Question about revealing tabs.

[KingsfieldNot]

Has anyone ever gotten to use the 0-6 plan?  That's the important question.

At least once to my knowledge.  And it wasn't pretty.  Two squads both knew they were out of the running in R4 at Regionals  a few years back.  I think one was 0-6 and the other was somewhere close.  Fortunately, their judges were a coach and a former mocker.  After openings and, as I recall, the testimony of a witness who decided to lie on the floor during direct, the presider (my assistant coach at the time) read them the riot act and explained that an outside volunteer judge likely would not appreciate giving up a Sunday to watch that sort of c**p. 

I agree with those who wrote above that, while it is fun to plan this sort of thing, mockers should think long and hard before actually dropping to that level.  It's hard enough getting attorneys to volunteer on Sundays.  Our chances of doing so improve when they see students performing at their best, not the other way around.

As for the topic of the thread . . . it's one of the most difficult decisions I make each year, as the students nearly always ask (or even beg) for results.  I have given in on occasion, but it rarely pays off.   

This year, for example, after a highly disappointing R2 & R3, I knew my students would have little motivation on Sunday had they been aware of their ballots.  When our new Dean (and potential source of financial support) told me he would be observing R4, I was glad to be able to tell the students "regardless of where you stand in terms of wins & losses, this round matters a great deal in terms of our funding.  You need to put on your best round now." 

To their credit, they stepped up and did it.  Sure, they were heartbroken to later learn that even with those wins they were out of the running for Nationals.  But they were at least able to say that they had done someting positive for the future of the program.

As others have noted, it does little good to know you are winning, as you should already be motivated to win the next round.  Knowing that you tanked that last round does nothing to improve your confidence.  Knowing that you are out of contention for a bid is even worse.  Better to be in the dark, IMHO.

[Blackbird]

I, personally, think it's better to keep students in the dark.

However...

As the co-head of a student-run program, it's hard to do that.  Generally our policy has been to have the Captains of the teams competing at the tournament meet beforehand, and agree on a consistent policy.  At times, we've not told them whether we've won or lost or shown ballots.  More recently though, we've taken a policy where we tell people whether or not we won, and delay showing the team the ballots until people have had a few days to decompress and put some distance between themselves and the tournament.

Regarding the 0-6 debate: we've had teams in our program go 0-6 (thankfully, only twice in our history, that I know of), and the most recent time this happened, I was on the sidelines coaching.  The Captains of that team were telling their team the score, and they were pretty upset obviously, but rather than do some crazy "0-6 plan," they channeled their disappointment constructively, and put on a great fourth round, which they won.

I think it's far more constructive, at an educational and morale level, to get your team to put on their best performance round four and have a chance to win, rather than put on an "0-6" plan.