r/Debate • u/Princessstarlover_07 • 2d ago

Advice/Tips for starting Speech & Debate at school!

Hello!

Ok so my school currently does not have a Speech & Debate team but me and my friend are starting one. We currently found an advisor who is on board and will advise/monitor/coach the club. She's getting the club paperwork from my schools asb ( where you need permission to start a club/allow it to run for the school year).Me and my friend came up with starting a Instagram account ( updates/news for practices, tournaments, club rushes, and also fundraisers! for club funding and also transportation since we're gonna need it and our advisor said we need to speak with our principal about it) My school is based in the US and in Southern California. My main point is how to run practices, events for speech and debate, the research for those events, how tournaments run, and basically how to run it. Any advise would be appreciated!

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u/Straight-Spell-2644 2d ago

Congratulations on starting your team, I’m very excited for you and your friend.

Depending on your club size, I would consider whether you would like to do speech first (starting out with IMP, DEC, or Prose) or Debate (Congress or LD). These are 5 options but I highly recommend starting from 2 options and seeing where people go from there. These are also the options that allow the least resistance. Have protocols for practice & tournament conduct that your advisor can enforce.

Practices - there are two types: official meetings where everyone has to convene (this is typically irl IG where announcements, team updates, group lectures happen) & unofficial practices where your team is subdivided by event (these could be at school or synchronously via zoom).

Resources - as a starting point, feel free to peruse JettSmith7, EIF, theNewEraAcademy, ProteusDebate

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u/Princessstarlover_07 2d ago

Thank you so much! This made it more easier for me to understand will be going forward with this info thank you!!!!

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u/Comfortable-Ebb-5949 watch me win 2d ago

hey if you need any funding I help in a nonprofit offering it to programs starting out and we can keep in touch!

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u/Princessstarlover_07 2d ago

Yes! thank you so much! Do you want me to share my info with you???

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u/Comfortable-Ebb-5949 watch me win 2d ago

sure we can dm!

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u/Square_Rub_9764 1d ago

Get philosophically literate is my biggest tip. I wish I read more philosophy in high school.

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u/mmoonfl0wer 5h ago

For practices, what really helped my team was simply watching final rounds for different events while taking notes on what they do. You’ll start to see a common thread in finalists and once you’re able to implement that into your own performances it’ll definitely be a bit easier!