Jack Glass named best speaker at the 2026 Australian National Debating Championship
Jehiel Pather, NSW State Team
· 3 min read
The short answer
Jack Glass, a coach at DebateBetter, was named best speaker at the 2026 Australian National Debating Championship. In 2026 he also reached the semi-finals of the World University Debating Championship, after reaching the semi-finals of the Australasian Debating Championship in 2025. He was a reserve for the NSW state team in 2022 and has served as a Deputy Chief Adjudicator at the Australian National Debating Championship.
Jack Glass, one of our coaches, was named best speaker at the 2026 Australian National Debating Championship. It's the latest in a run of results over the past two years:
- Australian National Debating Championship: best speaker, 2026
- World University Debating Championship: semi-finalist, 2026
- Australasian Debating Championship: semi-finalist, 2025
- Deputy Chief Adjudicator, Australian National Debating Championship
- NSW state team reserve, 2022
What a best speaker award means
At a championship, adjudicators give every speech an individual score as well as deciding which team won. The best speaker award goes to the debater whose scores come out on top across the tournament. Team results depend on your teammates and on the draw. The speaker tab is the closest thing debating has to a direct measure of how good one person's speeches were, round after round, in front of different adjudicators.
Jack has also sat on the other side of the table. Deputy Chief Adjudicators help set the motions for a tournament and run its adjudication, so he knows how scores get decided as well as how to earn them.
Where he started
Jack came through NSW school debating and was a reserve for the state team in 2022. Plenty of the students we coach are aiming at that same selection, and he's been through it. (We've written up how the NSW state team is selected for families who want to understand the process.)
“Debating has given me the ability to write critically and analytically, helping me excel in studies like English, where I achieved 9th in the state.”
Coaching with us
Jack coaches DebateBetter's online classes for high-school students, which run in groups of six or fewer with cameras on. You can read about him and the rest of the team on our coaches page, or see how the classes work on the programs page.
Common questions
- What does best speaker mean at a debating championship?
- Every speech in the tournament is given an individual score by the adjudicators. The best speaker is the debater with the strongest individual scores across the tournament's rounds, out of every speaker in the competition.
- Does Jack Glass coach at DebateBetter?
- Yes. Jack is part of DebateBetter's coaching team and coaches our online classes for high-school students.