On Thursday we innaugurated a new year od debate scrimmages with The King’s College in Manhattan. We meet up usually about every two weeks and try to have as many practices as possible at once. We’ve been doing this for almost four years now, and it is easily one of my favorite debate activities of the year. I think meeting for an event that mimics competition without all of the elements of a competition hones and revitalizes students that get a bit halcyon in their approach to practice, debating the same teams with the same judges week after week. Debating someone from another institution puts you on alert due to the unfamiliarity and newness of the round. It also gives you a chance to debate against those not from your “school,” as it would be termed in martial arts, and confront a different style. This helps you fall out of bad, tired, and familiar habits that you pick up debating people from your institution all the time. I encourage everyone to add it to your practice. Tomorrow morning we head to Adelphi University to do it again, this time with a whole day of practice debates for all experience levels. There will be opportunities for adjudication practice as well – something that should be sen as central to the development of great debating strategy. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry