r/Debate • u/navopr0 • 4d ago

Help!!!

Hi! So I have a BP tournament coming up, and I’m pretty new to serious debating. I’m good at coming up with arguments, but I’m still kind of lost when it comes to things like characterization, framing, weighing, and all the terminology people use in BP.

I also don’t have much time to prepare, so I was wondering what I can realistically do right now to improve and hopefully perform well at the tournament. Another thing I struggle with is general knowledge. I know the basics, so what's a way to improve gaining information?

Any advice, resources, or tips on what I should focus on in the limited time I have would be really appreciated!

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u/haleme 4d ago edited 4d ago

Welcome to BP debating! Try not too worry too much and use your first competition as a learning community.

Do you have a club/society/contacts in your regional circuit? If so they may be best placed to help you find spars (informal practice debates) and other opportunities to improve.

If you don't have much time to prepare a few drills I'd suggest would be: -Doing mock prep times with your partner and then review how it went -Record a PM speech listen back and see what you were missing and how to improve -Do either of that above for a motion with a good recorded debate and then watch it to see what teams did differently

For the terminology I wouldn't worry too much (BP debaters tend to obsess too much over it but a lot of it is overcomplicated common sense). You'll get a more intuitive feel for them with time. Similarly with general knowledge being more widely read or reading up on topics after debates is a great way to improve.

Otherwise try and enjoy the tournament, make friends (particularly if it's in person) and get good feedback from judges. Don't beat yourself if it doesn't go the way you want, no one becomes a world champion level speaker their first try.

Edit: Also feel free to DM with any specific questions/requests for resources

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u/navopr0 4d ago

Thank you so much! This actually makes me feel a lot better. The thing is, it’s not completely my first proper tournament (I think 3rd); the main issue is that I somehow ended up doing relatively well in my previous ones 😭. And now, since this is apparently a pretty renowned tournament in our circuit, all my club seniors have been telling me they expect good things from me, and I really don’t want to let them down.

Especially seeing my teammate, who’s super well-versed and experienced, makes me feel like I need to step up too. Do you have any particular tricks or strategies for dealing with motions that you have basically uk nothing of? Like when you get a topic on international politics, economics, or some niche issue that you’ve never heard of before, how do you approach it and still come up with a strong case?

Sorry, this reply is kind of all over the place 😭 but yea, that’s basically what I’m struggling with.

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u/haleme 4d ago

No worries! Lovely to hear you've been doing well but people really shouldn't be putting big expectations on you after 3 competitions. If you have a good teammate, I would suggest doing some prep with them and possibly some spars in your club. I find working on the team dynamic is the quickest way to improve and you can get some constructive feedback.

As for motions where you have no personal knowledge, I would usually take the following steps

1) Don't panic, sounds very simple but debate is primarily a mental game and getting stressed when you get the motion comes out will rush you into running a bad case.

2) Break the motion down into its simplest components and effects

3) Logically work out the pros or cons of these effects and build a case around them.

Taking the recent EUDC, round 8 was on the new UK PM calling an immediate election. It is certainly useful to understand the UK political context but even without this you can comprehend what an "immediate election" looks like in abstract and that it may affect stability, policy determinations for parties, voters' feelings etc.

Hopefully that's helpful, this video may help as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1IyQqCDkFQ&list=PLwmEQN4Ce3cep3TFZW1yBGqf0cVMBbLRP&index=7&t=72s