posted 28th February 2023
It takes all sorts to make a world, they say. It also takes all sorts to make a debating team. You don't have to spend very long coaching, or being part of, a debating team or squad to realise that every debater has their own personal style; with that style will come particular strengths and particular weaknesses. Very few debaters are equally good at everything. The trick is for each debater (and their coach) to be aware of what they are good at, what they need to work at, and what sort of debater they are best teamed up with. In other words to work out:
What sort of debater are you?
Read the descriptions below and work out which one best applies to you / your students. Of course, everyone is different and most people are a mix of these types. Nonetheless, they make a useful way of thinking about your debating style and how you can make it work for you.
1. The Orator
Public speaking holds no terrors for you. You love it. And you're good at it. Your voice holds the room; the sentences flow rhythmically and easily; the timing is just right. The jokes have them rocking with laughter; the heartrending stories bring tears to their eyes. You have the audience in the palm of your hand.
What you bring to the team
Your team feels confident with you around, and the other teams are not a little intimidated. Your side's case is presented in a way that is powerful, memorable and impressive. For as long as you are speaking, you have everyone on your side.
What you need to work on
Don't let style triumph over substance. Style is the brightly decorated shop front that will entice people in, but substance is the stuff you need them to buy. Make sure that, as well as being brilliantly expressed, your arguments are coherent, logical, organised and well supported, and that you listen to and engage with the other side's arguments. If you have to choose between a joke and a serious point, ditch the joke.
Best paired with
Organiser, Details Diva or Careful Listener
2. The Organiser
Your notebook is the tidiest. Your pencils are all sharpened to the same length. At home, your books are shelved first by subject and then in alphabetical order by author. You are always on time, and your homework is never late. You never leave the house without a stack of index cards and at least three different coloured highlighters. Your speeches are impeccably structured, with every point clearly and repeatedly signposted. You line up your arguments at the start of your speech with absolute precision and clarity, as if they were soldiers waiting to be inspected by the King. You spend exactly one minute on each argument, no more, no less. At the end, you sum up as tidily and efficiently as if you were stacking the dishwasher after Sunday lunch (and you don't forget to wipe the table). You are always exactly halfway through your last sentence when the signal goes for the end of time.
What you bring to the team
Your side's case will be given its best possible expression. It will be very easy to follow for the judges, which will make them more likely to be persuaded by it. The clarity of your thinking will make your case more convincing. Your teammates' job will be much easier, as they will know precisely which arguments have been covered and which remain. Your best position is first speaker, where you can set out your side's stall, and define the terms of the debate.
What you need to work on
The danger for you is that you may be thrown by the unexpected. Make sure you both take, and engage with, points of information, even if you have not anticipated the arguments made. Practise responding to points of information between debates in training sessions, and in the lunch queue. Being the last speaker, where you have to think fast to respond to what has been said in the debate, may be challenging for you; make sure you take this position often in training debates to build up your confidence and your flexibility.
Best paired with
Orator, Big Picture Person, or Ruthless Rebutter
3. The Ruthless Rebutter
You have a lightning fast brain. Someone only has to open their mouth for you to think of a comeback (sometimes before they have finished speaking). In lessons, you're the one who always has their hand up first. Your points of information are short, sharp and deadly. Your rebuttal to the previous speech (or speeches, if final speaker) effortlessly finds the weakest points in opposing arguments and kills them dead with one thrust of your rhetorical knife. When a point of information is made to you, you pick it up, knock it on the head, throw it back to your opponent (all in fifteen seconds), then carry on as if nothing has happened.
What you bring to the team
However good your opponents' arguments are, they will seem weaker after your intervention. Each time you speak, your side will take the upper hand. You put your side ahead. You're the debating equivalent of a goal hanging centre forward. Your best position is last speaker, rebutting the whole of the other side's case with rigour and ruthlessness.
