You walk into a completely new building. It’s filled with kids yelling at the top of their lungs at high speed. They stare intently at Tabroom and furiously type on their computers. This chaos immediately heightens your stress levels. Slowly, you start to calm down from the stress, until you suddenly hear someone shout, "PAIRINGS ARE OUT!" You freeze. You prepared extensively at your school, but this environment is different. You have never been in a room with such high tension, and this is exactly what happens at every debate and even some sports competitions or other activities. Let's dive into how you can overcome anxiety and get some wins, not just in debate, but in any activity in the school. 

To solve this puzzle, I interviewed junior Emery Lieberman, the captain of the debate team and a member of the highest-placing high school team from RoHo at the January 8th ASU Debate tournament, along with senior Baker Campsen. They made it all the way to the quarter-finals and shared what it was like to compete at such a high level.

“We had some hard competition at both tournaments, and we were against teams with very good records,” says Emery. Despite facing tough teams, Emery still uses many techniques to help calm herself down. She said, “The most helpful thing I do for myself is I think about how many debate rounds I have done, which is around 52 debate rounds. I also did many debates in middle school and last year, so in the grand scheme of things, this one round is insignificant compared to others, which is a great tool to calm yourself down.”

This tool is a great way to avoid anxiety during debates; however, one issue with applying it is that you need to have had many debates in the past.

Another way Emery deals with anxiety in a debate is by looking at the previous debaters at Rowland Hall. “It helps to think about the debaters that came before us, as they also lost rounds and have made mistakes in debate, and despite that, it doesn't make them bad debaters. They are still great at debate, so losing games doesn't matter.” There have been so many debaters at Rowland Hall, and everyone has lost at least once. So if you lose sometimes, just remember that everyone loses. This works for things other than debate, too. In any sport or activity you do, there are others who have failed. 

No one picked up on something instantly and had perfect success at it, and if you do an activity enough, you will get better and better at it, like debate.  

In her first debate experience, Emery used a trash can as a “podium” for her debates and still managed to win rounds, proving that focusing on flow (writing) is what really makes the difference. She continues: “At the level we compete at, [the tournaments are] very intense. The first day is 4 rounds, so you're debating nonstop. The next day of competition will have at least 2 more rounds, and if you do well, you will have more.” Debate may rest at the height of stress and intensity, but embracing persistence, consistency, and grit will always take you to the next level, whether it is debate, robotics, soccer, or something else. 

So the next time you hear: “PAIRINGS ARE OUT!”, or hear the starting beep for sports, you can use these techniques to calm yourself down and get some wins in the end.