Tips on how to become a better speaker?
Do rebuttal re-dos and extension drills. Work on getting to the point quickly and moving on quickly. This is less about speaking quickly and more about word economy. The quicker you get at defending and extending your case, the more time you have to deal with their case
All phones have voice recorders now. Record yourself. listen to what your rebuttals sound like. You’re going to be your harshest critic.
WEIGH VOTING ISSUES IF YOU’RE THE AFF. Compare your voters to their voters, weigh them against the standard/value/whatever.
Have logical organization to your speeches. Identify what the important issues are, and explain them away.
A great debater can take things at more than face value. What an argument says and what it means are closely related, but not identical. Know when to group responses to arguments that basically say the same thing. Be able to boil an opponents case down to a few central ideas: once you do that, you can attack those ideas.
A wise trial lawyer once described litigation strategy as “go for the jugular”. If it isn’t important, don’t waste time attacking it. (but do say why the judge can dismiss it as unimportant)
