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 and graduated nearly everyone on the team.
Then, it was 2025.
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 served as an outside coach. I worked with the students across 31 virtual coaching sessions from November through April.
Art imitates life.
What follows is a month-by-month breakdown of how we built a new A-team and earned a place in program history.
November: Structure
No one had been named to A-team yet, but the hunger was already there.
Lydia, who would later move from JV to A-team closer, reached out early asking for critique on her technique.
We talked tempo and punchiness using Eminem’s “Killshot” as a model. Definitely NSFW. But useful for learning how sharp rhythm and controlled aggression land.
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. When someone drifted into the same physical space too long, we reset. Movement had to track narrative beats.
After impactful lines, students froze for a slow three-count before dropping back into a conversational tone. Breathe. Let judges process.
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.
We focused on confidence without smugness. I flagged moments where “mocky” phrasing undercut credibility. We worked on smile discipline, cleaned up filler gestures, and rewrote headers to reinforce thematic repetition.
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
I drilled expert crosses that deliberately ignored the science. Experts will almost always win on technical detail. So we crossed them on scope, assumptions, incentives, and limits.
We broke the knee-jerk “yes” habit. When a witness instantly agreed to a hyper-specific fact, we stopped and asked whether they’d just been bluffed. The goal was credible caution, not reflexive concession.
January: Polish
We rewrote pockets from scratch. Cut redundant facts. Replaced open-ended questions with tight leading ones. Timing improved. Witness control sharpened.
Students began offering their own rewrites before I could suggest mine. “What do you think I’m going to say about that performance?” I’d ask. Usually, they already knew.
Delivery tightened too. I flagged pitch drops at the end of lines that bled tension. We fixed them. I told students to cut clever questions that sounded good 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.” Students delivered their first six questions twice. Once theatrically. Once like real conversation. We kept the natural take.
To fix gesture tics, we watched video at double speed and narrated every movement out loud. Nothing exposes repetition faster.
We paused recordings to label facial expressions. Could we identify the intended tone just from a still frame?
I handed out a feelings wheel and mapped posture and position changes to emotional beats.
Every pocket needed a punchy header. If it couldn’t be stated 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 learned to read posture, cadence, and hesitation before escalating.
We spent a full weekend scripting closings word-for-word, then performing them until every syllable landed exactly as written.
I tweaked first impressions. For an older witness, we rehearsed a not-too-fast “Biden speed-walk” into the well. Each entrance matched the witness’s age and story.
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 that had, for the most part, never been to Nationals before.
Other Drills/Techniques Used:
Nationals prep involved relentless scrimmages. After each one, we rewrote every cross and closing header to echo the overarching theme.
By this point, the edits were microscopic. Eye-contact paths from the judge’s chair. Faster loop-backs when answers jumped ahead. Small things that flipped close ballots.
Our plaintiff went from 2-2 in the first round to 3-0-1 in the second.
The team went from asking for feedback to anticipating it. From taking direction to leading each other.
That’s what growth looks like over a mock trial season. That’s how a rebuilding year turns into a run at the national title.
In Hebrew, we say Dayenu. “It would have been enough.”
Qualifying would have been enough.
Top ten would have been enough.
Top five would have been enough.
This team pushed further.
After a year nobody expected, UCLA Mock Trial is the #1 ranked program in the country. I like our odds to clinch title number six next year.
