Breaking New
Ground for Debates
We’re a community of experts focused on providing students with every tool they need to succeed as leaders and critical thinkers of the future.
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We train tomorrow’s leaders at Break Debate. We aim to lay the groundwork for critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills shaping the next generation.
Break Debate provides personalized debate coaching using our innovative GenDebate curriculum, designed to meet students where they are and foster both critical thinking and leadership skills. We transform the complexities of debate into a structured and supportive learning experience, guiding students to excel in competition and beyond.
Meet our Leadership
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As a two-time TOC qualifier, Vikrant has seen the challenges of debate up close. He has reached the Blake finals, the Florida Blue Key and Glenbrooks semifinals, and the Apple Valley quarterfinals.
He knows that debate requires more than just raw talent—it needs structure, guidance, and support.
He envisioned a debate program that would change this experience, giving students the support they needed to compete and thrive.
Brett is the co-founder of Break. As a debater, he attended the quarterfinals of CEDA, Kentucky, and several high school tournaments.
He likes to teach Policy and arguments. He has also experienced the challenges in the debate circuit and envisions a supportive and structured learning environment for debaters.
As a coach, his students have earned a cumulative 100+ bids, with 40+ students qualifying for the TOC.
Sophia Dal Pra leads HR and coach training at Break Debate and coaches Policy Debate at Dublin Jerome High School. A three-time NDT qualifier and CEDA quarterfinalist, she’s earned honors like NDT District Six Debater of the Year and CEDA All-American.
She has coached students to success at NSDA Nationals and the TOC, across a range of formats and experience levels. Sophia is also active in urban and local debate circuits. Outside of debate, she enjoys music, reading, and the outdoors.
Our Strategy. Your Success.
A Budding
Community
Our community is at the heart of our success. Our students work collaboratively, form friendships, and help each other even after their time in debate circles ends.
Personalised
Tutoring
We offer personalized debate tutoring that understands how a student approaches a topic. We focus on their strengths, goals, and development.
A Track Record of Excellence
Our students have debated and won against the best debate competitors in the U.S. We’ve seen Top 10 placements in over 100 tournaments.
Top Notch Research
& Evidence
Our topic preparation team combines the best research and evidence to support your arguments. We arm you with the latest knowledge that you need for success.
Meet the Team Making Break Debate
Whether you want to excel in Lincoln-Douglas or Policy debates, we have an expert who can help you excel. We’re a team of passionate debaters who love to train students to excel in every arena they face.
Vikrant Maan
Vikrant co-founded Break after a successful debate career at Lexington High School in Massachusetts. With four years of experience, he became known for presenting arguments that focused on theory, philosophy, and critical thinking. He earned five career bids and qualified for the Tournament of Champions twice. His achievements include reaching the finals at Blake, semifinals at Florida Blue Key and Glenbrooks, and quarterfinals at Apple Valley. Beyond his personal debate success, Vikrant is passionate about teaching and mentoring. He has coached for various non-profits and is an assistant LD coach at Lexington High School.
Brett Cryan
Brett is the co-founder of Break. As a debater, he attended the quarterfinals of CEDA, Kentucky, and several high school tournaments. He likes to teach Policy and K arguments.
As a coach, his students have earned a cumulative 100+ bids, with 40+ students qualifying for the TOC.
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Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Ishan Sharma
Ishan is a policy debate at the University of Michigan and competed for 4 years at Westwood High School.
He won the Policy TOC, qualified to the TOC 3x, and reached deep elimination rounds at competitive majors (Glenbrooks, NDCA, Michigan, Cal etc.) throughout his career. He enjoys innovating in areas such as counterplan competition, topicality, and kritiks.
Devin Lai
Devin Lai competed in policy debate for Peninsula High School with his incredible partner and twin Kevin. In his senior year, he and Kevin won the Baker after championing nine tournaments, including the NDCA National Championship.
