How to Become a National Champion? By Griffith Vertican The Revival of Griffith Vertican has commenced! On September 16th, I competed in one of the toughest gravel bicycle races in Southern California, known as the Mammoth Tuff. It included 77 miles on road, gravel, dirt, and rocky terrain at 7,800 feet altitude, and over a hundred super fit bicycle racers. The race lived up to its name as the pace was fierce, the terrain was punishing, and the altitude was brutal. In years past, this is the kind of race I would have just been happy to survive. But this year, things were completely different ..read more

Okay… two more advantages of creating a definition list: Advantage 4: Definition context can be key In that same debate about economic stability which I mentioned in the previous post, one of my “three sources” was actually the source my opponent was using for his entire case - I argued that it instead supported me! How did I do this? I read the very next sentence in the article my opponent used to define economic stability, which actually supported my interpretation. And how did I know what that very next sentence said? I had it in my definition list.  This is why it’s important to have ..read more

The Ultimate Guide for Finding the Right Debate Partner Coach Griffith's top six criteria for creating a dynamic partnership that maximizes potential and success. By Griffith Vertican, Esq. Who should I partner with? Over my fifteen years of coaching this is easily one of the most popular questions (and struggles) that pops up among my TP/Parli students prior to each new season. It is of utmost importance for those looking to reach a new level of success, and given the serious ramifications that a bad partnership could lead to throughout the season, it requires careful thought and serious co ..read more

In the most recent StoaByte, Ty Harding and I wrote a piece on the top tips to prepare for NITOC. We wanted to give you an expanded version of our list, as well as an additional few points!   1- Judge Adaptation It's important to consider how judges judge outside of your regions. The more you can prepare your strategy to appeal to judges with different backgrounds, political ideologies, and debate theory, the higher your odds of success will be. To make it as simple as possible, the three biggest things you should consider are: 1) the region, 2) the politics, 3) the theory. You can add in ..read more

The Most Important Skill in All Debate, Part 4 To wrap this series up, here is the third aspect of glorifying God that we haven’t yet got to (see my previous post).  Aspect #3: Treating yourself well There is a level to glorifying God that I eventually realized doesn’t even have to do with how you treat your fellow competitors or your judges: it’s how you treat yourself. Remembering the basic principle that success is ultimately determined by God’s opinion of you, not by the size of the empty cup you receive, and remembering that man may look at the outside but the Lord looks at the h ..read more

Updated 6/13/22 Over a month ago, I was watching the final round of LD at a major tournament. The student on the negative side said that the framers of this year's topic did not intend any embryo based applications to be part of this year's debate. His justification was that the debate committee had said they did not intend for any abortion (or related) applications to be run under this year’s resolution. He cited the September StoaByte which said, “When researching the resolution, debaters have the potential to touch on sensitive issues. But the Debate Committee believes LD offers an excelle ..read more

Do you ever have that argument that you’re not sure how to frame?  It doesn’t seem to fit squarely under the stock issues or other argument categories.  All you know is a defensive argument that takes the bite out of the aff case, but you’re not sure how to run it.  You’re probably dealing with significance, you’ve just had too narrow a view to realize it.  In this post we’ll be examining the distinctions, overlaps, and impacts of significance and its cousins substantial-topicality and inherency to see when and how significance should be used. First, let’s compare and contr ..read more

The Most Important Skill in All Debate, Part 3 “…Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:17 [NASB]). How relevant to an activity like debate, which is one of the few competitive activities in which your success depends entirely on someone else’s opinion of you.  Think about that.  Winning a game of chess, winning a ping-pong match, and—usually—even winning a war have little to do with what other people think about you. You objectively win or you objectively lose. (Very rarely do we hear a chess player walk away from a checkmate, grumbling ..read more

The Most Important Skill in All Debate, Part 2 …And no, it’s not because I think that 4 is the first number in the numerical system (see my previous post). It’s because I think it makes sense to arrange these priorities on a pyramid, like so: #4: Winning #3: Enjoying the activity #2: Learning important lessons for life #1: Glorifying God in your thoughts, words, and actions When you look at a pyramid, your eye is drawn toward its peak. It’s the highest point, it’s the point where all four sides converge, and it’s the point you can see from farthest away. In Ancient Egypt, the tops of pyrami ..read more

If you’ve ever asked a debater whether they felt prepared for an upcoming tournament (especially nationals) you know that they never fail to answer “No.”  But how is that possible?  They’ve dedicated copious amounts of time, thought, and energy to researching, briefing, and strategizing, how could they possibly still be unprepared?  In this post, I’ll be going over the pieces of tournament preparation that many debaters miss. Eat well I know, I know.  You’re high schoolers, you’re invincible, you can eat anything and be at 100% capacity the rest of the day.  Turns ..read more