Note: if you have questions you’d like us to ask, please let us know here, and we’ll ask them during the next set of tourney interviews! Also, there won’t be St. Mark’s finalist interviews since the finalists and their coaches did not respond to interview requests.

Finalist Interviews

Question: How was your tournament experience? What did it feel like and how’d it go?
Lindsey Perlman: I really enjoyed Bronx! The food was incredible, and I got to see a bunch of my teammates from PF that graduated last year.

Q: On your march to finals, what strategies did you pursue? What made you certain that you could execute them effectively?
LP: On the neg, I mostly read kritiks and spec shells. I felt confident in reading those positions because I had drilled them prior to the tournament and knew I could give a 2NR collapse on each of them. On the aff, I continued reading my Kant AC and Badiou AC.

Q: When you’re in practice, how did you drill or practice those positions?
LP: During practice, I generally help out other debaters on my team and do drills with them. When I’m at home, I do my own drills and topic prep. Usually, I redo speeches from past tournaments or give 2NR collapses on my neg positions.

Q: Are there any drills you like best?
LP: I would suggest doing hell 1ARs. This entails giving a 1AR against a 10 minute NC prep out as opposed to a 7 minute NC speech. If you don’t have enough prep for that, I would suggest 1AR theory drills. Have a teammate or coach give you a scenario of a plausible neg strategy (e.g. an NC, topicality, and case turns) and give yourself two minutes to think of a shell and extemp it. Your shell should be no longer than one minute with the voter included and should have embedded weighing in it.

Q: Quality drill! Speaking of theory, you mentioned spec shells earlier, which ties in with our community question someone wanted us to ask. In their words, what do you think of the epidemic plaguing LD known as “standard spec”?
LP: I am not too sure what “standard spec” is, but I will assume it is referring to a role of the ballot spec shell. I do not have a strong opinion on role of the ballot spec. Just like any theory shell, there are certain contexts where the abuse is warranted and certain contexts where it is not.

Q: Lastly, any shout-outs, thank-yous, or anything else?
LP: Shout-out to Chris Kymn – I am so grateful for all of your help. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to do all of those redoes with me in-between rounds and for all of the pre-round advice you gave. I don’t usually get to see you very often at tournaments and having you there was so special. Shout-out to Zoe Ewing- thank you for the strategy advice, your constant support, and most importantly your incredible ability to track people down before elims! I can’t begin to describe how big of an impact all of it had. Shout-out to Sam Azbel – thank you for all of your help. I know during late elims there’s not much you can do since you literally coach everyone, (!!) but I’m thankful for the pep talks and the redoes you did with me the whole tournament.

Ari Azbel (Lake Highland AA), Champion

Question: You didn’t lose once in thirteen rounds this weekend. How was your tournament experience? What were you feeling?
Ari Azbel: Overall, the tournament experience was pretty tiring, Sunday especially. Regardless, it felt good executing a bunch of different strategies and winning on them. I think the important thing was to make sure I had energy, and I’m glad my coaches kept bringing me caffeine and food!

Q: What skills and strategies did you pursue en route to finals, and what made you confident in your execution?
AA: The Aff I read most of the tournament was the Deleuze voting Aff. I think that Aff faired pretty well throughout September October. Aside from that, I got to break a few new util affs, which was really fun for me since it’s a skill I’ve been trying to hone in on. Specifically, in finals I went for a Venezuela Aggression DA, which was a lot of fun. Another thing I did on the neg a lot was go for T/theory, which was great since I realized I hadn’t gone for it in any 2NR’s prior to Bronx.

Q: When you were in practice, how did you hone in the dense content area of Deleuze, or practice the DAs and T/theory?
AA: For Deleuze, the most important thing is reading the literature and trying to work through cutting the cards yourself. In addition to that, practicing explaining the arg and reading it in rounds a lot helps with comfortability. For DA’s and T/Theory, I just did a ton of drills going for/responding to these types of positions.

Q: Are there any drills that you especially suggest for debaters trying to emulate your performance?
AA: For T and theory, I recommend giving a 1AR to a shell, then redoing it. Once you have perfected the 1AR, you should give a 2NR to that speech. For the aff, I just gave 1ARs to every possible strat I thought was threatening.

Q: Speaking of T/Theory, here’s a great community question someone wanted us to ask. In their words, what do you think of the epidemic plaguing LD known as “standard spec”?  
AA: In terms of the theory shell in general, I have nothing against people reading any theory shell at all. There are times when ‘silly’ shells have very useful strategic net benefits under competing interps that make them hard to generate offense against. Conversely, I think reading a dumb shell when there is a better possibility is not strategic. Overall, I think shells should be about strategy, not about how ‘silly’ they are. Also, can I add, “#SpikesOnTop #GangGang #FloridaHeg”?

Q: As we wrap up, do you have anything regarding the debate community that you’d like to discuss or mention?
AA: Regarding the debate community, I think people should take a step back and remember debate is an activity, and we are people outside of it. Our success and failures in debate do not by any means define us as people. Sometimes its important to make an effort to pat your friends and teammates on the back and let them know how amazing they are. You may not know it, but that random act of kindness could mean the world to them.

Q: Wise words, thanks for taking the time to share your perspective with the community. Any last shout-outs you’d like to make?

AA: I’d like to shout-out my boy Momo for being my partner in crime and prepping with me every step of the way. Also, I want to shout-out my brother Sam for helping me out this weekend and every weekend – would never have gotten this far without him. Finally, I want to shout-out my other coaches Tom, Becca, Grant, Martin, and Paras for just being so helpful this whole season. Also, it was great to see some of my west coast friends who I rarely get to see – shout-out Whit and Ryan.

Thanks to Lindsey and Ari for sharing their perspectives! If you want your questions answered, be sure to let us know here!