He had 22 career bids across policy and LD. He currently debates for Stanford. He has coached for ModernBrain, Peninsula, and The Debate Intensive.
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Sachin Aggarwal
Sachin is a freshman at Emory and a coach for Break. He debated at Durham Academy for four years and mastered many arguments. He’s earned five TOC bids, reached the semifinals at Bronx and Yale, and won the Newman Invitational.
Sachin's favorite arguments include small affirmatives, PICs, and random kritiks. He has coached many students and is eager to help more at Break.
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Peregrine Beckett
Peregrine has coached students to win the Tournament of Champions, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and numerous other major competitions.
As a competitor, Peregrine placed 3rd in the United States in both high school and college and spent time ranked 1st in the nation.
He has championed 8 tournaments, including the Mid America Cup, was the top preliminary speaker at Harvard, and reached finals of both Harvard and Yale.
Ayush Potdar
Ayush debated 4 years at Northview High School in policy reading Kritiks for the majority of his career. He received 10 career TOC bids and was a TOC Octafinalist in his senior year.
In his first year of coaching, he coached Berkeley Preparatory School to winning the Baker award and Northview High School to becoming TOC finalists. He enjoys innnovating new Framework Kritiks and impact turns.
Aditya Shetty
Aditya is a freshman at Georgetown University’s School of foreign Service. He debated for Southlake Carroll, where he qualified to the Tournament of Champions as both a junior and senior.
Aditya earned numerous bids at national tournaments including the New York City International and Emory while also receiving multiple top-5 speaker awards. He is excited to coach at Break this year!
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Jerry Chen
Jerry was primarily a critical debater in high school, reaching the finals of the Tournament of Champions, Greenhill, and the University of Michigan tournament. He was also the top speaker at Glenbrooks and the third speaker at the TOC.
Outside of debate, Jerry enjoys playing basketball and spending time with his friends.
Jordan Keller
Jordan is a rising senior at the Univeristy of West Georgia. He is two-time CEDA quarter-finalist and received a first round at large bid to the NDT in the 24-25 season.
He ended the season with an octa-finals appearance at the NDT and made it to elims at every major college tournament on the way. Jordan specialises in critical research with a focus on disability and anti-blackness arguments.
Ava Moon
Ava debated for 4 years at Flower Mound High School in Texas. She qualified for the Tournament of Champions twice with 5 career bids, received 8 Round Robins invitations and notably reached the semifinals of Blake and the quarterfinals of Berkeley and Loyola.
She also qualified for TFA State, NDCA and UIL State 3 times, reaching the semifinals of UIL State her senior year in CX. In addition to serving as the LD captain and a team officer for 2 years, she mentored students through PepTalk Debate and W.in Debate. She now competes in policy debate for the University of Michigan.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Cyrus Esmailzadeh
He is a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan. He debated at UC Lab for 4 years, where he reached quarterfinals of the TOC and was ranked 6th on the coaches poll. As a freshman at Michigan, Cyrus advanced to the octafinals of the NDT and is one of the top researchers in college debate.
Cyrus also coaches Whitney Young High School technical counter-plan competition and K debate along with new aff construction.
Michael Ross
Michael Ross debated for four years at Berkeley Prep, earning 24 TOC bids and winning the 2025 Baker Award for season-long excellence in policy debate.
He also was the top speaker at Kentucky, Greenhill, Michigan, Emory and NDCA. Michael specialises in kritikal debate but has experience in a wide variety of arguments.
Pranav Balakrishnan
He debated in policy at Westwood for 4 years, winning the Glenbrooks, reaching the semifinals of the TOC and TFA State and reaching the finals of Berkley Forum, Heart of Texas and Harvard tournaments. He was also the top speaker at Harvard and TFA State and 2nd speaker at the Berkley Forum.
At the end of the 24-25 season, he was ranked 2nd on the national Coaches Poll and 2nd on the Baker point standings.
