Trying to think about what is required to be a good debater:
general intelligence—to quickly understand the situation and lay out your response;
“talking” skills—large vocabulary, talking clearly, not being shy, body language and other status signals;
background knowledge—knowing the models, facts, frequently used arguments, etc.;
precomputed results—if you already spent a lot of time thinking about a topic, maybe even debating it.
These do not work the same way, for example clear talking and good body language generalize well; having lots of precomputed results in one area will not help you much in other areas (unless you use a lot of analogies to the area you are familiar with—if you do this the first time, you may impress people, but if you do this repeatedly, they will notice that you are a one-topic person).
I believe that watching good debaters in action would help. It might be even better to focus on different aspects separately (observing their body language, listening to how they use their voice, understanding their frames, etc.).
Trying to think about what is required to be a good debater:
general intelligence—to quickly understand the situation and lay out your response;
“talking” skills—large vocabulary, talking clearly, not being shy, body language and other status signals;
background knowledge—knowing the models, facts, frequently used arguments, etc.;
precomputed results—if you already spent a lot of time thinking about a topic, maybe even debating it.
These do not work the same way, for example clear talking and good body language generalize well; having lots of precomputed results in one area will not help you much in other areas (unless you use a lot of analogies to the area you are familiar with—if you do this the first time, you may impress people, but if you do this repeatedly, they will notice that you are a one-topic person).
I believe that watching good debaters in action would help. It might be even better to focus on different aspects separately (observing their body language, listening to how they use their voice, understanding their frames, etc.).