Show of Hands

I did debate in H.S. plus Model U.N. (continued Model U.N. throughout college). I am very introverted and quite shy in ANY social situation. Both of those clubs helped me immensely, took me to national and international competitions, introduced me to people who occasionally make the news today, and made me believe in myself.
Go and learn how confident you can actually be in yourself. Be amazed at what you are and what you can become.

Now you get to learn what your views are and how you can implement them to make you a better person. Your views = your beliefs if you believe in it you should feel honored that you will be able to talk about these things

Good Luck!!!

Debate club is a good way to stop doing that.

Over prepare on everything. Breathe. Take your time. And plus the crap out of them. You can do this.

Look to your passion of the debate, the topic, effect and end result....truth, facts tempered in reason.....believe in yourself, the anxiety will subside.....

That’s good, when you lack confidence you should work on it. That’s why they classes and such

Join Toastmasters.

Joining will get you some of the exposure and experience that it takes to overcome your fears.
Go in with the I-want-to-learn attitude.

Don’t join if it’s going to stress you out,

Awesome!! Learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable and challenging your fears will only help you grow.

You’ve already taken a good step towards getting over that by joining the club, pushing yourself beyond what is comfortable. Focus on listening, which will help make it more like a conversation than a speech (and will help identify points of rebuttal), and practice, sticking to the format, until it feels like being home. It may be helpful to practice meeting new people too, introducing yourself and having a casual conversation, not a debate, just to get used to speaking with and around people. Improving social skills and earning a few new friends along the way are potential bonuses.

Practice

Good!!!! Great idea. I have a shy nephew and I try to tell him to join drama or something. Public speaking. Debate club. Anything. Think of it as practice. The more you subject yourself out there, the more comfortable and better at it you will become. You are exercising the shyness and learning to break through it. You are doing a good thing. You will thank yourself for doing this later in life 👍
These tools are out there to help you. So, yes, take advantage of it.

If you join the club, you'll gain Great skills and hopefully the people at the college will understand that you are new to debating and help you learn the skills necessary to do it well. That's what college is for, and I would check the club out to be sure that is what they do if you have a large fear of joining this club. I do hope you join though.

better you than me. i have a fear of public speaking

If you ever get backed into a corner, don’t be afraid to pull out the ace in the hole

“Hitler did nothing wrong”

There’s no comeback for this