Persisting - 6 Tips to Make the Most Out of Novice Year
By Hannah Messaye, HW ‘23
Hi New Novices! As a former novice myself, I’ve had first-hand experience of how difficult novice year can be, so I decided to provide a few tips to help you make the most out of your novice year and learn as much as possible while still having fun.
Make it a habit to prep a little each day
I know at Harvard-Westlake at least, novice practices are usually only once a week for 1.5 hours, which isn’t a lot of time for your personal improvement. For most sports, you need to spend at least 100 hours practicing, and the same goes for debate.
Of course, I'm not saying to spend every waking moment doing debate in your novice year, but after you finish homework each night, instead of immediately jumping on Netflix, maybe take 20-30 minutes doing speaking drills or cutting cards—it can really make all the difference. After all, Coach Jasmine likes to say “20 minutes of speaking drills a day keeps the 28’s away.”
2. Watch general debate videos and debate recordings
Instructional debate videos—especially in our current online environment—can be a great resource for learning the nuances of circuit debate, especially if you don't have any varsity members on your team. A few resources include the Go Fight Win! Novice Debate YouTube channel, University of Kentucky’s playlist titled “Introduction to Debate”, and Dartmouth Debate Institute Camp Videos from the summer that they made publicly accessible.
These happen to be aimed at Policy Debate, which means the speech times and some strategic choices are different than Lincoln-Douglas Debate, but circuit debate is similar enough in both of these divisions that they can still be really useful for novice LDers. And of course, not to be too much of a plug, but our very own GirlsDebate articles also have a lot of debate advice.
Furthermore, watching and flowing online recordings of debates can be really helpful for developing your ability to comprehend spreading and improving your flowing skills. As an added benefit, you can learn how successful varsity debaters succinctly explain arguments in the 1AR, 2NR, and 2AR.
You can also try to “be the judge” and try to come up with your own decision on who won the debate and compare your reasoning with the actual RFD that the judge ends up giving to see where you differ in opinion with the judge.
Then, you can give a rebuttal redos of one of the speeches in the recording that you think could have been improved upon to flip the final decision. To make it even more challenging, you can practice giving the speeches in less time, like doing the 2NR in 5 minutes so that you can be certain that you are being as efficient as possible.
3. Do full debates as much as possible
Of course, it would be horrible if you did all your preparation but then succumbed to stage fright on tournament day. Even if you seriously feel underprepared, it’s incredibly helpful to do a practice debate so you can experience what it’s like to think on your feet, answer cross-examination questions, and identify your strengths and weaknesses. It’s okay to mess up in a practice debate—it’s meant to be a practice, after all, so you can avoid those mistakes at a tournament.
Afterward a practice debate, take notes on the feedback you get from whoever is judging, and ask questions about parts of the debate you felt could have been executed better. Then, do rebuttal redos so you can internalize the best version of the speech and feel more confident when you encounter similar arguments in the future.
4. Keep up with your team's communication platform.
Even if you don’t have a tournament that weekend, it is vitally important in novice year to stay updated.
Your team's communication platform (whether that be Slack, Discord, Google Classroom, etc) is a great space to ask for help, chat with teammates, and find files. Especially because you will absorb so much new information in novice year, communication is key to ensure you understand everything that is being taught, whether that comes in the form of practice drills or slideshows.
Personally, I joined novice year 3 months late because I participated in a fall sport, but luckily I was still prepared because I checked Slack often, read files, and reviewed slideshows.
5. Don't be afraid to ask for help!
This probably seems like a given; however, it’s worth reiterating that your coach is there to help you learn and get as much out of debate as you can, so don't be afraid to ask questions during lectures or at tournaments when you don't know what is going on or what to do. No question is “stupid” or “too basic”—with the world as your oyster, ask for help anytime and every time.
However, coaches might be busy at tournaments preparing other novices and varsity members, in which case if you have older teammates, you should definitely ask them if you are confused about a position that someone is reading.
6. Stay informed on current events
Often, debate topics are picked by the topic committee to be applicable to current events, so staying informed on domestic and international issues can help you develop a holistic understanding about the background information for the topic. If you have no idea what is happening in the current economic and geopolitical sphere, you might be at a disadvantage from spending more time doing background research when the topic first comes out.
Moreover, knowing how the current topic fits into the bigger picture of society can make the knowledge you gain from debate more applicable to your daily life.
Happy debating, and you are going to have a great novice year!