Background: I am a physician and also the head coach of a Speech and Debate team. I was a former high school policy debater, but that does not mean I like spreading or progressive arguments. I'm a dinosaur. See below.

PF

General: The team that is able to support their offense with strong logic and good evidence while having effective defense against their opponents' case will win the round. Duh.

Speed: I am okay with some speed. You will see me flowing during the round, but this is a no spread zone.

Cases: I like strong links to your impacts, which is why I usually find stock arguments to be the strongest. However, I also like squirrels, but only if your links are convincing. I don't believe in tabula rasa judging. If something doesn't make sense or the link is weak, I will be less likely to vote on it. I am a judge after all and that's what I get paid the big bucks to do. Actually, I don't get paid, but if I did get paid, I'm sure it would be big bucks.

Progressive arguments: Please, for all that is good in the world, do not bring progressive LD nonsense into PF. OK? PF is the last bastion of debate purity left. My ROB is to drop progressive arguments and don't try to RVI me.

Crossfire: Be courteous. If someone is trying to be a time hog, I am okay with polite interruption. I sometimes vote on something that comes up in CF, but you should mention it in your speeches if you want me to not forget. Word to the wise: I've dropped many debaters because CF sometimes reveals their lack of knowledge and/or incoherent warranting. That's why I will flow CF.

2nd Rebuttal: You should probably start frontlining now. Starting frontlines in 2nd Summary is a little late in the round and puts too much of a burden on the 1st FF to backline for the first time. Luckily this is a rarity in PF.

Summary: You should extend all offense and defense. I don't believe in sticky defense. If you don't extend in Summary, don't expect me to vote on it if it suddenly shows up in FF. You should start weighing in Summary. In fact, you could start weighing in rebuttals. Don't wait until FF. For Rebuttal, Summary, and FF, please give me logical warrants beyond just reading the cards. In other words, explain the card with logical analysis. I frown on debaters who rely solely on card reading.

Grand CF: This should have balanced involvement of all debaters.

FF: When rounds are close, I will use the FF to write my RFD, so I hope you are a good writer. Weigh impacts, cases, links, evidence. Metaweigh if needed, although I often find metaweighing too subjective unless you can convince me that you outweigh on prereqs. Make sure to extend at least your most important if not all offense. I'm fine if you drop a contention and collapse on one or two, but be careful. I have dropped debaters because they chose the wrong contention to drop (it was actually their best offense).Offense is what wins rounds. But to make sure your offense is better than your opponent's offense, your defense better be legit. It doesn't matter to me when you weigh and give voters...after each issue or at the end...it's up to you.

Evidence ethics: I HATE power cutting where you pull single words from one sentence and attach to a single word two sentences later and think that is a legit way to cut. If the two sentences are logically linked, then okay. But most power cut cards are atrocious. They often end up being straw arguments or horribly paraphrased. I won't necessarily call for a card myself. This is where I need teams to be proactive. If you suspect bad evidence, call for it in round. Call it out in your speech and request that I look at it at the end of the round.

Calling cards: Yes, include me on an email chain when sharing evidence. When requesting evidence, I will consider prep time to begin once the evidence is received. Please announce when that happens and that you are taking prep. Don't be sneaky.

LD

Although I am a former policy debater, I am not a fan of Kritiks, Theory Shells or ROBs. I prefer debate on the substance of the resolution. So in that respect I consider myself more of a traditional LD judge. However, I am okay with plans and CPs because that totally appeals to my policy debate background. However, if you run a plan or CP, make sure you check the boxes on solvency, topicality, uniqueness, and inherency. Even if your opponent doesn't identify all the problems with your plan/CP, I won't be able to weigh your impacts if I don't believe that your plan is going to get you there.

Please don't just read cards. This is a definite problem I've noticed with progressive debaters trying to adapt to a traditional round. You need to give me some solid warranting so I can effectively weigh your arguments and also so I know you know what you are talking about.

In terms of framework, I will go with whoever makes the best case for theirs. But what I've often found is that the contention level debate ends up fitting many frameworks, so it really comes down to your arguments. However, if you go all in on something like util, make sure you have some terminal impacts for me to see exactly how you benefit the majority or maximize pleasure/minimize pain.

Crystallization and more extensive analytics and voters in the 2AR and 2NR is helpful, especially when the round gets muddy. I don't care as much if you drop an opponent's argument as long as that argument is not effective offense.

I don't believe in tabula rasa judging. If I did, then we could use computers to determine the winner of a round and we wouldn't need human judges. So I WILL cast my own opinion on an argument if I think it makes zero sense or is not well warranted. After all, I am a judge and that's my job. I am going to judge your arguments on their merits. I will extend a solid argument unless your opponent applies some good defense or turns.

I am not a fan of spreading. I am okay with some speed, but if I can't understand you, then it is not going on the flow. Even if I get your case via email, I'm not going to be reading it while you spread. This is a verbal activity and, therefore, I will only flow things that are verbally communicated and what I can hear and understand.

At the end of the day, I'm going to give the win to whoever I think had the most offense at the end of the round.

World Schools

I will judge based on traditional World Schools debating i.e. proper terminology, appropriate use of POIs, persuasive style and rhetoric, good logic and argumentation, and most importantly examples and statistics from around the world if appropriate. You will not win if you try to debate using PF or LD technical arguments, squirreling, or spreading. Do not try to burden opponents with limiting definitions or frameworks.