The first week was strictly research. We researched 24 hours in 4 days, and learned lots about Russia, Nuclear Proliferation, Iran Sanctions, Soft Power, Hegemony, etc. Needless to say it was long but extremely fun! During this week we created the Blue Book Lite, compiling all the research we did.
The second week started with Interpretation and Platform, the two areas in the Speech Category. Luke and I learned everything about interp. from characterizing, finding a piece, and picking an interp. category. Speech Training lasted a day and a half, then immediately started into the limited prep category.
Technically the 3 limited prep choices (apologetics, impromptu, and exempt) are under speech. Apologetics consist of a 6 minute speech prepared in 6 minutes about an ethical question (there are 100 questions you could possibly get). Impromptu is a 5 minute speech, prepared in 2 minutes, about almost anything! People have gotten anything from paint chips to quotes etc. Exempt is a 5 minute speech, prepared in 30 minutes, about anything (anything meaning they could ask you to talk about anything) political that’s happened in the last 90 days. I chose not to do Limited Prep, because I know I’m not that great at thinking on the spot, but it turns out any form a debate contains some “Limited Prep”.
Once both Limited Prep and Interpretation/Platform camps were done Debate Camp started. Luke and I did team policy debate, which basically means we debate with a partner. And since we’re going to be partners for the year, it worked out really well. We were so overwhelmed with the knowledge we got from the 1 ½ days of Team Policy lectures! There is so much you need to know and do!
The last 1 ½ days we actually got to debate (called a Round Robin). Though we only won 1 out of 4 rounds it was extremely fun and were learned a ton from that practice!
This year I’ll be doing Team Policy with Luke and either Dramatic Interpretation or Humorous Interpretation though I’m not sure whether I will be doing a duo interpretation or not. In the next years’ I may want to try Impromptu or Apologetics.
Luke will be doing Team Policy and Apologetics this year.
Overall we had a blast at camp and I can’t imagine trying to debate without having first had that experience!
Blessings,
