Debate has four spending categories, and families routinely buy them in the wrong order. Here is what each one costs and what it is actually for.
Summer camps
Roughly $1,500 to $6,000 for two to seven weeks, depending on the institution and length. This is the largest single expense in the activity and the one most likely to be bought too early.
Camps are excellent for a student who has already competed for a season and knows what they are bad at. They are much less useful for a beginner, who will spend the first week learning things a coach could teach in three hours. If your child has never competed, a camp is an expensive way to find out whether they like debate.
Evidence and brief subscriptions
Roughly $100 to $500 a season. Victory Briefs runs about $480 a year for a format. Champion Briefs sells per-topic and by season. DebateUS lists around $100 for an individual student and $375 for a school.
These are research shortcuts. They save time and they are genuinely good, but they do not teach anything. A student who cannot yet cut their own evidence will not become better by reading someone else's. Buy these when the constraint is time, not skill.
Private coaching
Roughly $50 to $200 an hour, with most of the national circuit clustering between $80 and $150. Recent competitors charge less than long-retired ones, and are frequently better, because the meta changes fast.
This is the only one of the four that diagnoses. A camp teaches a curriculum, a brief hands over research, but a coach watches your specific child lose a specific round and tells them the twelve seconds that cost them the ballot. If you buy one thing, buy this, and buy it right after a tournament rather than before one.
Tournament fees and travel
$30 to $150 per tournament in entry fees, plus travel. For a family attending national circuit tournaments this is usually the largest real cost of the season, and it is the one nobody advertises. Local and online tournaments cost a fraction of this and are where most of the useful practice happens anyway.
The order that actually makes sense
- Nothing. First season, local tournaments, school resources, free materials. Find out whether your child likes it.
- A few private sessions after their first two or three tournaments, when there is something concrete to diagnose.
- A brief subscription if and when research time is the bottleneck.
- A camp, if they are committed and want to compete nationally.
Most families do this in reverse, starting with the camp because it is the most visible option and the one marketed hardest in spring.
What we charge, for comparison
We run $135 a single private session, $1,200 for ten, and $600 for a sixteen-week group season in groups of three or four. The group season works out to $37.50 a session. Our free library covers the material a brief subscription would sell you, which is deliberate.
We are telling you the market rates above because a parent who understands what they are buying makes better decisions than one who is guessing, and we would rather be chosen than defaulted to.
Twelve documents, one hundred and eighty-one pages. Topic briefs, flow templates, case skeletons, drill sheets, and a judging guide. No account, no email, no card.