Guest Post- 2016 NCFCA Impromptu Champion

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Abbey Lovett competed in Speech and Debate for many years, before becoming The NCFCA National Champion in 2016. Abbey is also a fellow blogger, you can visit her blogs at: https://lovettup.com/ Here is her perspective from The NCFCA 2016 National Championship last year…

I waited backstage for the moment to come. My heart was racing. I couldn’t decide if I was about to pass out or throw up. This was it, the showcase of excellence. I walked onstage to greet a cheering audience of 1,500 people.

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Guest Post- Elizabeth Tomaszewski – Courage, Dear Heart

Elizabeth Tomaszewski  competed in Speech and Debate for five years! She didn’t break until her third year- her junior year in high school. Her senior year she broke in LD for the first time. She ended up bringing six speeches and LD to Regionals (Iron Man), qualifying to The NCFCA National Championship in Impromtu and Apologetics. She was the 2013 Region Six Apologetics Champion.

Elizabeth states, “for two years I competed without breaking, but my mom encouraged me to keep trying and I knew I still had a lot to learn. My biggest challenge was being comfortable in my rounds. If I forgot a line- I stood there until I remembered it. I used to think public speaking was being able to deliver a speech perfectly from memory, now I know it is sharing a message. My advice to younger competitors is to enjoy your speeches. You are sharing a message with people about something you care about. Put the competition away for a minute and focus on why you are giving this speech. There is more to public speaking than first place. Believe me, I’ve been there.”

Below is Elizabeth’s encouragement to competitors struggling to break and who want to throw in the towel….

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Duo Interpretation- Tips from AJ Neumann

In honor of our new release- The Ultimate Duo Handbook... An Essential Guide to Duo Interpretation. Here is an excerpt of the book...

AJ Neumann participated in Speech and Debate for five years. Each of those years he participated in Duo Interpretation. It was one of favorite Speech categories. Four out of the five years, he had FOUR different duo partners. He qualified to the National Championship in Duo Interpretation four years in a row, with three of those four partners.

AJ describes his Duo partnerships, how they came to be, and what valuable lessons he learned through each one of them...

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What’s in a Name: The One Thing Juliet Got Right

By: Anna Johansen

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I stood at the double doors clutching a blue folder in my nervous hands, already overwhelmed. There were hundreds of teenagers in there– confident, talented, experienced, suit-wearing, future-lawyer-type speakers and debaters. Over 400 of them. The girls wore heels and curls and lipstick; the guys hauled briefcases full of debate evidence and articles from the Economist.

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