I want to echo this. I think my own experience of debating has been useful to me in terms of my ability to intelligence-signal in person, but was pretty bad overall for my epistemics. One interesting thing about BP (which was the format I competed in most frequently at the highest level) was the importance in the 4th speaker role identifying the cruxes of the debate (usually referring to them as “clash”), which I think is really useful. Concluding that the side you’ve been told to favour has then “won” all of the cruxes is… less so.
I want to echo this. I think my own experience of debating has been useful to me in terms of my ability to intelligence-signal in person, but was pretty bad overall for my epistemics. One interesting thing about BP (which was the format I competed in most frequently at the highest level) was the importance in the 4th speaker role identifying the cruxes of the debate (usually referring to them as “clash”), which I think is really useful. Concluding that the side you’ve been told to favour has then “won” all of the cruxes is… less so.