Ranking #1 during a rebuilding year: coaching UCLA mock trial
In 2023, UCLA Mock Trial won a national championship.
In 2024, our team of seniors returned, but fell short of repeating. We placed fourth.
In 2025, we graduated almost everyone.
On paper, this was a rebuilding year. There was only one returning member of our championship squad. In reality, we ended up two points from the national finals.
At Nationals, we didn’t win every ballot. We lost just five: two ties and three one‑point losses.
With that performance, combined with the last two years of excellence, UCLA Mock Trial became the #1 ranked program in the country across the last three years. We’re first place in the American Mock Trial Association’s official Team Power Rankings for the first time since the mid-2000s.
Give us an eight-clap!
Of course, this is primarily due to the hard work of the team and their on-the-ground coaches: Andrew Moon, Brandon Benjamin, and head coach Elizabeth Smiley.
I helped the students across 31 virtual coaching sessions from November to April.
Art imitates life.
This post breaks down how, month by month, I helped the new A-team earned their place in program history.
November: Structure
Nobody had been named to our A-team (the students we determined were most likely to make the deepest run at nationals) yet, but they were already hungry for feedback.
For example, Lydia, who would later move from a JV squad to A-team closing attorney, reached out asking for critique on her technique.
We talked about tempo and punchiness using Eminem’s “Killshot” as a model. (Definitely NSFW.)
Too often, mock trial competitors fall back on classic forms of witness control (“Was that a yes to my question?”). I taught contestants to use more blunt, real-world controls. If a witness pretends not to understand what you’re talking about as you reference language from their witness statement, cut to the chase (“It’s not what I could say—you would say that. You DID say that!”).
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
We laid painter’s tape across the floor; whenever someone drifted into the same little box, we reset and forced them to step only when the narrative beat changed.
After each impactful line, I had them freeze for a slow three‑count before dropping into a casual tone. Take a breath. Let your judges catch up.
December: Tone
Hannah and Kole hadn’t captained A-team before. They led the B team to 5th place at last year’s national championship, but never the top three. This was new territory.
I coached students on how to modulate tone to avoid sounding smug when confident. I flagged where “mocky” phrasing undercut impact. We worked on smile control, fixed a pattern of filler gestures, and rewrote headers to align with theme repetition.
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
I drilled expert crosses that ignored the science; students saw how calm confidence can outscore jargon. An expert will nearly always beat the attorney on the “science,” so cross them on everything outside of their expertise.
I also broke the knee‑jerk “yes” habit: whenever witnesses instantly agreed to a hyper‑specific date or fact, we went back and analyzed if they were falling for a bluff. The goal was credible caution, not automatic concession.
January: Polish
The team and I rewrote pockets from scratch. We cut redundant facts and replaced open-ended questions with tight leading ones. Timing improved. Witness control sharpened.
They started offering their own rewrites before I could give mine. “What do you think I’m going to say about that performance?” I asked before confirming if we were on the same page.
We worked on delivery, too. I flagged when students dropped pitch at the end of a line, breaking tension. They adjusted. I told them to drop questions entirely; they sounded clever but didn’t score.
We won UCLASSIC. Then Chicago. At that point, our system was locked in.
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
I banned the “mock voice,” making students recite their first six questions twice—once theatrically, once like real conversation—and we kept the more natural take.
To tackle gesture tics, I played their videos at double speed and made them narrate every motion out loud; nothing reveals repetition faster.
We paused recordings to label each facial expression. Can we tell what tone you’re going for just based on your resting face?
I also handed out a feelings‑wheel and mapped posture or location changes to each emotional beat.
Finally, every pocket needed a punchy header; if a student couldn’t state it in one clause, we rewrote until it sang.
February & March: Pressure
Some students struggled to control hostile witnesses. We gave them lines to highlight demeanor shifts: “You answered clearly and concisely on direct. I’d like the same respect on cross.”
I came back to Los Angeles to lead a coaches’ scrimmage against the A team. If a coach isn’t willing to demonstrate their own style and spar with students, they’re too rusty. We need to stay sharp. Don’t be like Master Roshi from Dragon Ball. No need for your students to surpass you.
Couldn’t be me.
We were the champions at regionals, then ORCs (our national qualifiers).
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
The “bluff‑the‑witness” drill saved one risky pocket for last; students got better at smelling “blood in the water", sizing up their opponents before asking more audacious lines of questioning.
We spent a full weekend scripting closings word‑for‑word, then performing them until every syllable hit exactly as written.
I also tweaked first impressions: we rehearsed a not‑too‑fast “Biden speed‑walk” into the well for an older witness. Each physical entrance matched each witness’s story and age.
April: Presence
“Der Mensch tracht, un Gott lacht.” Man makes plans and God laughs. I planned on being with the team in Cincinnati. Family health issues prevented me from joining. It hurt.
We didn’t win it all. But every ballot we lost was by a point or less. We didn’t lose a single round overall with a team of people who had mostly never been to nationals before.
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
Nationals prep involved relentless scrimmages. After each scrimmage, I made us rewrite every cross or closing header so they echoed the overarching theme.
By now, the edits were microscopic—eye‑contact paths from the judge’s chair, faster loop‑backs when an answer was pre‑empted—but those small adjustments turned close ballots into wins. Our plaintiff went from going 2-2 in their first round to going 3-0-1 in their second.
The team went from asking for feedback to anticipating it. From taking direction to leading each other. That’s what growth looks like in a mock trial season. That’s how you turn a rebuilding year into a run for the national title.
In Hebrew, we say Dayenu. “It would have been enough.”
In a rebuilding year, just qualifying to nationals would have been enough.
Making the top 10—enough.
Top five—enough.
But this team pushed further.
And now, after a year nobody expected, UCLA Mock Trial is the #1 ranked program in the country.
I think they’ll clinch the championship title for the sixth time next year.
