Lincoln-Douglas debate · grades 5-12
Lincoln-Douglas debate coaching built for middle schoolers and other newcomers, grades 5-12. No experience or partner required.
Whether your student is hesitant to speak up, argues without structure, or has outgrown a beginner program, Podium gives them the focus they need: placed at their real level, coached by a staff that has taken debaters to the final round of the Tournament of Champions.
The six-level ladder
Every student starts at their real level, not their grade, and moves up only when they're actually ready.
Plus: Lincoln-Douglas is debated one-on-one. One student, one case, no partner to hide behind, ever.
Same or better coaching, without the premium markup.
Novice and middle-school debate has been priced like a luxury good for years, mostly because nobody has contested it. We're contesting it.
Weekly live cohort, the full skill ladder, written progress notes, always-on coaching access, and internal tournaments. Month-to-month is $165 and you can cancel anytime.
See full pricingWhy “Podium”
Where you speak
Where you win
A podium is where a speech happens: the place a nervous first-timer has to stand up and just talk. It's also where a debater stands when the round is over and they won.
We named the program for both. Getting comfortable at the first one is how you earn the second.
Our students go on to debate at
- Northwestern
- Emory
- Stanford
- Yale
- UC Berkeley
- Columbia
- UChicago
- UNC
- Harvard
- Michigan
- Dartmouth
- Brown
- Cornell
- NYU
- Penn
- MIT
The family portal
Not a black box. A real dashboard, from day one.
Every family gets a login, not just an email thread. Credit balance, session schedule, and every written progress note live in one place, visible the moment your coach saves it.
Illustrative preview of the family dashboard. Sample data.
Group pricing. Individual attention.
Four things that stay true no matter how many students are in the cohort that week.
No experience required
You don't need a partner, a school team, or a head start. Most of our students have never debated before day one.
Coaching matched to your kid
Placement by trial, not by assumption. Every student is matched to the coach on our staff who fits what they need, not just whoever's free.
Written notes, every session
A real note after every session: full and personal for 1:1s, a shorter per-student note for cohorts. Never a generic recap sent to the whole group.
Internal tournaments included
Practice tournaments are part of the program from day one: the reps a solo tutor can't offer.
What a week actually looks like.
Never just lecture slides, never just a passive group call. Every part of the program is built around live, drilled repetition.
See the full breakdown →One 90-minute live cohort, weekly
Capped at 6-8 students, grouped by age and skill level from your placement call.
Drilled, not lectured
Live rounds and structured feedback. Every student debates, every session.
Written notes after every session
A real note from your coach, every time, not a copy-pasted group recap.
Free, whether or not you ever enroll.
No account, no email, nothing gated. Most of what a family needs to figure out whether debate is right for their kid costs nothing.
A few things parents ask.
What is Lincoln-Douglas debate, and how is it different from Public Forum?
Lincoln-Douglas (LD) is one-on-one debate: your student is fully responsible for every speech, with no partner to lean on. Public Forum (PF) is a two-person team format, and it's what almost every other local program teaches. LD is a different, more individually demanding format, and it's what we specialize in.
What ages and grades do you serve?
Grades 5 through 12, from complete novices to early-competitive students, with a particular focus on middle schoolers: an age range most debate programs skip entirely in favor of high schoolers already deep into the circuit.
Is there a free trial class?
We start with a real, free conversation: book a call and we'll talk through where your student is and where they'd start. Once you join the monthly Core plan, you get a complimentary half-hour of 1:1 coaching as a joining perk.
Talk to our coaching staff before you commit to anything.
A call for parents: no free-trial gimmicks, no card required. Just a real conversation about where your kid is and what their first season would look like.
Book a callNot ready to talk yet? Take the four-question readiness quiz instead.