posted 15th September 2025
What is the most scary thing about debating?
Quite possibly it is the moment in a competition when the motion flashes up on the screen. In fifteen minutes time you will have to speak on this subject in front of people determined to find fault with everything you say. You can’t ask your teacher for help. You’re not allowed to go to Google, or check in with Chat GPT. They won’t even let you phone your mum. Suddenly, you feel very alone. You can hear the sound of stomachs churning all round the room.
You aren’t quite alone, of course. You have your team mate or team mates. How you prepare with them will be a vital component in your success, and you should invest a lot in making your relationship with them as effective as possible. You are also allowed hard copy resources. But, nonetheless, preparing at speed on a new topic is scary. Today we’re going to look at how coaches can help debaters feel more confident with short prep, unannounced motions.
I recommend building up confidence in a series of steps, raising the level of challenge in each training session or club meeting, moving debaters gradually from maximum support to minimum support .
Step One
Choose one specific motion, e.g This house would allow asylum seekers to work. Take a whole session to talk through the motion, working out together arguments on both sides, writing them on the board, having students write them in their notebooks. Then allocate students to teams and positions, and give them time for supervised preparation, with intervention from the coach. Give them a week to prepare further, suggesting books and internet links. Run the debate the following week.
Step Two
Take one broad topic (e.g. immigration) and run a lesson on it, discussing the broader issues (e.g. the costs and benefits of immigration, the moral case for and against welcoming immigrants) and sharing facts about the topic (numbers arriving, their contribution to the economy). Then set a specific motion (e.g. This house would allow asylum seekers to work), with students allocated to teams. Students prepare their positions for a debate the following week.
My book Think Like A Debater (see sidebar for link) is specifically set up to support this kind of teaching; it has a chapter on immigration along with all the major debate topics, including free speech, democracy, war, education, crime and punishment, and many more.
Step Three
As above, but do not allocate teams ahead of the debate. Announce them fifteen minutes before the debate, so that students have to have prepared for both sides of the debate.
Step Four
Announce the motion a week in advance (e.g. This house would allow asylum seekers to work), but do not do any preparation with students or allocate teams until fifteen minutes before the debate. Students have to do their own research for both sides of the debate. Support them in this by recommending links / books.
Step Five
Announce the topic a week in advance (e.g. we’re going to have a debate on immigration), but not the motion. Students have to do their own research on the wider topic. Support them in this by recommending links / books. Announce the motion and the teams fifteen minutes before the debate.
Step Six
Recreate competition conditions by only announcing the motion and positions fifteen minutes before the debate.
As a spin on this, you can say that the motion will be based on something in the news that week, thereby incentivising students to follow current affairs closely (as all good debaters should). I practise this by basing the motions I use in competitions on current topics in the news.
Begin this process at the start of the school year, and by the time the first interschool competitions land at the end of November students will be able to face the motion drop with silent stomachs and focused brains.
