Brand new to SPAR?

Topics are created by the coordinators, and on the day of the tournament, the competitors would have a chance to to pick a number, it can range between 1-5 or how many topics were made for that tournament. So if student A picks 1 and student B picks 2 you combine those numbers and topic 3 would be the topic that they debate on. To be clear, the students do not know the topics beforehand so this is totally new to them. Once the topic is introduced, the competitors will be assigned to the pro or con.

Sign up for the BDL and we’ll send you a link to our next practice where you can learn more!

Judging SPAR for the first time?

If you have any questions about SPAR, feel free to reach out to our BDL SPAR coordinators Christal (christalerwin2021@afscholars.org) and Mfon (mfondiduff@gmail.com).

How the rounds work:

Speech Times

Prep Time: 2 mins 

Pro Side : 2 mins 

Con side: 2 mins 

Questions (Crossx): 4 mins 

Pro Rebuttal: 2 mins 

Neg Rebuttal: 2 mins 

Announce Winner and why 

Once the debate concludes the goal is to see which argument was stronger. 

It is also paramount to note that with SPAR no form of internet is allowed. All of this information that they are bringing up should be from their own brain knowledge. Pay attention to their questions and even rebuttals. They should not bring up any new information in their rebuttals, and also if a student does not effectively prove why their side is the best the winner will have to be the opposing side.