I am as close to "tabula rasa" as possible... I will not interject my knowledge or opinions into the round, but that means it has to actually be stated in the round. I appreciate a line-by-line debate, but a dropped argument isn't necessarily a slam-dunk win without a compelling summary or weighing of the round. Give me voters, give me a reason to vote for you in your final speeches.

I was a policy debater 20+ years ago, and I currently coach at Warner Robins High School. In the past few years, I have judged all levels of LD and PF. I judge debate or IEs depending on our team's judging needs per tournament. I can follow speed if you are clear, and I appreciate an enunciated or emphasized tag or argument. I'm too pragmatic to enjoy philosophy - I can follow it, and I will vote on it, but you need to make sure to explain why I should vote on it.

I'll keep the official time for the round, but I love to hear competitors say they'll keep their own time.

One last thing, be nice to one another... I won't necessarily vote on your behavior or sportsmanship with your opponent, but poor attitudes and lack of respect for others can have a negative impact on your speaker points.

Good luck!

I am an ELA teacher and an assistant coach participating in Speech & Debate for the first time. As such, I am still learning many of the more technical aspects of speech & debate; when I am judging, you would do well to consider me more as a lay-person than an expert. That being said, my background in ELA makes me very familiar with argumentative structure and I tend to view arguments through that lens. I am less interested in your technical prowess and more interested in straightforward, philosophically-minded argumentation.

He/They

Valdosta '20

Princeton '24

I did LD Debate for 4 years, clearing at multiple national circuit tournaments, and now compete on Princeton's Parliamentary Debate Team.

Add me to the email chain: amkang@princeton.edu

Quick Prefs (I feel comfortable judging any form of argumentation, a 1 just means that I have more experience with the argument at hand)

Larp - 1

K/Theory - 1

Lay - 1

Phil - 3

Tricks - 2

Important

1] Weighing wins rounds.

2] I will disclose speaker points.

3] I won't call slow/clear, it's your burden to be presentable within round.

4] No need to show mercy to lay debaters, I never would have considered circuit style debate if AE hasn't run a non-t aff against me at GFCA state freshmen year.

5] Persuasion, especially in rebuttal speeches is important.

6] Do not assume I know everything about your literature base because I probably don't - i.e. afropess kritiks should have a clear explanation of what ontology is.

Musings

1] I think disclosure is good.

2] Debate is intrinsically valuable, but the topic isn't necessarily valuable.

3] Strategic underviews make me very happy.

4] Not reading off a doc/engaging with the specificities of your opponents case instead of reading pre-written responses is very admirable and will show in your speaker points.

Update for judging: Been out of debate for a while now, learning the topic lit as I go. This means be clearer on args for evidence or stuff like acronyms. Don't make the mistake of thinking I know what you know. That being said, if you're gonna spread start slower than normal and don't max yourself out.

Note for Online: Try and use a good mic if you can, and slow down on analytics. Send an email chain anyways (jaypatel26687@gmail.com)

I've done both national circuit and traditional debate, so I'm cool with either style. That being said, I do like circuit debate more. Be accommodating plz and don't be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. because that's bad and I will talk to your coach.

I'm cool with anything, run what you want and make arguments that you want to make. I try to be as tabula rasa as possible and on that note, I won't do work for you. If the argument is important, address it as such, if [x] is critical, tell me why. Impact and warrant out arguments, far too many debaters aren't doing this. AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WEIGH BETWEEN ARGS. Other than that, if you have specific questions ask me in round and I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Quick list of what debate I'm good at judging:

1 - LARP/Trad

2 - K (like the generics (i.e cap, biopower, fem, etc...))

3 - Theory/T (Run it if you want, but just know the more frivolous it is, the more I'll lower my threshold for responses)

4 - K (the less known ones are fine, but you're gonna have to explain the warrants and links a lot more and I mean A LOT more, if I can't understand the K or its implications in round, I won't vote on it. I don't want to discourage you from it, but be wary.)

5 - Trix (I've run them and I know what they are and can evaluate them, I just don't like to)

How to get high speaks:

Be clear, be funny (work in a good South Park reference and I'll add a point)

"If you are clearly better than your opponent and it is obvious that you are winning the round, please, dear lord, do not use all of your speech time just because you have the time- win the round and sit down so we can have a discussion and make it more educational than just you repeating conceded arguments for 13 minutes." ~ Stephen Scopa

How to get low speaks:

Be a dick

The Long Version (written while I had absolutely many, many better things to do)

Trad

- Unless you have some weird framework links/implications 99% of trad rounds end with util v util frameworks where far too much time is spent. If you realize you have the same or even similar framework as your opponent, it's fine to drop a framework. I feel like people don't really know this, but it saves time for you.

- Substance > V/VC Debate

LARP

- CPs, ADV/DAs, Plans, PICs, etc. this is my bread and butter and what I used to do a lot of while I debated.

- These rounds are won with good evidence AND good analysis, one will not cover for the other, but that being said Evidence > Analytics

- WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH WEIGH

- Be smart in your rebuttals, proper time allocation and a good collapse are key

- I'll listen to impact turns, use them well

Kritiks

- I'll likely have some familiarity with the lit base (refer to the examples above) but don't assume I know everything. It's your job to make things clear for me. If I can't understand it, I won't vote on it

- Contextualize the links to the aff, generic stuff like "state bad" isn't horrible, but just put the effort in and find a specific link

- ROB v FW weighing is super important here, win this you'll probably win the round

Theory/T

- Defaults: Competing interps, drop the debater, rvis, fairness and education are voters

- The more frivolous the shell, the lower my bar for responses (imo just use a good reasonability dump and the shell should lose every time)

- Send counter interps/interps, and slow down for standard names

- Do some standard weighing please

- Paragraph theory is lame :(

Trix

- Ehhhh..... I don't want to judge this, but I will if I have to

- Make sure all your stuff is delineated and just admit to what you're doing (it's easier on all of us) instead of being shifty is cross

- Extensions are gonna have to be really good, explain the implication of x spike in the speech and make sure you're slow enough that I can flow it