WHAT TO EXPECT AT YOUR FIRST TOURNAMENT

The following information is a general overview. Not every tournament is conducted identically. Make sure to register with a valid and the most frequently checked email address for any tournament your child is attending. Watch your email for important updates and information on the tournament.

1. Registration

Check In

Check the registration time for your tournament. This is usually sometime between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. BE ON TIME. There will usually be someone sitting at a table with a big box of envelopes. Every student will need to sign in and (usually) verify the events for which they are scheduled. This is NOT the time to try to add or drop any speeches. If your child MUST drop an event, notify the tournament director AT LEAST 2 days before the tournament (or by the designated cutoff date in the tournament information). Never wait until the day of the tournament. This can cause tournament delays as schedules and rooms must be readjusted. At some tournaments, registration will be by club. In this event, ONE representative/coach from the club will sign in all students and collect registration packets. Inside each student packet you will usually find a name badge, schedule, and occasionally a desk nameplate to be used during debates.

Announcements

After registration is completed, the tournament director will usually welcome

everyone and offer an opening prayer. Any information for everyone will be made

at this time. If you are not already in the judge’s room, make sure to be in the

fellowship area to hear these announcements.

2. Judging

Check In

Without judges, we cannot have tournaments. Every parent is needed to make the tournament a success. Every effort is made by the host club to recruit local community judges. However, the sheer volume of judges needed makes in necessary for parents to step up. Judging is FUN! Make sure to check in at the judge’s room/table as soon as you arrive. Let the coordinator know you are available, and what club you are from. (You cannot judge your own child or anyone from your own club).

Get Trained

Before every round, judges’ training is usually offered. Judging a debate round is

different from judging a speech round. Attend a session for each, even if you are

not needed to judge that round. Attend as often as you like. Ask questions.

Be Available

Check in at the judges table frequently before a round is scheduled to start.

Schedules are generally ready 30-45 minutes before a scheduled round. Get assigned early to get your choice of room. You can only judge a speech event once in any tournament, and can only judge a debate team once. As the tournament progresses, it can get more difficult to find eligible judges. It is essential that judges be available.

3. Postings

Why is everyone rushing to the wall???? POSTINGS!! About 30 minutes before a round, debate pairings/rooms or speech room/speaker order assignments are posted. You will see everyone rushing to the wall to find out where they will be going the next round. Recommendation – don’t try to stand anywhere near the posting area. You’ll get mobbed.

If you child is participating in more than one speech event, he or she may be

scheduled in more than one room in a round. In larger tournaments speech events are split up into patterns (A and B) to try to make sure that no student has more than 3 speech events in one pattern. In smaller tournaments, all speech events may be held at the same time. In this instance he may do a lot of running around. DON’T PANIC. Room speaker orders are usually carefully reviewed to make sure no student is scheduled to be in two rooms at the same time. He should check each event in which he is scheduled and write down the event, room number, and speaker position (1 – 8). He should go to the room in which he is listed earliest. After competing in that event, proceed to the next room on the list. For example:

Persuasive – Room 15 – Spkr 4

Open Interp – Room 27 – Spkr 3

Impromptu – Room 12 – Spkr 2

This student would proceed to Room 12. Once he has completed Impromptu he would go to Room 27 for Open Interp. He would then finish in Room 15 for Persuasive. Occasionally a student will be scheduled in the same slot in more than one room. He would want to go to the room with the shortest speech times first. For example, if the above student was scheduled as Speaker 3 in both Open and Impromptu, he would probably want to go to Impromptu first, as those speeches are a maximum of 7 minutes (2 mins prep + 5 mins speech). It is quite acceptable to speak out of order in a room if the next speaker on the list is not available. The student should make sure the judge knows his name and that he is speaking out of order.

4. Breaks

Most debate tournaments and speech events will end up with “breaks”. This is

where a certain percentage of the teams/participants proceed to “outrounds”, either debate or speech. If a speech event has fewer than 8 participants, there will be no final or outround. However, if the event was held in more than one room in preliminary competition, there will usually be a final or semi-final round. These breaks are usually announced either right before the final round or in the case of multi-day tournament announced the night before all outrounds will be held.

5. Closing/Awards

Before the last round, be sure to pack up all your items and take them to your car. If the host club needs assistance resetting competition rooms, if possible help and encourage your student to assist. Make sure before you leave the facility that you and your child have taken everything away which you brought with you. You would be surprised at the number of evidence boxes, sweaters, and more that get left behind at every tournament.

After the tournament is complete, there is usually a brief awards ceremony and

closing announcements/prayer shortly following the final debate round.

5. Ballots

After the tournament is complete, your child will be given a packet that contains copies of all his ballots for the tournament. Until the tournament is over, no team knows its win/loss record for the preliminary debate rounds. If you leave before the tournament ends, your club leader will have to get your ballots. No ballots are given out until the tournament ends.

Reading the ballots with your child can be either an exhilarating or, frequently, a

heartbreaking experience. It’s important to know how to read the ballots with him.

He will probably find a wide range of speaker point scores on his debate ballots.

When reviewing those scores you may see some very low or very high scores, with either no, or very ambiguous supporting notes. Look over the WHOLE ballot. See if you can figure the judge’s scoring strategy. Some judges start all students with a score of “1” in each category, and then wait for something marvelous to move them to higher scores. Others accept all students as “3” or average then adjust up or down based on their performance. Even others, unwilling to hurt any student’s feelings, will start all students at “5” in each category and wait for something bad to bring the score down. And, other judges will score the students in comparison with the other debaters in the room. The important thing to look at on the ballots is NOT the total score. Look at the categories. Are there any categories that consistently scored lower or higher than others? Was organization or persuasiveness always higher than the other scores?

What are the comments? Does more than one ballot tell the student to slow down? Speed up? Look for trends. This is what your child needs to take from the speaker boxes on the ballots.

Now read the Reason for Decision. Did the team win or lose that round? Does the judge say what convinced her to vote as she did? A really valuable ballot will really identify the points the judge voted on and indicate how the team could strengthen/improve the case or presentation. Read all the notes for BOTH teams.

Speech and debate is a learning tool to prepare your student for life. He will be

speaking before many different types of people during his lifetime. These ballots

are valuable tool to see himself through the eyes of someone else and learn what he can do to communicate more effectively. Not every method works with every type of listener.

Don’t get disenheartened by less-than-excellent ballots. Did you child have fun

participating? Did he learn anything? Did he meet and spend time with new, good

friends? If you can answer yes to any or all of these questions, then the tournament was a success.

6. Thank You

Hosting a tournament is a LOT of work. If you have time after the tournament, try

to send a letter of thank you to the hosting club and the facility where the

tournament was held. It is very much appreciated.