As a general summary of my judging philosophy I think that debaters should do what they want and I just want it to be well explained and executed well. 

Theory
I tend to think that conditionality is fine and that most theory arguments are just reasons to reject the argument and not the team. However that does not mean that I am opposed to voting for it if you decide that it is your best option to go for theory. I don't find most of the theory arguments on the politics disad. (ie. fiat solves the link, bottom of the docket) are not the most compelling arguments to make in front of me.

Counterplans
I really don't have a preference what kind of counterplan that you read in front of me. If you are reading a complicated process/PIC/plank CP, I prefer that you take a second in the debate to explain all the parts of the CP and how they resolve the aff. I do prefer that you have a specific solvency advocate for the affirmative. I am not a huge fan of consult counterplans and prefer that you do not read them in front of me. That being said if you think that you have some sweet consult cards for an aff, feel free to go for it. I will not reject the counterplan for the negative unless it is explicitly stated in the 2NR.
When you are aff I think that your solvency deficits need to be well articulated and explain how it implicates the solvency counterplan. I think that permutation explanations need to be consistent between the 1AR and the 2AR, I have noticed in debates when the 1AR just extends the "permutation" with no explanation and then the 2AR gets up and waxes poetically about how the permutation solves everything, and I am not about that.

Disadvantages
I think that when you are neg there needs to be good turns case analysis instead of just asserting at the top of the flow that it "outweighs and turns the case". Other than that I don't really have a preference about disad debates.
When you are aff I think that the link turn needs to be very well explained as well as "case solves the DA" analysis.

The K
I love the K. But I think that if you are going for a root cause argument then it needs to be explained in context of aff impacts. I think that the link story is a lot more compelling if it is specific to the affirmative, general overarching claims ie. "they constructed a threat somewhere" is not very compelling in front of me. I generally default that the aff gets to weigh their impacts against the K, unless the negative makes a reason why I shouldn't. I also am not a fan of the 6 minute overview, just because it is a k debate that doesn't mean that line by line goes out the window. I also appreciate when permutations are answered individually instead of the classic "group the perms".
On the aff I think that the framework arguments about why it needs to be a competitive policy option and that K's should not be allowed, are not very compelling.

K affs
K affs are dope and it's preferably what I run, but I do prefer that they have topic relevance, but you do not need to defend fiat if you think that is what works best with your aff. I also need explanation of your advocacy, don't just assume that I understand all of your k jargon. I also think that if you are going to read an plan text/advocacy statement you need to choose if you are going to defend it or not. I have seen many times when a team will sort of defend it to mitigate offense on framework and then defend no part of it if there was also a disad read in the debate, stop toeing the line and just pick a side.


Topicality
I tend to think that most affs are at least reasonably topical. I think that in order to get my ballot on t questions there needs to be a clear impact. I think that to get my ballot when going for t, there just needs to be a reason why I should care about your interpretation. That being said I am still open to voting for t if it is executed correctly.

Debated 4 years at Weber State University (2013-2017)

Four time NDT Qualifier, 2017 NDT Octa-Finalist, 2015 CEDA Quater-Finalist

Currently a Graduate Assistant at James Madison University

I believe debate is for the debaters, I am happy to listen to whatever your argument is and will do my best to adapt to you so you don’t have to change the way you debate. I would much rather you do what you are comfortable with than read an argument just because you think it is something I would prefer to hear. I debated for 8 years and have read and coached all different kinds of arguments, so you should feel comfortable doing whatever you want in front of me. Everything else I’m going to say is just my preference about debate arguments and doesn’t mean that my mind can’t be changed. The last thing I'll say here is the most important thing for me in debates is that you defend your arguments. You can read almost anything in front of me as long as you can defend it. I decide the debates based off of what is on my flow, and nothing else.

Critical Affirmatives – I believe affirmatives should have a relation to the resolution, but I think there are many different interpretations as to what that can mean. To get my ballot with a non-traditional affirmative you must justify why your discussion/performance is a better one for us to have than talking about the resolution or why the resolution is bad. I am sympathetic to arguments that the negative needs to be able to engage the affirmative on some level, and I don't think that "they could read the cap K" is good ground. Counter interpretations are important on framework and will help me frame your impact turns. To win your impact turns to any argument I think the affirmative should have some mechanism to be able to solve them. Overall, I think it is important for any affirmative to actually solve for something, having a clear explanation starting from the 1AC of how you do that is important, and that explanation should stay consistent throughout the debate.

Framework – I think negative framework arguments against critical affirmatives are strategic and love to listen to thought out arguments about why the resolution is an important form of education. Fairness and ground are also impacts I will vote on and I perceive them as being important claims to win the theory of your argument. I am easily compelled that the negative loses ground when a non-topical affirmative is read, and having a list of what that ground is and why it is important is helpful when evaluating that debate. Even if you don't have cards about the affirmative it is important that you are framing your arguments and impacts in the context of the affirmative. If your FW 2NC has no mention of the affirmative that will be a problem for you. I view topical versions of the affirmative and switch side arguments as an important aspect to win this debate.

Kritiks – As I reached the end of my debate career this is the form of debate I mostly participated in which means I will have a basic understanding of your arguments. My research was more in structural critiques, especially feminism. I have dappled in many other areas of philosophy, but I wouldn’t assume that I know a lot about your Baudrillard K, so if that is your thing explanation is important. If you have an alternative, it is important for you to explain how the alternative functions and resolves your link arguments. I would prefer links specific to the affirmative over generic links. I am not a huge fan of links of omission. You will do better in front of me if you actually explain these arguments rather than reading your generic blocks full speed at me. In method v method debates I think you need to have a clear explanation of how you would like competition to function, the sentence "no permutations in a method debate" doesn't make sense and I think you need to have more warrants to why the permutation cannot function or wouldn't solve.

