Why debate?
Debate is a sport based on theory. Team members take turns speaking, explaining their reasons for supporting or opposing an argument, to best persuade judges. Debate helps improve many skills:
CONFIDENCE & PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS
In every class, students deliver real-time debates and practice their skills.
CRITICAL THINKING
Debate is an active sport that requires quick and logical reasoning skills.
WRITING SKILLS
Debate forces students to focus on strong logic, structure, and arguments — the same skills needed for writing essays.
UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS
Universities today pay close attention to high-calibre extracurricular activities, such as debate.
Try a free debate class!
About VDA
ANY LEVEL, ANY STYLE
We believe that everyone benefits from debate – that’s why our coaches teach debate classes for all levels. We coach high school and elementary students, kids who are brand new to debate and experienced.
Moreover our coaches are familiar with all styles of debate popular in North America and the world. These styles include Canadian, American, and international formats, allowing our students to compete at a wide range of debate circuits:
- Canadian National Debate Format (CNDF) and Cross-Examination
Used across Canada, Canadian styles are necessary to compete at the Canadian National Championships and its qualifiers, Regionals and Provincials.
- British Parliamentary (BP)
BP is used all over the world and is the main style for university-level debate, and senior high school format of UBC’s annual Fall, Spring, and Summer tournaments.
- Public Forum (PF)
Invented in the United States, PF is the most popular style in America, China, Korea, and Japan, and is the format of major university tournaments like those of Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley.
WHY DEBATE?
Here’s what are students have to say about debating with Vancouver Debate Academy. See more from our students on Our Youtube Page
Our coaches come from the UBC Debate Society, western Canada’s #1 debate club.
Get In Touch…
Debate Program Director
Bryan Weber
- Holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in international affairs and political science
- An award-winning speech and debate coach with over two decades of experience at the primary, secondary, and university levels.
- Has coached teams to multiple championships and speaker awards at Harvard, Stanford, and Georgetown, a top eight finish at the China National Championship, and numerous other accolades
- Former director of the Houston and Minnesota Urban Debate Leagues, which produced both state and national champions and introduced hundreds of students to speech and debate
- Awarded Teacher of the Year in Houston, Texas
- Two-time Texas state silver medalist, a US national qualifier, and consistently finished in championship rounds of both speech and debate
