In short, we feel this may have near-term benefits to a student because they can proceed deeper into competitive rounds than they might otherwise do, but long-term we think there are three major drawbacks:
- Coaching - our coaches first and foremost go to competitions. They are there to support all students at the event and coach them during their rounds. If a coach is debating with one student, they are unable to support all the other students appropriately during the event.
- Favoritism - this leads us to the second drawback, which is favoritism. Students who are not able to debate with a coach may look upon the student debating with the coach and view them as 'favorites,' or that their parents are 'unfairly' supporting that student. This can result in blowback against the student who debated with the coach.
- Sustainability - with a small group of students, it may be possible for coaches to debate with students at these events, but as a program grows, it will become far more challenging. Because of this, we view debating with students as taking a shortcut that will only work for a short time without being able to sustainably support students.
We understand in the short term it may support students and our coaches have even engaged in this style of coaching before when students dropped out last minute from competitions and we needed to pair up with an odd-numbered student. But generally it is not a behavior we hope to replicate at many future tournaments.
We have competition prep sessions for students to get ready for their upcoming tournaments, we also provide concierge coaches to watch students debate and give feedback after each round. For more information, please contact Doris at doris@learningleaders.com.