I want to join the debate team at high school but I always give up too early.. help?

Question

I am 16 and entering regular school. I was going to school on line [I went for like 3 years] but I decided to face my fear of people. I asked my brother and he told me there was a debate team. I have anxiety attacks though, when I get around too many people. Plus, I always give up [on the task and myself] and pull back when I am under pressure.

How can I get more confidence so I can try out for the debate team? I want to become a lawyer and I am sure the experience would help. I want to be on the debate team more than anything, other than becoming a lawyer. Any advice or tips would be very much appreciated! Thanks.

Ps. I have tried that self talk thing but it does not work, at all. If anything, more problems come my way talking positively to myself.

Answer 1

you should just pretend like nobody else is watching. Just have fun with it. :]]]]]

Answer 2

A "trick" that professors often use in law school is to ask a student what he thinks about some particular case, call it Smith v. Jones. The student explains why he thinks that Smith was right and why Smith should win the case, the professor then tells the student that he must argue the case in favor of Jones. One of the points of this exercise being that: The stance you must take may not be your own and may in fact be quite at odds with your own belief. Your job as a lawyer is not to impose your own beliefs on your client’s right to representation. Similarly, as a debater, your job is to argue the issue from the stance you are given, not from your own feelings of right and wrong. Losing such an argument is not a failure of your own belief.

For a debater as well as a lawyer, a well reasoned and well presented argument may earn its proponent high marks even is the argument itself is a loser. Or as Samuel Johnson replied when Boswell asked him: "But what do you think of supporting a cause which you know to be bad?" Johnson replied: "Sir, you do not know it to be good or bad until the judge determines it. ... An argument which does not convince yourself, may convince the Judge to which you urge it; and if it does convince him, why, then, Sir, you are wrong and he is right.



There's an old legal aphorism that goes, "If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table."

My point being: the presentation of your case is your job. The merits of your case are not important. Losing on the merits will never be equated with your personal failure but losing because you didn't present a cogent argument will be.

Good luck.