6 Proven Tips to Help You Learn How to Debate Better

1. Deliberate Practice

If there’s one trait shared among truly great debaters, it’s that they don’t just practice—they practice with purpose. Simply going through the motions isn’t enough. 

Consider the example of two basketball players practicing their free throws from thought leader Aubrey Daniels:

Player A shoots 200 free throws. Player B shoots 50. Player B retrieves their own shots, dribbles around, periodically stops to talk to friends. Player A has a colleague return every shot, take note of every miss and in which direction, and together review the results every 10 minutes. Assuming they started at the same skill level, we all know the answer to which is most likely to be better after 100 hours of practice. 

Muscle memory isn’t exclusive to physical activity. Simulating real environments you’ll be performing in builds familiarity, comfort, and confidence. The more you repeat that process, the better you’ll understand the nuances of the conditions, as well as your own response to them. 

For example, let’s assume you're preparing for a debate on social media regulation. Rather than just memorizing statistics about data privacy, you could practice defending your position while a friend interrupts with challenging questions about free speech implications. Record this exchange, review where you hesitated or relied on weak evidence, then practice those sections again with improvements.

2. Watch Other Great Debaters

It may sound simple, but like any other vocation in life, to really understand how the greats operate, you have to watch, study, and analyze what they do. While plenty have their own style and approach, there are a significant number of commonalities they also share, many of which can be attributed to what makes them truly successful.

Watch Video

• Conduct (and be a part of) your own comparative study. Compare recordings of yourself to the greats you are actively watching. Take notes on and assess any similarities you see, but more importantly, any differences. This can help identify gaps in ability, approach, preparedness, etc. 
• Get a second opinion. Watching and analyzing on your own is something you should inevitably do, but getting the perspective of an experienced coach or mentor could go a long way in helping you identify your own blind spots, as well as gain a new perspective on what you’re studying. 

It may sound simple, but like any other vocation in life, to really understand how the greats operate, you have to watch, study, and analyze what they do. While plenty have their own style and approach, there are a significant number of commonalities they also share, many of which can be attributed to what makes them truly successful.

3. Read literature

It’s difficult to be a strong debater without a good grasp of the basic structures that form, regulate, and shape the world around you. At a minimum, you should have at least a 101 level understanding of foundational institutions, roles, and issues that affect the world at large, such as international relations, economics, business, and philosophy.

Don't just learn what these topics mean. Focus on how they connect and affect each other in the real world. The goal isn’t necessarily to become a master at any one thing, but to understand the key terms and concepts. 

Topics and key concepts many great debaters study

• International relations. It’s important to understand the structure of nation-states as well as international bodies (e.g. the UN, ICC, etc.) and how they interact and engage with one another, their incentives, and how conflicts can arise and resolve. In turn, it’s also helpful to understand the tools available for nation-states to resolve disputes from the most extreme, like warfare, to the least, like diplomacy, and everything in between (e.g. trade wars, sanctions, etc.)
• Economics. Understanding all aspects of currency: how it mediates the flow of goods and services, who sets/determines its value, what causes it to rise and fall, etc. Additionally, it’s helpful to understand macroeconomics and how and why the market behaves as it does, including topics such as inflation, price levels, national income, gross domestic product (GDP) and rate of economic growth.
• Business. Closely tied to economics, it’s crucial to understand how business functions as a utility, how it facilitates the division of labor, the role of technology, and the balance between public and private sectors. Know how business decisions affect employment, culture, and environmental outcomes. 
• Philosophy. It’s important to understand the difference between consequentialism / utilitarianism vs rule/principle based ethics like deontology. A large number of philosophical disputes fundamentally pit two opposing ideologies against each other: making decisions in an effort to produce positive outcomes vs making decisions to stick to rules and principles. While philosophy is a massive subject, for the sake of debate, it’s better to focus on, understand, and apply modern day examples first (e.g. the ethics of torture, warfare, economics vs environmentalism, the application of law, etc.). This practical approach helps you apply philosophical concepts directly to debate topics before diving into their theoretical foundations. 

4. Debate in the moment but prepare for the future

If you’ve ever watched a show about lawyers, there’s one thing that is always abundantly clear: they’re just as often anticipating what the opposing counsel will do as they are arguing what’s in front of them. 

While you won’t always have an opportunity to change course in the midst of your argument or potentially upset your strategy, understanding how the opposition will react and where they are likely to take the discussion will help you make a better argument in the present. 

Tips on how to have better foresight

• Consider the points most pivotal to winning. Analyzing the whole of the debate - not just your position - and the most impactful points your opponents may deploy will help you better control the debate as you work towards and away from your and their greatest strengths and weaknesses. Before undertaking the debate, ask how you are most likely to win and how they are most likely to win, then connect the dots in between to develop a stronger strategy. 
• Practice for contingencies. Debates can go many ways and the best in the field know how to pivot and counter no matter which direction the debate flows. Whether you do so in practice or during competition, try to take mental notes on where things DO go vs where they COULD go. After the round or practice session, consider making a branch chart and coming up with strategies for how to counter directions that weren’t taken—not just the ones that were. 

5. Understand the pros and cons of rhetorical devices

While facts and evidence form the backbone of your argument, you're ultimately telling a convincing story. Judges need to find your story more compelling than your opponent's.

If the general public is any indicator, it’s safe to say that most people aren’t swayed by facts alone, which is exactly why great debaters often lean on rhetorical devices to help substantiate their case. Using tools like analogies, metaphors, humor, irony, rhetorical questions and even simply repetition can often dramatically increase your ability to emphasize your point, elicit emotions, challenge assumptions and preconceived notions, or even simply take your opponent off-guard.

For more inspiration, look to experienced debaters to see how and when they use these tools, then examine your own life, perspective, and experience to find those you can and do use already. You might be surprised what is effective, but you won’t know until you look or try.

That said, you also need to be aware of the cons of using rhetorical devices as well. Overusing them, using the wrong one, using them at the wrong time or in the wrong scenario can be detrimental to your argument. In the end, they should never be used as a replacement for facts, evidence, and sound reasoning.

Tips for effectively using rhetorical devices

• Analogies. Let's say you're arguing against a carbon tax. Instead of just citing economic figures, you might use an analogy: “Imposing this tax now would be like asking someone with a broken leg to run a marathon.” This creates a vivid picture that reinforces your point about timing.
• Rhetorical questions. A powerful rhetorical question like "How many more preventable tragedies must we witness before we act?" creates emotional weight that raw statistics alone cannot achieve.

6. Understand that winning is important — but it isn’t everything.

The skills you build through debate practice - critical thinking, quick responses, clear communication - will serve you throughout your life, even if you lose individual competitions.While you have the time and space to practice, consider exploring new techniques for the sake of experience, understanding, and perspective. For instance, instead of going into a debate (or practice) with a more conventional negative/affirmative strategy, consider trying a counterplan. While it may not be a means of winning, trying it, seeing what parts of it work and don’t work, and analyzing how the opposition responds will give you a unique perspective you might not otherwise ever see or experience.