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NITC: Nationals Intensive Training Camp

Esther & Nicolas Townes, Nationals Semi-Finalists, 3rd Place Team-Policy Debaters in the Nation. (See testimonials here.)

Did you make it to Nationals? If so, you are invited to join us the weekend before your national tournament (Stoa in May or NCFCA in June) for a weekend of intensive training to prepare you for your big week. This is an invitational to qualifiers in both Team-Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Its purpose: to give one final coaching hurrah to those who made it so far. Features to this special camp include...

FREE tuition for 2009 TMM Camp or Conference alumni with coupon code.
Opportunity to seek 100% deductible donations for your tuition (see here)
Option for disclosure and non-disclosure sharing of cases.
Pre-camp community ("NITC Society") discussions with qualifiers from all over the country.
Top-secret exchange of information like flows and evidence.
New cases and briefs drawn up by champion debaters and coaches.
Participation in writing the final sourcebook of the year, together with authors of bestsellers, for an exclusive "Final Installment" meant only for this special group.
One-on-one coaching from Training Minds Ministry coaching staff.
Receive coaching from Training Minds Ministry alumni who have tasted success.
Ultra-advanced sessions specifically designed to prepare you for Nationals.
Drills and lessons the weekend before the tournament.
Scrimmage with other national qualifiers from outside your region.
Awards to most valuable contributors to NITC Society...and a beach party to conclude the weekend!

Details

For 2009 NITC, we had 56 debaters (42 TP, 14 LD). The following chart is taken from a daily-updated Google Spreadsheet showing the numbers of debaters signed up so far for our 2010 NITC events...

NOTE: These camps are not affiliated with either league. Training Minds Ministry operates separately from league leadership. We are "training minds for action," focused merely on preparing debaters for competition. Click on the following links for more information:

Stoa NITC

May 22-23, 2010

NCFCA NITC

June 5-6, 2010

San Diego, Calif.
Sat. 1:00 - Sun. evening
Final Installment Vol. 1
Facility Information
Register today!

Virginia Beach, Va.
Sat. 1:00 - Sun. evening
Final Installment Vol. 2
Facility Information
Register today!

Schedule

The Saturday and Sunday before each National tournament will take place at the facilities disclosed above. The schedule will presume at 1:00 pm Saturday. The weekend ends for a dinner party on Sunday night. A preliminary schedule can be found here.

Coaches

Pictured: Coach Jeub (president of Training Minds Ministry) explains the flow of a scrimmage round.

The whole NITC idea came from coaches of Training Minds Ministry Debate Camps. "Wouldn't it be great to have students for an intensive training right before nationals?" And the idea grew from there.

This year is unique: homeschoolers have two National Tournaments to attend. Training Minds Ministry is taking advantage of the opportunity to train both groups of debaters and exchange helpful information. The two groups will not attend each other's camps, but the NITC Society will be led by our adult coaching staff.

The "NITC Society"

Pictured: Cody Herche (2006 National Champion) runs drills with competitors.

All registrants are invited to be a part of a unique group of competitors, NITC Society. While we respect honors competitors will have (club, state, region, league), NITC Society members will be allowed into a password-protected website community. Members will not be allowed to share the contents of the society with non-NITC competitors. The advantage to such a group is the ability to cross paths with competitors from other regions, ultimately sharpening debaters for the big week of competition. After registration is completed, you will receive information on how to log into this great resource.

NOTE: NITC Society will begin May 1, and registrants will be emailed then with directions. Participants who register following May 1 will be notified soon after they register.

Blue/Red Books: Final Installment

Pictured: Matthew Baker (2-time Nationals Finalist) lectures with 12 years of historial Blue Books on display.

Some of the authors and coaches who write the yearly debate sourcebooks (Blue Book and Red Book) are coaches at NITC. Starting May 10 (the Monday after the last NCFCA qualifier), all NITC Society members will be collaborating online to create two editions of "Final Installments." Assignments will be given by Matthew Baker (Team-Policy, or Blue Book Final Installment) and Cody Herche (Lincoln-Douglas, or Red Book Final Installment). Two editions will flow from the group:

Final Installment 1st Edition: Releases May 22, first day of Stoa NITC.
Final Installment 2nd Edition: Releases June 5, first day of NCFCA NITC.

