Time Commitment in Debate

Sleeping at 3 a.m. stinks. For high school students, it’s almost unheard of, but not for debaters. Cases, blocks, practice rounds, drills, and late-night tournament prepouts are a must to dominate the circuit and collect bids. As a community, we believe that work correlates with success and devote our entire high school lives to the activity, yet we think nothing of it. This massive time allocation should be the last thing to be normalized. The yearlong debate season has major tournaments almost every weekend, and the time commitment both inside and outside of them can be detrimental to our livelihoods.

Unlike many other activities, just skill alone can't quantify the success of debaters, but also time commitment. In a game of basketball, my 5-foot-7 self (growth spurt incoming) can’t ever beat a 7-footer, no matter how much time I put into my craft, but a local debater with heaps of prep can beat a TOC-qualified team that only has analytics. The benefit you get from the time you put in is inflated inside of debate, which sets it apart from other activities. Aside from prep, debate is a long activity. Rounds are an hour each, and since tournaments occur across the nation, you miss countless school days. I have had 102 absences this year, not to mention the countless weekends I could have spent doing other things. As fun as tournaments might be, they aren’t healthy either. Getting fast food every meal, skipping breakfast, and sleeping at sunrise are all guaranteed at any tournament you go to, and it quickly takes a toll. 

Such time commitments can get pretty serious. School grades tank because of all the classes you are missing, the quizzes you need to retake, the limited time for homework and studying, etc. A serious national circuit debate requires you to drop many extracurricular activities. You probably won’t be able to get a letterman, and you will not be the most popular kid in school. Arguably more important, however, is family. I love my mom, but sometimes it feels like I see my debate coach more often during the season than I see her. There’s so much time that I’ve missed out on with her while at tournaments, and it is hard to make up because I’m still locked in on debate outside of tournaments as well. This is the problem we face. Debate is a superstar activity. It boosts the chance of acceptance to a good college drastically, makes lifelong friendships, and develops crucial skills, but it is all at a cost. There needs to be more discourse on the weight debate has in our lives, and it should stay in the back of our minds. Debate is great, but it needs a very careful balance to avoid spillover harm to other areas of our lives, a balance that many of us do not meet.

Remember, the TOC champions this year didn’t win because they cut the most evidence or spent the most time in debate; the team that placed last at a local didn’t do it for lack of effort. Sometimes you have a good day, sometimes you get lucky pairings, and the opposite can be true. Debate is a game, and the best or most prepared team doesn’t always win, so let’s all calm down. Cutting fewer cards or skipping a tournament won’t kill you, but four hours of sleep might. :)