This fall, the IDI (formally the IDDI) is going to try something new.

On October 8th, the IDI will be running a free student clinic in the AM and a free 3 round novice tournament in the afternoon. This is open to any novice student in middle school or high school. We will be allowing non-Iowa schools to enter and participate. Entry limits and requirements for out of state entries are below.

Due to a few coaches inquiring, we are adding CX. We will now offer CX, PF, and LD.

We are encouraging but not requiring students to attend both the morning clinic and the afternoon tournament. We are happy to host you and your students for one or both sessions. If you need to, mix and match students.

The sessions will focus on tournament skills like how to polish your case and how to write for an audience, how to flow in round and use cross effectively, and how the rebuttal, summary, and final focus speeches all connect. These sessions will be directed by experienced Iowa debate coaches, my alumni, and a few guests from out of state with a wealth of experience.

This event is designed for be for novices.

We are defining “novice” as a student in MS with no HS debate experience or a High School student in their first year of debate. If you have questions, please ask.

These sessions will be hosted on ZOOM while the tournament will be hosted on NSDA Campus while coaches should register students on tabroom. This means that students will need a tabroom email to attend the tournament. Please let me know if you need help setting these up.

A graduated, school approved adult must register entries and that person, or another school authorized adult must be online during the entire time their students are at this event.

This event is designed for Iowa schools, however. we will work with out of state students.

For the clinic sessions, any out of state schools may enter an unlimited number of kids without approval. For the tournament, out of state schools will need to get prior approval and their entries will be limited to 4 teams initially with higher caps granted once we get a feel on final entries. Email me at jessemeyer@gmail.com for more details or approval.

By hosting this, I’m hoping to expand the Iowa debate base and add to the educational value of other events. My ideal world would be for kids to attend the Simpson College Storm Tournament the weekend before, bring their flows and cases to the IDDI for polish and assistance, and then try their new skills at the IC West Novice Tournament the weekend after or the WILD Debate Tournament on October 22^nd. More information on these tournaments will be sent out and posted soon.  ***(Note- I am not affiliated with either of these debate programs. I am stating an opinion.)***

More details will be released on the tabroom webpage, but you can get your kids hyped because we are giving away a generous number of awards for participants of event. We will also be giving away door prizes to students and a few free random gifts for coaches.

A tentative schedule is posted below. This only includes PF and LD. A CX schedule will be coming shortly.

***All times are in Central***

When: On October 8th, online

What time: 8 AM team check-in, start time of 8:30 AM, end time of 5:15 PM.

Schools will register and check-in: 7:30 AM to 8:15 AM.

Welcome by Jesse Meyer, IDDI founder/director: 8:30 AM-8:40 AM

Session 1 (Case Presentation/case editing for presentation): 8:45 AM-9:45 AM

Session 2 (Flowing for competition): 9:50 AM-10:50 AM

Session 3 (Rebuttal, Summary, FF Speeches- Connecting the dots): 10:55 PM-11:55 AM

Lunch break and re-registration for the tournament: 12 PM- 12:50 PM

(All pairings will be released during lunch. Students will get blasts after R1 and R2 to remind

them of their next round)

Round 1 PM-2 PM

Round 2: 2:10 PM- 3:10 PM

Round 3: 3:20 PM- 4:30 PM

Awards: 4:45 PM