His favourite arguments include process counter-plans, framework-heavy critiques, impact turns, topicality and counter-plan competition.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Harris Layson
He is a rising Freshman at Stanford University. He competed in LD at Lake Highland in Orlando, FL reading primarily critical, soft left and traditional arguments.
He has won 7 national tournaments including Emory and Yale, FFL states and reached late elimination rounds of NSSDA twice.
Outside of debate Harris enjoys fitness, music and reading.
Eric Gong
Eric Gong is an incoming freshmen at New York University. As a debater, Eric has reached the elimination rounds of multiple TOC-circuit tournaments and has won the IPPF international debate championship.
Eric specializes in policy arguments with a focus on research and counter-plan competition.
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Sameer Varkantham
He is a incoming freshman at George Washington University. As a debater Sameer and his partner Michael achieved the number ranking on the coaches poll, the elo ranking, and the baker ranking.
Additionally Sameer has reached the elim rounds of the toc in three consecutive seasons claiming a top 15 speaker award at each appearance.
Sameer specializes in critical arguments with a focus on critical affirmatives.
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Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Kailey Cabrera
She debated at Niles North for four years, centering on policy arguments. She was a 2024 JW Patterson Fellow at Michigan, landing as one of the top debaters in the country with nine total career bids, but her dedication to debate as a community stemmed to friendship bracelets, merch designs, party hosting, cutting hundreds of cards a week or writing cards to everyone in her lab.
She's going to major in Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign!
Kush Vijapure
Kush competed in Lincoln-Douglas for Quarry Lane (CA) and Jordan High School (TX), qualifying to TFA State, NDCA, the TOC, and multiple round robins. As a senior, he read a wide range of arguments—from Setcol Kritiks to skeptical NCs—and earned top speaker awards at Blake, Harvard, and TFA State.
With four years on the national circuit, Kush brings strong strategic insight and a passion for helping students grow as thinkers and advocates. Outside of debate, he enjoys guitar, drums, and soccer, and is excited to coach at Break Debate.
Pranay Ippagunta
Pranay debated for six years and earned 10 bids to the TOC, where he also reached elimination rounds as a competitor. He graduated from Northview High School and now attends the University of Georgia. As a coach, he helped lead the 2024-2025 Baker-winning team and coached a top 5 team that made TOC octafinals in 2023-2024. He teaches framework, kritiks, impact turns, and topic-specific disadvantages.
Pranay is known for helping students build strong strategies and think on their feet during tough rounds. He’s a big fan of the Atlanta Falcons and Hawks. In his free time, he also enjoys listening to Travis Scott.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Prateek Seela
Prateek is an incoming student at Yale University in the Class of 2029 and a 2025 graduate of Lake Highland Preparatory School. Over his six-year debate career, he earned more than 20 bids to the TOC and won major tournaments, including the Harvard Invitational and the Apple Valley tournament. He enjoys exploring analytic and moral philosophy in debate, especially topics like Utilitarianism and Moral Skepticism as they apply to policy issues. Prateek is known for combining deep thinking with clear argumentation. Outside of debate, he enjoys playing basketball, chess, and card games. He looks forward to helping students grow as both thinkers and competitors.
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Vikrant Maan
Vikrant co-founded Break after a successful debate career at Lexington High School in Massachusetts. With four years of experience, he became known for presenting arguments that focused on theory, philosophy, and critical thinking. He earned five career bids and qualified for the Tournament of Champions twice. His achievements include reaching the finals at Blake, semifinals at Florida Blue Key and Glenbrooks, and quarterfinals at Apple Valley. Beyond his personal debate success, Vikrant is passionate about teaching and mentoring. He has coached for various non-profits and is an assistant LD coach at Lexington High School.
Brett Cryan
Brett is the co-founder of Break. As a debater, he attended the quarterfinals of CEDA, Kentucky, and several high school tournaments. He likes to teach Policy and K arguments.
As a coach, his students have earned a cumulative 100+ bids, with 40+ students qualifying for the TOC.
