Lasting Impact! has TWO opportunities to jump in to Extemp this fall! If this is something your club hasn’t been able to offer or you want more help and direction on how to get started… we have the answer!
1. Extemp Basics with Catherine Alles – Sun. Oct. 21 6:00pm CT
2. Extemp Excel with Steve Kish – Online 6 Week Club – Nov. 12 – Dec. 17
If you still aren’t ready or sure you want to commit, read Steve Kish’s explanation on why Extemp is an important speech event to grow your speech and debate skills…
How confident are you in debate rounds? When your opponent brings up the latest terrorist attack in Yemen or the most recent Trump trade update, can you confidently present yourself as the authority on the issue?
When I first heard about extemp, I thought it was an event reserved only for the big shots in the league — it always seemed like the people who excelled in debate dominated extemp. There was some truth to that observation, except that I had it backwards. It wasn’t debate skill that helped competitors dominate extemp; it was extemporaneous skills that helped competitors dominate debate.
After speaking to several competitors I looked up to, I finally figured out why: extemp teaches and fosters the ability to integrate current events into argumentation — not just LD/TP argumentation, but impromptu speeches, platforms, and even apologetics. Conveying current events in any presentation provided a level of reality and rapport I wasn’t seeing in debate rounds/speeches.
After I graduated and started judging forensics, I got to see the opposite side of the extemp coin: in a debate round, I could tell which competitor(s) did extemp by the way they commanded current events/evidence; in speeches, I was never left wondering how the ideas presented before me would impact the real world (and for the record, I am talking about extempers speaking in non-extemp events like apologetics, impromptu, and platforms).
Now, as a coach, I encourage my students to participate in extemp, regardless of the other events they are competing in. I see the invaluable habits extemp instills into my students. These habits, combined with well-rounded communication tactics, take ordinary speakers to an extraordinary level. I have seen timid whisperers turn into commanders of communication because of the confidence they have built in Extemp. On the other hand, I have seen overconfident yet powerful speakers be humbled by Extemp’s daunting challenges. For so many of my students, Extemp was the key tool to excelling in their other events. Everyone thinks differently. But don’t let extemp’s ominous nature push you away.
Extemp requires commitment, not just to assignments and time. Rather, extemps requires a fundamental change in perspective: the willingness to employ reality as your strongest tool of persuasion. So why do extemp? Much like sleep effects efferent bodily processes, Extemp effects several facets of an individual’s forensics career. No matter how far along you are in debate, speech, and even Extemp itself, there is always an opportunity learn and grow. Let Extemp be the event that molds you into the communicator you want to be.
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Steve Kish is one of our awesome Lasting Impact! Coaches. He loves coaching all forms of debate, and can’t wait to energize his class in the elements of Extemp. Schedule a coaching call with Steve today.
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