🎙️ Speaking Well

The basics

• Pace: fast enough to fit your speech, slow enough for your judge to write it down. Slow down for taglines and the most important lines.
• Volume: speak to the back of the room. A soft voice sounds unsure even when the argument is strong.
• Clarity: finish your words, especially the ends of sentences.
• Pauses: a one-second pause before a key point makes the judge look up. Pauses also replace “um” and “like.”
• Eye contact: look at the judge, not at your opponent and not only at your notes. Glance down, then up, then speak.
• Stance: stand still on both feet, hands free to gesture naturally. Pacing and swaying pull attention from your words.

Speaking from notes

Read your first case if you need to, but practice it until you can look up for most of it. For rebuttals, work from your flow and short notes, never a full script: you can’t script answers to arguments you haven’t heard yet. Number your points on the page so you always know where you are.

Nerves

Almost everyone is nervous before a speech, including experienced debaters. A few things help:

• Practice out loud, several times, standing up, with a timer. Practicing silently in your head doesn’t prepare your voice.
• Know your first two sentences cold. Once you’ve started, it gets easier.
• Breathe slowly while you wait, and take one breath before you begin.
• Look for friendly faces: a judge who nods, a teammate.
• Expect mistakes and keep going. If you lose your place, pause, look at your notes and pick up at the next point. The judge rarely notices as much as you think.

A word about speed

In some national-circuit policy and Lincoln-Douglas rounds, debaters speak very fast (“spreading”) to fit in more arguments, and some judges accept it. Many judges, especially at local, state and homeschool tournaments, don’t. Ask your judge’s preferences (many post a “paradigm” online) and adapt. Clarity first: an argument the judge didn’t hear doesn’t count.

Practice drills

• Read aloud from a newspaper for two minutes a day, with expression.
• Tongue twisters: say “red leather, yellow leather” or “unique New York” five times, slowly and then faster, keeping every sound crisp.
• Mirror or phone video: record a one-minute speech; watch it once with sound off (for gestures and eye contact) and once with eyes closed (for pace and voice).
• Pause practice: give a speech where you must pause instead of saying “um”; have a friend tap the table each time you say it.