The Debate Prep
Guides

Debate Guides

Everything here is free to read and written from the same material the app teaches with. Start with prep if you are building a case this week, or with flowing if you are losing rounds you thought you won.

Where to start

If you are new to competitive debate, read how to prepare for a debate first, then your format’s page so you know which speech does what. Those two together are enough to walk into a first round knowing what is expected of you.

If you already compete and want to place higher, start with flowing and judging. Most rounds are lost by debaters who argued well but never answered what was actually said, or who won on the flow and lost on weighing — and both of those are fixable in an afternoon.

All guides

How to prepare for a debate

The order to work in: define the motion, build two or three arguments properly, write the case you are arguing against, then say it all out loud before the round.

How to get ready for a debate tournament

A week-by-week plan, a packing list that assumes the venue wifi will fail, and what to do between rounds so you improve across the day rather than just surviving it.

How to flow a debate

Setting up the sheet, the shorthand that lets you keep pace, spotting dropped arguments, and reading a flow down the columns to write your rebuttal.

How judges decide debate rounds

Claim, warrant and impact from the judge’s side of the desk — including the five weighing mechanisms applied to one motion, and why a dropped argument is not automatically a won one.

How to get better at debate

Ten habits that actually move the needle, and the reason more research hours is rarely the one that does.

Debate formats explained

Speech order, speech lengths, prep time, and judging rules for Public Forum and the Public Debate Program family — ESPDP, MSPDP, and HSPDP.

Reading about it only gets you so far

Build cases with AI feedback, flow live rounds, drill speeches on the clock, and practise against an AI opponent. Free to start.