3 Reasons Why You Should Try Judging Debate
About a month ago, I flew out to see a friend of mine over Christmas break.
While I was there, I ended up doing something I never thought I’d ever do or thought I was qualified for….judge a debate tournament round.
Obviously, I must have some sort of experience with this beforehand if they let me judge a round, right?
Nope.
None.
Not a bit.
Here’s how it happened…
My friend’s sisters were competing in a debate tournament, and naturally, we went along to watch.
Well…that’s what I assumed one would do when attending a debate tournament. I had no idea how they were conducted nor what was entailed, so I really didn’t know what to expect. And I also assumed that all the judges were hired and specially trained to judge debates. After all, even though some of these kids were in elementary school, they still prepared like crazy for this tournament and I know I would’ve wanted a professional to be judging.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
5 minutes after I got to the facility, my friend has me in the corner watching debate judge training videos (about 12 minutes of content in total). Halfway through, I was summoned to judge a debate. Literally…I just got pulled up to the counter, my friend informed the lady that I was going to judge, and they gave me a badge. I was somewhat stunned. Seriously – no one wanted to test me and make sure I knew what I was doing (which I didn’t)???
I guess not.
About 30 seconds later, my friend brought me to another table and the volunteer (I found out later they were all volunteers) showed me a list with 4 names on it and asked if I knew the students listed.
Since I had never in my life been in the city I was in until the night before, the chances of me knowing those students were a million to one. And sure enough, I didn’t know them.
“Perfect! Here you go then! Room 3C.” She handed me a ballot that I just learned how to fill out 10 minutes prior from watching part of a video. I grabbed it and found the room, where my friend waved goodbye and wished me good luck.
“Wait – is someone else coming to judge with me, or is it all on me to decide this?” I asked quickly.
My friend smiled and said “Nah it’s just you. Good luck!” and left.
Welp.
These poor kids…They’ve been training for WEEKS and probably MONTHS for this, and they got ME as a judge, who literally just 15 minutes ago had NO IDEA she was going to judge a debate tournament round ever in her life.
Needless to say, I felt the pressure.
About halfway through the debate, I still had no clue what they were debating (I eventually distinguished they were arguing about some kind of light bulbs or something).
At the end of the debate, I shook all their hands and they thanked me for judging. I glanced down at the scrawls on my debate ballot that were supposed to be nice, clear, notes and grimaced to myself.
Eventually, I filled out a half-decent ballot and submitted a verdict. I felt so bad and scared I made the wrong decision.
I got better as I went along… the process got more familiar, I wasn’t as intimidated, and I had a lot of fun in the end.
Now, all that said, I’m going to try and convince you that you should try this sometime.
I know what you’re thinking…
“You just told us a whole story of how awkward it was and how much pressure you were under – why would I EVER want to do that?”
3 really good reasons:
1 – It Allows You to Hone Your Critical/Logical Thinking Skills
As a judge, you’re always having to pay attention to where each side is able to poke holes in the other side’s logic. You get to see the pitfalls of certain arguments and exactly what makes up a good argument. This could help you personally in the future to avoid mistakes you’ve observed in others and to gain a few skills to sharpen your persuasion techniques in real-world situations.
2 – It Gives The Debate Contestants an Excellent Challenge
If you know nothing about the topic at hand, that actually (apparently according to everyone I talked to at the tournament) is really good for the participants. Why? Because they have to learn to tailor their messaging to their audience and get to practice relating their topic to someone who doesn’t know anything about the arguments. This is super important because you can know everything, but if you can’t explain it to the people who matter and are making the decision, it doesn’t matter. This also means that no verdict is ever wrong. If you as the judge were so confused that you vote for the “wrong” side, then the opposing team didn’t do a good enough job explaining their argument.
3 – It Gives You Insight Into Interesting Topics
Sitting there listening for 40 minutes to an hour on topics (which are chosen beforehand and are almost always based on relevant, current, topics) allows you to learn quite a bit about them! It’s actually really fun and interesting to hear different sides of these topics and a great way to expand your perspective on various issues.
So, to recap:
If you have the opportunity, or you don’t have anything going on next weekend and are looking for something fun and mentally challenging to do, go find a debate tournament to help judge. They’re always looking for volunteers, and you’ll get something out of it too.
And hopefully, you’ll be a bit more prepared for it than I was 😉
Until next time,
Hope Frances
Photo by david laws on Unsplash