Ishan Sharma
Ishan is a policy debater at the University of Michigan and competed for 4 years at Westwood High School.
He won the Policy TOC, qualified to the TOC 3x, and reached deep elimination rounds at competitive majors such as Glenbrooks, NDCA, Michigan, and Berkeley throughout his career. He enjoys innovating in areas such as counterplan competition, topicality, and kritiks.
Devin Lai
Devin Lai competed in policy debate for Peninsula High School with his incredible partner and twin Kevin. In his senior year, he and Kevin won the Baker after championing 9 tournaments, including the NDCA National Championship.
He had 22 career bids across policy and LD. He currently debates for Stanford.
Sachin Aggarwal
Sachin is a freshman at Emory and a coach for Break. He debated at Durham Academy for 4 years and mastered many arguments. He’s earned 5 TOC bids, reached the semifinals at Bronx and Yale, and won the Newman Invitational.
Sachin's favorite arguments include small affirmatives, PICs, and random kritiks. He has coached many students and is eager to help more at Break.
Peregrine Beckett
Peregrine has coached students to win the TOC, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and numerous other major competitions.
As a competitor, Peregrine placed 3rd in the United States in both high school and college and spent time ranked 1st in the nation.
He has championed 8 tournaments, including the Mid America Cup, was the top preliminary speaker at Harvard, and reached finals of both Harvard and Yale.
Ayush Potdar
Ayush debated 4 years at Northview High School in policy reading Kritiks for the majority of his career. He received 10 career TOC bids and was a TOC Octafinalist in his senior year.
In his first year of coaching, he coached Berkeley Preparatory School to winning the Baker award and Northview High School to becoming TOC finalists. He enjoys innnovating new Framework Kritiks and impact turns.
Aditya Shetty
Aditya is a freshman at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He debated for Southlake Carroll, where he qualified to the TOC as both a junior and senior.
Aditya earned numerous bids at national tournaments including the New York City International and Emory while also receiving multiple top 5 speaker awards. He is excited to coach at Break this year!
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Jerry Chen
Jerry was primarily a critical debater in high school, reaching the finals of the TOC, Greenhill, and the University of Michigan tournament. He was also the top speaker at Glenbrooks and the third speaker at the TOC.
Outside of debate, Jerry enjoys playing basketball and spending time with his friends.
Jordan Keller
Jordan is a rising senior at the Univeristy of West Georgia. He is two-time CEDA quarter-finalist and received a first round at large bid to the NDT in the 24-25 season.
He ended the season with an octafinals appearance at the NDT and made it to elimination rounds at every major college tournament on the way. Jordan specialises in critical research with a focus on disability and anti-blackness arguments.
Ava Moon
Ava debated for 4 years at Flower Mound High School in Texas. She qualified for the Tournament of Champions twice with 5 career bids, received 8 Round Robins invitations and notably reached the semifinals of Blake and the quarterfinals of Berkeley and Loyola.
She also qualified for TFA State, NDCA and UIL State 3 times, reaching the semifinals of UIL State her senior year in CX. In addition to serving as the LD captain and a team officer for 2 years, she mentored students through PepTalk Debate and W.in Debate. She now competes in policy debate for the University of Michigan.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Cyrus Esmailzadeh
Cyrus is a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan. He debated at UC Lab for 4 years, where he reached quarterfinals of the TOC and was ranked 6th on the coaches poll. As a freshman at Michigan, Cyrus advanced to the octafinals of the NDT and is one of the top researchers in college debate.
Cyrus also coaches Whitney Young High School technical counter-plan competition and K debate along with new aff construction.
Michael Ross
Michael Ross debated for four years at Berkeley Prep, earning 24 TOC bids and winning the 2025 Baker Award for season-long excellence in policy debate.
He also was the top speaker at Kentucky, Greenhill, Michigan, Emory and NDCA. Michael specialises in kritikal debate but has experience in a wide variety of arguments.
