Strategy

What does it mean to be great at parli?

A great debater is erudite.  A good debater has a wealth of knowledge about the world, enough that they rarely find themselves stumped.

A great debater is technically classy.  Fast delivery, crisp articulation, an economical and efficient way with words, and a clean flow are the hallmarks of the technically classy debater. 

And finally, a great debater is strategic.

It's this last part that this post, and for the most part this blog, will focus on.  The other two elements of the triad are aspects of debate that you, the debater, will have to work on yourself.  If you want to become more erudite - read.  And then read some more.  At times we'll compare ways of increasing your knowledge base to find the most efficient, but for the most part your knowledge base is your own problem.

Similarly, you won't be able to become technically classy overnight. It takes practice to be able to flow high-level rounds, just as it takes practice to argue at a high rate of speed without verbal crutches.  We'll talk some methods for getting faster, and for understanding high rates of speed, but that won't be our primary focus.

So what about strategy?

Strategy encompasses a number of things that most debaters (and debate coaches) treat as isolated concepts - argument comparison, collapsing, round vision, etc.  But strategy is bigger than any one or two of these things.

I like to use Sebastian Marshall's definition of strategy: Strategy is simply doing things for reasons.  In the context of debate, the perfectly strategic speech is one in which the debater has a reason for making every single argument that they make.

You might say "well, that sounds easy - I already do have a reason for every argument that I make - because it's the best argument I can think of at the time!"  Not good enough.  The fact than an argument is good is a necessary, but not sufficient, justification for saying that argument in the debate.  If you ask a strategic debater why they made an argument, they will be able to explain why they thought that argument would help them win the debate round.

Too many debaters just make arguments - as fast as they can, as fast as they can think of them.  Stop doing that.  Make arguments for reasons.  Be strategic.