For affirmatives answering critiques, I believe that impact turns are highly useful in these debates and are generally underutilized by debaters. I don't think permutations need to have net benefits, but view them as just a test of competition. However just saying extend "perm do both" isn't an acceptable extension in the 1AR and 2AR, you should explain how it can shield the links. As for reading framework on the aff against a critique, it will be very hard for you to convince me that a negative team doesn’t get the critique at all, but you can easily win that you should be able to weigh the impacts of the 1AC.

Counterplans – Please slow down on the text of the CP, especially if it is extremely long. I am fine with anything as long as you can defend it and it has a clear net benefit. If I can't explain in my RFD how the counterplan solves majority of the affirmative or its net benefit then i'm probably not going to vote for it, so start the explanation in the block.

Disadvantages – I enjoy a good disad and case debate with lots of comparison and explanation. I would much rather that you explain your arguments instead of reading a bunch of cards and expecting me to fill in the holes by reading all of that evidence, because I probably won’t.

Topicality - I really don't have a strong opinion about what it is and isn't topical and think it is up to you to explain to me why a particular aff makes the topic worse or better. I tend to have a pretty low standard of what it means to be reasonably topical.

Theory - I generally think conditionality is good. Other than that I really don't care what you do just be able to defend your arguments.

Finally, as I becoming older and more grumpy I am getting increasingly annoyed about stealing prep and random down time in between speeches. That doesn't mean you aren't allowed to use the restroom, just be respectful of my time. I will reward time efficiency between speeches with better speakers points. Especially if you can send the email before prep time is over. These are my preferences

--If a speaker marks the speech document and the other team wants the marked document that should happen after CX during prep time. If the other team cannot wait until after CX then they can take prep time to get the cards

--If a speak reads a cards that were not in the speech document and needs to send them out the speaker will take prep time before CX to send out the necessary evidence.

--CX ends when the timer is over. Finish your sentence quickly or take prep time to continue CX

I would like to be on the email chain – misty.tippets9@gmail.com

haydenlw4 [at] gmail. com

Include me in the chain without asking me.

Judge philosophies are terrible to read because they all read the same and aren't true. I will try to make mine as useful as possible by being descriptive of how I think that I differ from the community standards.

Background:

I am the head coach at Bingham HS. I have been involved in high school debate for over a decade. But the fact I am a head coach means that I rarely am actually judging so my flow speed is below average and I will need adjustment at the beginning of rounds. This is true for national circuit debates only. I am still capable of flowing local circuit rounds. This also affects my topic knowledge. I will have some knowledge on the topic but I am thinking about it on a weekly basis not a daily basis.

General

I personally care a lot about politeness. I will start with warnings, then taking tenths of points off speaker points but if the lack of politeness becomes unbearable I will drop the offending team. I will not do any warnings while I am on a panel but I still very much care for politeness.

I try to be a very expressive when I judge. If I'm liking your arguments then I want my face to reflect that so you can adapt on the fly.

DA's

DA and case debates are some of my favorites to judge. I will look first at the link level before the impact level on these debates.

CP's

I am aff biased for cheater cps (consult, process, delay, etc). I try to not buy the negative analysis that "1% risk of a net benefit is a reason to vote neg" for those types of cps. Because of my thoughts on DA's it makes me more willing to vote on perms and defense.

K's

I have less content knowledge of the k's that have become more popular recently. That would be afro-pess and settler colonialism. I will stick to the description of the K that happens in the round. I don't know how poems are arguments. This leads me to barely flow poems.

T

I like T more than most. I think that if you are good at T my threshold is quite low. But I have noticed myself not voting on T because I didn't think that negative did enough smart work. I enjoy TVA's, perms on T, explaining why the aff does not meet their C/I or are not reasonable. The T debate that I am most persuaded by is accurate descriptions of the flaws of the topic and why your interp helps solve the flaws of the topic.

Theory

If I were to construct rules for debate they would include: 2 conditional worlds, no floating piks, aff's/cp's must have a solvency advocate.

K affs vs T-USfg

My historical tendencies (when I was younger) is towards liking K affs. I still love to listen to a fun k aff 1ac that is very topic specific. But I wasn't very active in debate from 2014-2016. The k aff seems to have proliferated in that time. I have been leaning more towards the negatives fairness claims since I returned. I think that the best way to describe my preferences at the moment is that I am in the middle waiting to be convinced in the round. BUT my voting record is currently leaning towards framework.

Prep:

Prep stops when the email is sent or when the flash drive comes out of the computer. I will give grace period because I understand computers are weird sometimes. But if it takes more than a minute to resolve then I will hate you.

Speaker point scale:

29.5+ — the top speaker at the tournament.

29.3-29.4 — one of the five or ten best speakers at the tournament.

29-29.2 — one of the twenty best speakers at the tournament.

28.8-28.9 — a 75th percentile speaker at the tournament; with a winning record, would barely clear on points.

28.6-28.7 — a 50th percentile speaker at the tournament; with a winning record, would not clear on points.

28.2-28.5 — a 25th percentile speaker at the tournament.

27.9-28.1 — a 10th percentile speaker at the tournament.

To help with speaker point inflation I will give .1 speaker point bonuses for things that I want to reward. These rewards will only happen if you explicitly ask me about them immediately after the round and before my rfd.

Rewards for:

-Good flows.

-Good disclosure practices (great cites / full text).

-Making the debate round pleasant (humor or kindness).

-Utah Jazz and stand-up comedian (Kumail Nanjiani, Hannibal Burress, Eugene Mirman, Bo Burnham, and John Mulaney) references are appreciated.