Pranav Balakrishnan
Pranav debated in policy at Westwood for 4 years, winning the Glenbrooks, reaching the semifinals of the TOC and TFA State and reaching the finals of the Barkley Forum, Heart of Texas and Harvard tournaments. He was also the top speaker at Harvard and TFA State and 2nd speaker at the Barkley Forum.
At the end of the 24-25 season, he was ranked 2nd on the national Coaches Poll and 2nd on the Baker point standings.
His favourite arguments include process counter-plans, framework-heavy critiques, impact turns, topicality and counter-plan competition.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Harris Layson
Harris is a rising Freshman at Stanford University. He competed in LD at Lake Highland in Orlando, FL reading primarily critical, soft left and traditional arguments.
He has won 7 national tournaments including Emory and Yale, FFL states and reached late elimination rounds of NSSDA twice.
Outside of debate Harris enjoys fitness, music and reading.
Sameer Varkantham
Sameer is a incoming freshman at George Washington University. As a debater Sameer and his partner, Michael Ross achieved the number ranking on the coaches poll, the elo ranking, and the baker ranking.
Additionally, he has reached the elim rounds of the TOC in 3 consecutive seasons claiming a top 15 speaker award at each appearance.
Sameer specializes in critical arguments with a focus on critical affirmatives.
Eric Gong
Eric Gong is an incoming freshmen at New York University. As a debater, Eric has reached the elimination rounds of multiple TOC-circuit tournaments and has won the IPPF international debate championship.
Eric specializes in policy arguments with a focus on research and counter-plan competition.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Kailey Cabrera
Kailey debated at Niles North for four years, centering on policy arguments. She was a 2024 JW Patterson Fellow at Michigan, landing as one of the top debaters in the country with 9 total career bids, but her dedication to debate as a community stemmed to friendship bracelets, merch designs, party hosting, cutting hundreds of cards a week or writing cards to everyone in her lab.
She's going to major in Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign!
Kush Vijapure
Kush competed in Lincoln-Douglas for Quarry Lane (CA) and Jordan High School (TX), qualifying to TFA State, NDCA, the TOC, and multiple round robins. As a senior, he read a wide range of arguments—from Setcol Kritiks to skeptical NCs—and earned top speaker awards at Blake, Harvard, and TFA State.
With four years on the national circuit, Kush brings strong strategic insight and a passion for helping students grow as thinkers and advocates. Outside of debate, he enjoys guitar, drums, and soccer, and is excited to coach at Break Debate.
Pranay Ippagunta
Pranay debated for six years and earned 10 bids to the TOC, where he also reached elimination rounds as a competitor. He graduated from Northview High School and now attends the University of Georgia. As a coach, he helped lead the 2024-2025 Baker-winning team and coached a top 5 team that made TOC octafinals in 2023-2024. He teaches framework, kritiks, impact turns, and topic-specific disadvantages.
Pranay is known for helping students build strong strategies and think on their feet during tough rounds. He’s a big fan of the Atlanta Falcons and Hawks. In his free time, he also enjoys listening to Travis Scott.
Vishnu Nataraja
Vishnu debated LD for four years at Dulles High School, qualifying for the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He won the Mid-America Cup, reached the finals at the University of Houston, and made the TOC and Glenbrooks semifinals.
Vishnu also reached late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. His primary focus is on theory and philosophy arguments, and he enjoys developing creative debate strategies.
Prateek Seela
Prateek is an incoming student at Yale University in the Class of 2029 and a 2025 graduate of Lake Highland Preparatory School. Over his six-year debate career, he earned more than 20 bids to the TOC and won major tournaments, including the Harvard Invitational and the Apple Valley tournament. He enjoys exploring analytic and moral philosophy in debate, especially topics like Utilitarianism and Moral Skepticism as they apply to policy issues. Prateek is known for combining deep thinking with clear argumentation. Outside of debate, he enjoys playing basketball, chess, and card games. He looks forward to helping students grow as both thinkers and competitors.
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