Practice Really Does Make the Difference

By Jana Riggins, Speech and Debate Director | Tuesday, November 20, 2012 11:30 AM

“Practice makes perfect.” It’s a cliché we have all heard, but I’ve often wondered who coined this phrase. Whoever wrote it, my mother seemed to have the market on it when she’d wake me up super early on mornings to practice the piano while my two older brothers snuggled underneath the covers much longer than me. One piano. Three kids. Often, I drew the short straw. That’s what happens when you’re the baby of the family and your older siblings are boys.

I didn’t like hearing it then, but I grew to understand the truth in the saying as I began to compete in UIL and later, as I coached. It didn’t take long to recognize that my students who broke to the final rounds were those who asked for extra practice sessions with me during lunch and after school when all their squad team members had long since called it a day.

It was also the kids who took advantage of every invitational tournament we scheduled. There they were, on the bus, ready and prepared for another challenge to compete against opponents who also had made speech and debate a priority in their busy schedule.

One can research online for hours each day and “talk to the wall,” as every good speech competitor is known to do. Performing your poetry selection to an audience of varsity interpers back home certainly helps you polish your performance. You can even enter virtual online tournaments that allow you to send in a video of your speech so judges return a critique via email, with you never having to leave your classroom. All of these have value. But until you step into the arena, as Teddy Roosevelt insisted, you are not fully prepared to compete.

Roosevelt admonished us:  “The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Nothing substitutes for getting on the bus on a cold winter morning at 6 am (or earlier if you live in West Texas) traveling to a UIL invitational tournament in order to step inside a speech contest room to face a judge and fellow competitors. That is when you learn how to deal with a different kind of stage fright that didn’t strike you back in the classroom in front of a loving coach or friendly teammates. That is when you “dress the part,” learning firsthand how appropriate tournament attire impacts the image you create at the front of the room. That is also when you learn tricks of the trade – the unwritten rules of the game. Things you would not learn unless you were at the game.

Tournaments also help you grow as a person because you meet competitors from other schools and become friends, or at least, respect develops for their abilities. You gain knowledge of how a speech tournament runs and proper procedures for each contest. It’s these invitational meets that prepare you for the actual game – the UIL District Meet. Just like athletes who scrimmage at the beginning of the season followed by pre-district games, it’s necessary for UIL academic students to scrimmage opponents. Athletic coaches access each player’s performance on the field or court and make adjustments. Invitational speech tournaments should serve as critical coaching tools, too, as your speech coach helps you evaluate ballots to make critical adjustments before the stakes become high.

If squads compete on multiple forensic circuits, it’s even more essential that teams attend UIL prep meets. There are significant differences in contest rules and procedures within the three most common Texas associations: UIL, NFL and TFA. (For further information on the variances, access the online document Forensics in Texas: A Comparison, located on the UIL website under New Coach Information on the Speech/Debate homepage.)

We do face challenges concerning UIL invitational meets. First, we need more tournaments, especially tourneys that include speaking events. Oftentimes, tournaments in late February and March omit cross-examination debate from the contest matrix. School hosts think since CX districts are over, there’s no need to add policy debate to their tournament roster. On the contrary, those schools advancing to the state tournament (and there are 320 across the state) need to continue to compete up until the state tournament. Track runners or basketball teams certainly don’t take a month off in preparation for State. Neither should CX debaters.

Coaches: If you host a February/March tournament, I implore you to include policy debate rounds. If your school runs an academic prep meet but traditionally does not include speech events, consider adding them. If you are not confident running speaking contests, there are speech coaches in your area that would be happy to assist you. Ask them to administer your speech events and in return, perhaps you comp a portion of their entry fees.

It may work fine for a ready writer to mail in his essay. Maybe an off-site journalism student could write just as well in her classroom as she can at the tournament school. The experiences may be the same wherever they write. But an extemporaneous speaker, an oral interpreter and a debater all need to have that face-to-face experience with the judge and the learning experience of hearing other speakers and performers in the round. As my favorite Heisman Trophy winner says, “No pressure, no diamonds.” The arena brings into play emotions – an unequaled adrenaline rush – that make all the difference in the world.

Diverse styles prevail in different parts of our vast state. Traveling outside local boundaries is an experience in itself. Therein lies an additional challenge we face. There simply aren’t enough UIL invitational meets in West Texas and South Texas. Students often have to attend tournaments sponsored by other forensic entities because of the lack of UIL prep meets. That leads us back to the confusion that different circuits have different rules.

Coaches in these areas: I challenge you to consider hosting a UIL invitational meet. When you do, run one that follows UIL contest procedures so students are prepared for the experience they will face when the district, regional and state UIL meets arrive in the spring. If you host a tournament advertised as a “UIL” tournament, attending schools have every right to expect you will follow UIL rules and procedures. The State Office does not govern your meet; your local school district does. But you do a disservice to students who enter expecting a UIL experience. Prep meets are meant to “prepare” students for district competition. Not adhering to UIL procedures creates a false sense of what they can expect at the “real deal.”

So, as your busy year progresses, make time for those critical invitational meets. Coaches: Show your students you are willing to do what it takes to ensure they have a positive UIL experience, win or lose. Your job is to “Get ‘em on the bus!” Maybe you haven’t taught them every single detail they need to know about competing yet. Never fear: your students are resilient, they are bright and they are eager. They’ll take care of the rest. Enjoy the journey together!