What you need to work on
Make sure you don't neglect your own arguments. You may get so carried away with rebutting the other side that you forget to make your own case with enough diligence and thoroughness. You will need extra practice at being first speaker, where disciplined presentation of your side's case is the priority.
Best paired with
Details Diva, Passionate Polymath or Organiser
4. The Details Diva
You are the Sherlock Holmes of the team; nothing escapes your attention. Your mechanisms will be utterly impregnable, as every possible problem will have been anticipated and dealt with. You will spot, and call out, any flaws in your side's arguments in the planning stage, making sure that those that remain stand up by themselves. You will immediately see what details have been overlooked in the other side's case, and will be quick to point out why their plans won't work. Your rebuttal may be less brutal than the Ruthless Rebutter's, but it will be more forensic and detailed, and often more effective.
What you bring to the team
Your eye for detail will make sure that your side's case is very secure against attack. You will also be feared by the other side for your ferocious exposure of superficial and poorly thought through arguments.
What you need to work on
The danger for you is that you may not see the wood for the trees. You may get so bogged down in detail you lose sight of the central issue, of the point of clash. You may end up disappearing down a rabbit hole of bickering over details instead of advancing key arguments.
Best paired with
Orator, Big Picture Person, or Ruthless Rebutter.
5. The Big Picture Person
You cut right to the chase. You see what a debate is really about, beyond the details. If the debate is about charging for the NHS, then rather than getting stuck on how much a GP appointment costs, you will see that it is about whether we prioritise the individual or the collective; in a debate about policing social media, you won't waste time on the technicalities of how to take down a picture from Instagram, but will instead focus on whether freedom from abuse is a higher good than freedom to express oneself.
What you bring to the team
You are brilliant at finding and focusing on the point of clash. Final speaker is your strongest position. You also help to bring the team back to the centre of the debate, and steer it away from getting trapped in the weeds of unnecessary detail.
What you need to work on
Some detail is necessary. Make sure your focus on the big issues is supported by substantial evidence and thorough argumentation. Work hard to keep your ideas grounded in real world examples.
Best paired with
Details Diva, Passionate Polymath, Organiser or Careful Listener
6. The Passionate Polymath
You are intellectually curious. You're never without a book, usually a factual one. Wikipaedia is your most visited site. You know (almost) all the answers on University Challenge. You'd watch Newsnight over Love Island any time. In a debate, you know the historical background, examples from the past and present and what the major players are saying and doing about the issue. You have all the facts and figures at your fingertips.
What you bring to the team
You are so well informed you have no difficulty in grasping what the debate is all about and explaining it to your teammates, and to the judges. Your arguments will be very well supported with facts. Your case will be substantial.
What you need to work on
Remember that facts are only helpful in the service of arguments. No matter how fascinating your statistic, example or fun fact, no matter how hard you have worked to find it out, if it doesn't support your argument, forget it. Make sure you keep focused on the big issues and only use your knowledge to illustrate them.
Best paired with
Big Picture Person, Organiser or Ruthless Rebutter
7. The Careful Listener
You are a human tape recorder. You take everything in. You don't just hear what other people are saying; you remember it, and understand it at a very deep level. You're of the view that there's a reason we were given two ears and only one mouth.
What you bring to the team
You make a very good team player because you will never contradict or repeat your partner; you were listening too carefully to what they were saying. You are excellent at rebuttal because you listen so carefully to others' speeches. You are also a brilliant summariser, barely needing any notes. Your strongest position is last speaker.
What you need to work on
Don't be listening so hard you neglect your own speech. Make sure you put your arguments forward with confidence. You may find opening speaker a challenging position. Practise it a lot, even taking motions at random and preparing opening proposition speeches on them in your own time. Record these speeches on your phone and listen back to them. You may be quite a modest person, who thinks that everyone else's ideas are better than yours. Don't be - your ideas will very likely be stronger because they will have learnt so much from others.
Best paired with
Orator, Big Picture Person or Passionate Polymath
