Areas of Practice

Prep + Research

Success in Public Forum debate can largely be determined by what debaters do in terms of research and prep leading into the tournament. Having well constructed blocks to important arguments, having multiple comfortable cases to avoid prep-outs, and exploring unique arguments teams aren’t thinking about is all a key part of the process. As a coach, Praveen is eager to help teams build out areas of their prep by finding evidence, discussing case/block strategies, and most importantly maintaining an organized structure for research that serves success on each topic.


Strategy

Just as important as pre-round prep, knowing what strategies can work to win a debate round are just as important. This means, knowing how to collapse to the right arguments, how to allocate time effectively in later speeches, and weighing the arguments effectively to convince your judge at the end of the round. Praveen will help teams craft these strategies, explore multiple pathways to the ballot, and identify the most promising areas for success.


Judging

Every debater that is successful takes practice debates extremely seriously. Testing cases, strategies, and even specific blocks are important to seeing the weaknesses and strengths in your arguments. Praveen offers judging practice debates, giving in depth feedback following the round along with proctoring speech redo’s upon debaters’ request.


Topic Education

It’s no coincidence that the best debaters are usually the ones that know the most on a given topic. Knowing the exact details of the resolution, the relevant actors, the key factors at stake, are all important not just for argument creation but for topic knowledge that will carry you through rounds in the face of unfamiliar arguments. Praveen will provide topic based discussions, help debaters look into the relevant nuances of the resolution, and keep teams aware of important developments in any given topic.

Theory and Ks

While Praveen didn’t debate theory or Ks in high school debate, his experience in collegiate Varsity Policy Debate exposed him to K debate, particularly Cap K, Security K, Anti Blackness K, and more. If you are interested in exploring more technical theory arguments or focus on being a K debater, Praveen would love to help you execute on that vision.

Tournament Judging

Upon request, Praveen is willing to travel with teams for weekends that judging is needed. Compensation details can be discussed but the goal is to stay alongside teams that are competing and helping them pre-round come up with great strategies following disclosure. This is also an effort to be alongside Praveen’s students as a mentor, a companion, and a support force while navigating the stress that any debate tournament can bring on people. Travel will likely be feasible only for east coast tournaments.

Drills and Feedback

A lot of debate comes down to routine practice. Want to speak faster? Want to improve word economy? Want to weigh impacts the best way? It all comes down to practice and there are drills to improve everything. Praveen was never privately coached himself or attended debate camp so much of his learning came from self crafted drills based on what he observed other great debaters did. He would love to share these strategies with his students to improve their weaknesses and make them reach competitive heights they are capable of obtaining.