Ok, I'll admit it

I realized something this weekend: LD debaters are really good at talking fast. Talking fast and being very very clear. This is sort of hard to quantify, but I think that in terms of "information per unit of time," the average high level LD debater kicks the stuffing out of the average high level policy debater.

Admit it, folks. We've been beat at our own game. You should be ashamed.

I've been working on a little theory here. It's still in it's infancy, but it goes a little something like this:

how to get fast and win rounds:
1. get very clear: Over enunciate every syllable, hit every consonant and stretch out the vowels a little
2. get dynamic: People are easier to understand when they use dynamics. Vary the volume, pitch, length of pauses. Better yet, use your dynamics to emphasize the important bits of what you are reading
3. get rhythm: this one is a little hard to quantify, but the best debaters have a natural rhythm while making arguments. You need to find your inner metronome
4. get fast: once you've got all that, then you can turn up the tempo knobs. But try to force the fast before you've got all the other stuff down and you just make yourself hard to hear (and by consequence actually convey less information per unit of time)

LD debaters seem to have this down. Policy debaters less so.