[ThirteenOfTwo]

Essay time.

Our mentor helps us with game strategy in meetings before the tournament, and helps us plan out what is going on, but for a couple of reasons does not want to be on the drive crew: he recognizes his tendency to focus too much on a single robot rather than on the whole game and he would rather watch from the stands that be down on the field. He feels that, in terms of strategy, it is his job to teach us how to play the game, not to do it himself.

This does not mean that we don't get his advice on how we're doing in matches. We always go up to him to ask what he thinks we did right and wrong... it just means that ultimately the decisions on the field are those made by us.

We feel that having student drive coaches increases the feeling of camaraderie between the drive crew and between different teams. Although I am two years younger than our team's driver, we respect each other and get along really well--and the age gap between us is certainly less than it would be between a student and a mentor! Students often find mentors imposing and don't question their advice, which we find can be detrimental to the team.

For some teams, though, qualified student coaches can be very hard to find. If you have difficulty finding a student to coach, I would recommend having one volunteer as a commentator at local VEX or FTC events. Coaches need to A) not get tunnel vision, which is fixed by having to keep running commentary on four robots at once, and B) be able to communicate, which is helped by being an announcer. Field crew experience from VEX or FTC is also really helpful for developing strategies and learning how to work with alliance partners. Students can be great coaches given proper training and opportunity.

Great coaches can be either students or mentors... but either students or mentors can be bad coaches, too. Really, it depends on what you feel is best for your drive crew. I don't disrespect teams with adult coaches; I just acknowledge that they don't do things the way we do. I also find the notion that one is inherently better than the other quite hard to believe.