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Tournament
Procedure When you arrive
at the tournament site, your coach will most likely tell you your code number.
Occasionally, your coach becomes detained with registration and you may
have to find your own code number on the postings.
All contestants are assigned a number to help make judging anonymous.
The code includes two parts: a school code and a personal code.
A—CSU Northridge School codes
are given to every college entering the tournament.
The letters are usually assigned as schools’ entries are received.
How do you find your personal number?
Just like the master code sheet for school codes, there is a master code
sheet for competitors’ codes. Find your school code first—for this example,
let’s assume El Camino is "G". You might see something like this: G—El
Camino College Next, check
postings. Postings will be on a
wall close to registration. There
will be a relatively large group of people standing around looking at them.
A posting tells you where to go to give your speech, the order in which
the students will speak, the time, the event, and other information.
At many
tournaments there are three divisions: novice for true beginners, junior for
those with one year of experience, and senior division for those with more
experience. Sometimes junior and
senior are collapsed into open division. Your
coach will enter you in the appropriate division. All tournaments have different
rules for who is entered in which division, but usually, after you have received
a first, second, or third place trophy in an event you move from novice to
junior. The divisions are then divided into events: persuasion, impromptu, poetry, duo, etc. Each event is then divided into panels consisting of five to seven speakers—these are your competitors. Panels show the room number, event, and category.
Round
One: Novice Persuasive Once in a while
there are mistakes on the postings; you should d be aware of this possibility.
If your code is not listed, find a coach as soon as possible and we will
take care of it. In the event that
your coaches are judging or otherwise unavailable, proceed to tournament
headquarters (known as the “tab room”) and politely ask for help.
The people in the tab room are busy running the tournament and should
only be bothered as a last resort. After your
first round of competition, check postings for information on your second round.
Most tournaments have three rounds of preliminary competition of each
individual event, and six rounds of debate.
This means you will receive feedback from three judges and compete
against three different panels of contestants in individual events; and, if you
debate, you will be heard by six judges and compete against at least six teams
during the course of the tournament. How do you find
out how you did? Judges write
comments on small cards called ballots. These
ballots rank your speech according to other speakers in the round (1,2,3,4) and
they rate you according to college speakers in general (superior, excellent,
good, fair, poor, unprepared). The
ballots are taken to the tournament headquarters where they are tallied and
added. You will receive your
ballots as soon as possible after the tournament. Tournament
Etiquette Always arrive
to your round early. Often the
round begins a few minutes late but is impolite for you to arrive late.
If for some reason you are late and the door is closed, listen carefully
before opening the door—never walk in when someone is speaking.
Assuming all is quiet when you put your ear to the door, open the door
slowly and peek inside. If no one
is speaking, walk in. If someone is
speaking, close the door as quietly as possible and wait outside until you hear
applause. Upon walking
into a room you may see one of the following scenarios:
When the round
begins, your job begins. Give
each speaker your undivided attention.
It is rude to look at your speech, a notebook, the newspaper, or the
judge. Do not yawn or rustle
through your stuff. Some students
pick up bad habits in competition. They
may listen to you totally expressionless or not make eye contact with you at
all. Don't be tempted to imitate
this behavior because students pick up quickly on poor listeners and these
people develop a reputation. More
importantly, a positive audience member will generate a positive audience in
return. Applaud each speaker.
The judge is almost always in tune with the attitude of the contestants
and in some cases it can influence the judge's voting decision in the round.
When it is your turn to speak, walk to the front of the room, pause until
the judge makes eye contact with you, and as soon as you are comfortably ready,
begin. When
all the speakers have finished, your judge will say "thank you" or
something indicating you may leave. Once
in awhile a judge may make a comment or ask you a question about your speech. Listen to the comments and answer the question very politely,
never defensively. If a judge makes
a suggestion, listen and nod and thank him or her, even if you disagree with the
suggestion. Never solicit advice
from a judge or ask how you have done. After a round
is over, you may compliment another speaker if you feel like it.
Never offer negative comments or hints at what they should
change—that is an issue between the student and his or her coach.
After round 3
of individual events and round 6 of debate, the speakers and teams
advancing—known as “breaking”—to elimination rounds are notified. This procedure is almost always by posting and is an exciting
time for most people. Either you or
your teammates will most likely advance in some events.
Of course, this can also be a disappointing time if you think you
performed well and did not break. If
this happens, remember that experience and hard work will pay off in the end.
Go to the final round in your event and observe the contestants that did
make it. Look for what the judges
saw in their programs and speeches and make a mental note it.
Tremendous amounts of learning can take place in a final
round—especially if you aren't in it! For
students in their first semester of competition it is strongly suggested that
you watch a final round if you are not in one yourself.
If one of your teammates is in a final round it is wonderful to show your
support by going to watch them. The final
activity of a speech tournament is the giving of awards.
It is our custom to sit together and be enthusiastic over all the winners
in all the categories from all the schools. Of course we always clap a bit harder for our people, but
negative comments about winners, or inattention to the awards being given is not
tolerated. Applaud others as you
would have them applaud you. Awards
assemblies are mandatory. You may
not leave early unless you clear this with a coach. Unless you have children, having to go to work is really the
only reason to leave early. Consider
how important it will be to have you teammates there when you win your trophies.
Feel free to keep your "hardware" or place it in our trophy
case at school. Sample
Tournament Schedule Generally, you will receive a tournament schedule the week before the tournament. Occasionally, while there are time changes, so always double check the schedule when you arrive.
September
11, 1999
September 12, 1999 As
you look over this sample schedule, notice there are several events going on at
the same time. This is called a
conflict pattern and at most tournaments you may double enter in the same
pattern (after your first few tournaments).
Usually, schedules allow little time for full sit down lunches and
dinners so it is wise to allow yourself off one pattern—at least until you are
more experienced at tournament life. Remember,
it is always your responsibility to check postings for yourself and get to your
round on time. Do your best in each round; that is all your coaches ask of you.
Remember why you are there—to learn and enjoy. If you make a mistake, blank out, or in general don't deliver
the speech the way you did last night, don't get discouraged!
This happens to everyone no matter how experienced they are.
Make a note of how you can correct the mistake in the future, but above
all be positive. Qualifying for Tournaments Everyone who,
in the opinion of the coaches, is prepared may attend local tournaments.
For championship tournaments and overnight tournaments we may need to
limit the number of students who can participate.
If this is the case, the decision will be based on competitive excellence
and suitability for travel. Our
overall rule for every tournament is that speeches must be written and heard two
weeks prior to the tournament date; however, you must be present at the
Monday team meeting in order to be entered in a tournament the coming weekend. The
State and National Tournaments In order to
participate in the State Championships, you must be enrolled in six units, and
be competitive in your events. To
participate at Nationals, you must be enrolled in nine units, and be competitive
in your events. State and Nationals
fall in the same semester, so it is wise to enroll in nine units at the
beginning of spring semester if you feel you have a chance of qualifying.
Because some tournaments require a substantial capital investment on the
part of the school, success at previous tournaments must play a significant role
in our decision-making. In addition
to success, we look to factors such as effort, attitude, and potential.
The decision on who competes at State and Nationals is up to the coaches.
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