Buildacase

Tools

• Pen and paper > Laptop
  • I recommend pen and paper. I find novices don’t think on their feet as much when they use laptops instead of pen and paper. They get attached to the screen, they are able to copy and paste from matterfiles, access ChatGPT, etc.
  • Obviously, there are distinct advantages to using a laptop. They allow debaters to type arguments out faster, share information more succinctly with their partner, easily re-use old arguments they already have written down, etc.
  • If you need an accessibility accommodation during tournaments to use a laptop or struggle with pen and paper for any reason, please feel free to use a laptop. For everyone else, please try Lesson 1 with pen and paper.
    
• A folder (either physical or on Google Docs)
  • Part of this course asks you to write down arguments run by other debaters in Youtube rounds. Having a folder where you save your favourite arguments or common arguments is common among debaters.
• 30 to 60 minutes of free-time, three times a week.
  
• This glossary of common BP debate terminology. Command+F search this when you get confused about phrases or terms in the lessons. Please note, I do not own or update that spreadsheet. But it is a very helpful resource regardless.

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How to utilize the drills/practice suggestions

Buildacase is meant to build your debating muscles by giving you a mental workout.

• In the gym, you would not try to lift weights that are too heavy for you, you would not try to do a headstand if you could not do a modified pushup.
• Similarly, if you want the best experience in this course, you will follow the instructions, even if it feels slow.
• It is meant to be slow because it takes time for concepts to sink in. If you rush through the course, you will just be wasting your time. If you don’t have the patience to do the course methodically, this is not the course for you — be warned.

Instructions:

1. Start at Lesson 1-1.
2. Read Lesson 1-1, and take notes on the content in your own words.
3. Complete Lesson 1-1’s drills/recommended practice.
4. Repeat for Lesson 1-2 and 1-3.
5. Do each of Lesson 1’s drills 10-14 times total over the course of 2-3 weeks, once every 2-3 days. Do not move onto Lesson 2 for at least two weeks.

Note 1: You should be practicing the exercises in Lesson 1 for at least 2-3 weeks, once every few days. You should do at least 10-14 preps SPREAD OUT OVER MANY DAYS, because our brain needs prolonged exposure to absorb skills into our longterm cognitive and motor ‘library’ (This is why when you cram the night before an exam, you forget the material a few days/weeks later). Practice self control, and do not move on until you have gotten a good foothold on Lesson 1’s concept: linear flow and generating arguments. If you move on too early, you will hinder your own practice.

Note 2: Do not freak out about aspects that you are not training at this moment. Ie. If the video’s Prime Minister speech gives three arguments but you only give one, focus on making the first argument robust (without obvious gaps and generally believable) and then note down the other arguments afterward.

Note 3: Do not aim for perfect understanding when reading each lesson! It’s okay to be confused! Many debaters are perfectionist by nature, but please. Perfection is what the drills, practice assignments, and the community Facebook page is for.

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Warm-ups

So you’ve reached the point at which you’ve had a lesson marked as complete. What now? Are we done with those exercises forever?

Hah! As if you’d be so lucky. No, those exercises aren’t going away any time soon.

Whenever we complete a lesson or challenge, the exercises from that lesson goes into a “pool” of warmup exercises, and at the beginning of each sitting, we randomly pick 2 or 3 of those exercises to do for 10-15 minutes. This allows us to continue sharpening those skills, and helps us keep them sharp as we continue to move forwards. After all, when we’ve had a lesson marked complete, that doesn’t mean we’ve mastered the exercise. It’s merely a confirmation that we’re headed in the right direction with them, and that we understand what we’re meant to be aiming for.

Warmups are incredibly important – to the point that if you decide that you’re going to take a break from Buildacase, you should still try to keep up with your warmups. 10-15 minutes per day (or every other day, etc.) is not too much, but it’ll keep you from getting rusty in the interim.

Keep in mind that in that 10-15 minutes, you don’t need to do a whole session of the given exercise – you merely do what you can in that time period. You can also choose to spread a page across multiple sittings, picking the same exercise across a few sittings until the page is done. All that matters is that you continue practicing regularly, and that none of the exercises get abandoned.

Warm-ups are great to do before Round 1 of a tournament as well 🙂 They will get your brain ready to debate!

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But I’d rather just practice by doing a debate round!

If you want to practice a specific speech, like a whip, then I would question your priorities as a novice. Practicing role fulfillment and the nuances of specific speeches instead of practicing constructing logically flowing arguments, mitigating and refuting, weighing, etc. is like focusing on making the icing of a cake rather than the cake batter. The fun tips and tricks and positions only become relevant to your performance once you reach a certain level of mastery over the basics.

• If you want to practice a specific skill like constructing a positive argument or refutation, you can just open a high-level debate round recorded online, prep a side, give a speech, and then compare yourself to the top debaters in that recording (not necessarily in this order). This takes only a few minutes to set up, whereas a seminar or practice round could take upwards of an hour for you to get the same amount of practice. Also consider in a club setting you are focusing on socializing, making sure your partner doesn’t hate you, maybe flirting with someone, etc. All these things are irrelevant to your debate skills 😦

1. In the same way that, in the gym, you need to hit a certain amount of reps over a certain amount of sets to tear and rebuild muscle, debating requires you that same intensity to drill in the basics. Waiting an entire round to give a speech is the single least intense form of training.

But Matt, this does not sound very fun. Yes, this isn’t a particularly fun way to approach debating, because it requires self regulation and consistency. But I would ask you to consider two things:

1. For some people, the payoff of becoming a good debater quickly makes it fun. Giving a funny but compelling speech in a room full of people, breaking at majors, making new friends in strong rooms at tournaments, being invited and paid to travel the world to participate in debate events. These things are very fun (well, at least they are to me), so putting in the work here seems like a minor struggle for a lot of fun.
2. Instead of being anxious reading this, I hope it fills you with determination (●ㅂ●). Almost all of the power is in your hands to become a better debater. It could be relieving that your success does not have to be contingent upon the club. Inevitably, since the club is so large and has so many events, sometimes you will be rejected when asking someone to partner, sometimes you will not get picked to attend a tournament, sometimes you will drop in a qual, or sometimes you will feel excluded and resentful when a pro does not debate with you. Despite these obstacles, if you train effectively, you can overcome almost all of them. And everyone can become better! It is not a matter of innate aptitude, it is merely a function of time and energy. I truly believe if you follow the advice in these documents, you have a 100% chance of becoming a better debater.
   1. (Obviously, inversely, I am not saying we should blame people when they do not succeed, or we should ignore or diminish the impact of the structural barriers preventing certain groups of debaters from succeeding. I am merely pointing out, despite all of these things, individuals can exercise a certain level of autonomy and take things into their own hands if they wish to do so.)

In the next lesson, let’s begin learning about how to effectively structure a debate argument.

Next Lesson: Lesson 1-1: Linear Flow