The Society will be open to members only, and the Final Installment of briefs will be available only to those participating in NITC. The Society members who participated last year competed in Nationals with a solid sourcebook with briefs and applications that were part of the collaboration in this group.

Facility Information

Pictured: Vance Trefethen (9 years author of Blue Book) works with students through the elements of a hot debate round.

Click for facility information:
Stoa NITC or NCFCA NITC.

Training Minds Ministry blocked rooms to help ensure your plans are best made to include NITC. Participants are welcome to reserve their hotel all the way through the week of Nationals. Attendance at this hotel is NOT REQUIRED for participation in NITC. Training Minds Ministry is not paying for participants' hotels or meals.

Only students are required to register for NITC. Parents are allowed to attend, but may be restricted if room accommodations are limited. Non-participating siblings or friends are not allowed in any of the NITC sessions.

Disclosure/Non-Disclosure

Pictured: 2009 NITC scrimmage at a hotel gazebo the day before Nationals began.

You may have thought of this: why would I surrender my case to be studied by other competitors? Good point, and we have a solution for it. You may run a case other than the one you will run at Nationals. Disclosure is not a requirement. Your commitment to strategic surprises will not be compromised at NITC.

That said, we do encourage disclosure. This late in the year, there isn't much that will surprise anyone. Running new cases at Nationals is risky: Team-Policy cases will likely be non-topical, and Lincoln-Douglas cases that do the same may confuse the judge. All the more reason to come to NITC. Coaches will be available to give your case a fair shake, but only for disclosed cases.

Beach Party Sunday Night

The two National Tournaments give us a unique opportunity: beach parties at both! Sunday night will be our closing ceremony, a simple exchange of comments and some special awards to the most valuable contributors to NITC Society. We'll be hosting the ceremony on the Pacific Coast (Stoa) and the Atlantic Coast (NCFCA). How cool is that?

Cost

$189 tuition plus $29.95 Blue/Red Book Final Installment, per debater. Ideas to ease the burden of the cost:

2009 Alumni get free tuition with the use of their coupon code. Alumni still need to pay for their sourcebook.
If you're an alumni, but your TP partner isn't, consider sharing the cost.
Seek donations for your tuition. 100% of the $189 may be solicited as a legitimate tax-deductible donation. Click here for details.
TP Partners are not allowed to donate to themselves, but are allowed to donate to each other.

If you are planning on attending BOTH National Tournaments (there are a few of you out there), you need only pay for one NITC experience. The second is free of charge. Sign up for the Stoa NITC only, and send us a separate note of your unique situation. We'll make sure we reserve a spot for you.

Note: This is a break-even event for the ministry of "training minds for action" (1 Peter 1:13). We count it a joy to provide this final push for your competition, and we rely on non-alumni tuition to pay for most of this. If you are able, we appreciate a donation to help alleviate the several expenses necessary to pull off this training event. A donation field is optional during registration.

Registration

Every participant must register. There are two registrations: alumni and regular. Since alumni paid for camp in 2009, their NITC tuition is an award for their hard work. This registration is free, though a $29.95 fee for the Final Installment will still apply. Regular registration is $189 per debater. Parents are free, and they will be expected to judge during our two scrimmages. Those participating in fundraising will be reimbursed the first day of NITC unless other arrangements are made. Payment will be accepted via PayPal or Credit Card.
Registration closes May 10.

FLASHBACK: NITC 2009 was a great success!

Going into Nationals and the first NITC program in the summer of 2009, we set the ambitous goal of having 20% of our contestants in the quarter-final rounds. We figured if we were 20% of nats, we could realistically (with hard work) attain 25% of quarter-final slots. So, this goal was two in quarter-finals. We got THREE in each category of team-policy and Lincoln-Douglas. What an accomplishment, above and beyond! In team-policy, 1/3 of them broke to outrounds, and in Lincoln-Douglas, HALF made it to the first elimination round. The extra amount of training really paid off. Read student testimonials of this event.

Register Today!

Limited space; registration closes by May 10