Saturday: No rodents allowed

On Saturday morning, we began lab with a lecture on how to use prep time effectively, which covered topics like how to determine what must be answered and what may be dropped, and emphasized the importance of using the opponent's prep time, too. After the lecture, Josh explained the standards refutation drill, and the students broke into groups to practice explaining the syllogisms behind their standards and refuting each other's standards analysis. The first step of the drill involved simply identifying flaws with others' standards (no link to the value, not necessary, not sufficient, etc.); the second required debaters to isolate one particular flaw with their opponent's standard and explain why, comparatively, their own standard didn't commit the same violation.

The afternoon lab began with an explanation of how to use theory to justify one's interpretation of the resolution in the AC. From there, Chetan and Josh provided analysis on answering multiple a priori arguments, and had the students write out a theory violation to use against such strategies. They were joined by Mr. Timmons, who offered several additional justifications for rejecting multiple a prioris. After a terrifying discussion about rodents, students were treated to a lecture from Josh on how to run topicality violations, and then received instruction on how they might answer such violations if opponents are running them. The session concluded with a sample abusive definition of "on balance," which students were asked to answer in either T-shell or lay terms.

At the beginning of the evening session, we broke into groups, and students practiced their T arguments, in addition to writing responses to the violations others had run. We regrouped as a lab for additional discussion on T, followed by a brief lecture on how to crystallize. Once again, we broke into groups, and students practiced regiving their NR or 2AR voting issues from their practice rounds at the end of lab. We look forward to a productive and rodent-free second week.