete and communicate online is an excellent skill to add to your tool box! Besides, we fully plan on offering more tournaments… this is fantastic practice! It’s only a matter of time before we offer Limited Prep and Interp! It is our goal to create a tournament-like experience.
This event is not in associated with any particular league.
No Parli Partner?? No problem! Contact heather@lastingimpact.info We will be putting together a spreadsheet.
No Parli Experience?? We will be offering a FREE 2 hr Parli Prep Workshop with registration. The Workshop will be May 16, and recorded.
More about Parliamentary Debate at The Trailblazers Tournament…
Preliminary rounds will be based on the 2020-21 Stoa and NCFCA resolutions. These will be non-strike rounds. The Parli Prompts will not be just re-wordings of the resolutions, but centered around the general topic. Strike rounds will be in Semi’s and Finals.
More about Platforms at The Trailblazers Tournament…
A Platform Speech is 8-10 minute speech meant to inform, inspire, motivate, or instruct.
Speeches may have been previously performed by competitors, as long as it was not performed AT a National Championship.
Speeches must be your own, original work.
No minimum duration.
Maximum of 10 minutes (speaker will set timepiece to 10 min, if speaker reaches 10 min., timer will beep and continue to go off, until they finish)
Competitors did not have to compete earlier this season, nor do they need to be affiliated with a league.
Please go to the site to learn more about the tournament and review the rules.
www.impacttournaments.com
We hope you will join us on this next excursion! Blaze the trail into new experiences!
Don’t forget, we will need judges. Even if you don’t have a competitor- we would love to have you join us! Create an account and let us know your availability. Volunteer for 1-2 hours, or more from the comfort of your own home. Tell your friends to giddy up! This will be a rootin’ tootin’ good time!
That’s the plain and simple truth. Tournaments aren’t for your parents. Tournaments aren’t for your siblings. They’re for you. Parents may enjoy socializing, yes. But how many parents do you know who still come to tournaments once their children are graduated? Hardly any. Once you’re not in the league, Speech and Debate doesn’t mean much to your parents. Why? Because tournaments are for you.
Before we begin this article, let us introduce you to Hope Turner. She has been going to Speech and Debate Tournaments before she could compete, and hit the ground running when she was 12. She has been to a plethora of competitions during her Speech and Debate years, which culminated in 2019, her senior year, as Moot Court Champion with her partner, Hope Rawlson. If you want to know how to survive the long days of a tournament, read on…
During our Regional Championship tournament, I had a conversation with a student who said the most honest thing I’ve heard in a long while. I initiated the conversation because I work Communications at the tournaments and I could see the student was tense, frustrated, distressed even. When I asked about it, I got the usual response, “My speeches have gone so badly. I really wanted to do well so I could get to Nationals.” There is not a good response for this. I know all the correct things to say: Nationals isn’t the goal. You’ve grown so much. The trophies will fade. None of that matters in the moment of disappointment, so I said nothing and gave the student a hug. That was when it got real. Coming off that hug, the student said this:
“I want to be part of the friend group that goes to Nationals, and I’m not going to be… again.”
There’s no doubt making it to Nationals in Speech and Debate is a big deal! For some in might be the one and only time. I get asked a lot, “Is it worth the expense? Should I go? What are the benefits of competing at a National level?” Here is my answer…
Post-season play is always exciting on a whole different level, isn’t it? There is the thrill of just being part of that playoff season, and there is much more at stake every time you take the field. If your sport is speech and debate, the same is true as you approach regionals and especially a National Championship… and there is a proper way to approach your post-season if our mission is truly to glorify God.
It seems like every year there are speech and debate students that need to be re-educated. For whatever reason students think there is a magic system for the order of their appearance in a competition room. I hope through this article you will see there is no reason to go hiding in the bathroom until the end of the round…
I don’t want to sound like a stereotypical alum devotional but I might have to in order to get my point across today. Each year I frustratingly see teens all around me vying for their place on the stage at awards while not even considering the real rewards of tournament. Believe me, I like being recognized for my hard work and skill as much as the next person but those expressions of appreciation do not always come in the form of a trophy you can put on your shelf…
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