The Nile Blog.
Free debate strategy, tournament prep, and coaching wisdom from champions. New posts every week! Always free!
How To Use A Sourcebook - Mark Roose
Before a tournament in Georgia, my partner Josiah Weber and I bought Ethos and Monument sourcebooks. We spent...
Why Good Cases Lose in Elimination Rounds - Mark Roose
What is the difference between Affirmative cases that win locally and those that win NITOC? The real question...
Cross Examination Tips
By Nathan Chen Cross examination is one of your most powerful weapons in your arsenal. Yet debaters...
Speaker Positions
Every single year, my partner for that year and I made an unconventional decision: to swap speaker positions...
You Don't Have Time
I get it, highschool is busy. It certainly would be ideal to brief every single affirmative yourself, taking...
Kairos: the Forgotten Mode of Persuasion
Have you ever had too much evidence? A brief that covers all your bases? This can be overwhelming....
Parli: Advanced Fundamentals
‘Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well’ -- John Gardner. We’re all waiting for the one ground-breaking nugget that will...
You've Been Emphasizing the Wrong Impact This Whole Time
By Coach Joshua Spivey Have a disproportionate win rate on aff or neg? Most people do. Want...
Stop Using Time-Wasters
By Coach Joshua Spivey You’ve been preparing and strategizing against this case for hours upon hours….Maybe it’s dredging,...
Solving All Your 1AC Problems in Under 3 Minutes
Coach Mark Roose In this short blog, I am going to show you how to solve all...
Your Goals Are Why You Fail
By Coach Jackson Earnest As the 2023-2024 season approaches, many debaters are considering where they are and what...
Fixing Cross-Ex: Part One
By Coach Jackson Earnest One of the most frustrating experiences a debater can have is dealing with a...
Lacking Ethos, Pathos, or Logos?
We’ve all had that feeling. Finding out that you lost a round that you had in the bag! You had...
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