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★Getting Started

What this site is, how the curriculum works, and why none of it costs anything.

Changing Your Mindset

You're going to lose half your rounds. That's normal. This lesson is about how to handle it — and why it matters.

Using This Course

How to actually get better at debate on your own, without a coach hovering over you.

Linear Flow

The most important lesson on this site. If your arguments don't have this structure, nothing else matters.

How to Generate an Argument

You're staring at a motion and your mind is blank. Here's a systematic way to fix that.

Introduction to Refutation

Two ways to take apart someone's argument: show it isn't true, or show it doesn't matter.

Identifying and Structuring Rebuttal

How to actually deliver rebuttal in a speech — the listening, the note-taking, and the words.

Comparative Refutation

The skill that wins close rounds. If you only read one Advanced lesson, make it this one.

How to Weigh

What do you do when the other side's argument is actually good? This.

The End.

Pulling everything together and figuring out what to focus on next.

Prioritizing Arguments During Prep Time

You have 15 minutes and six ideas. Here's how to figure out which two are worth your time.

Counterfactual Analysis

Before you argue for change, you need to understand what happens without it. Almost nobody does this well.

How to Win Weighing Debates

You can make great arguments and still lose if the other team weighs better. This fixes that.

How to Frame a Debate

The team that frames the debate usually wins it. This is how you become that team.

How to Debate Cultural Narrative Motions

The motions that start with 'This House Prefers' or 'This House Opposes' have their own logic. Most people get it wrong.

How to Debate International Relations Motions

IR motions sound intimidating until you realize they all come down to about four moving parts.

How to Debate Policy and Economics Motions

Policy motions require you to be specific about how things actually work. Here's a way to do that without an economics degree.

How to Debate Social and Identity Motions

If you argue a social justice motion the same way you'd argue an economics one, you're going to lose. Here's why.

How to Give Great Whip Speeches

Everyone thinks the whip is a summary speech. It isn't. Here's what it actually is.

How to Build a Matterfile

The habit that separates people who plateau from people who keep improving between tournaments.

How to Find an Extension

You're in closing half and opening already said everything obvious. Now what?

What Judges Actually Do

Most debaters have no idea what's happening on the other side of the table. This lesson fixes that.

How to Flow a Debate Round

If you can't reconstruct the round from your notes, your notes aren't good enough. Here's a system that works.

How to Give an Oral Adjudication

Making the right call matters. Explaining it so the debaters actually learn something matters just as much.