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Re: Mentors as Drive Coaches?
This topic comes up every year but it is also something that changes from year to year as FIRST and teams grow and evolve.
I am asked about this a lot by teams new and old and there really is never a good direct answer to give a team other than you'll figure it out for yourself. The majority of the community posters here know that it is something that works differently from team to team. In answering the question, I usually provide positive examples of all types of instances where students and mentors serve as coaches. The great thing about our programs is that each team can develop its own unique positives within their systems. I can't think of a team where anyone on that team would list students or mentors serving as drive coaches as negatives, at least without mentioning room for growth or improvement. So whether or not a student or mentor on a team is a drive team coach is totally up to that team.
Will, it's certainly not wrong to ask teams how they run and make different decisions. You know I'll talk to you about anything; 1218 is one of the friendliest groups in MAR. Feel free to ask anytime about 2729. In short, the drive coach is a continuation of the mentoring experience on our team. Through this experience, I hope to demonstrate to my students team work and communication with people outside of our team. The role is also one that bring consistency to part of the team that changes for us from year to year with 4 different drive teams in our 4 year existence. Lastly, the relationship between our drivers and the coach is exhibited when we go onto the field with the robot carrying equal loads. As all members of our team are, mentors are there to work with our students just as they are ready to work with us.
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Nate Knauss
FRC 2729 Teacher-Drive Coach 2009-?, FTC 4390, FTC 7433
FRC 87 Student 2000-2002 and Mentor 2003-2006, FRC 1647 Mentor 2006-2008, FIRST Senior Mentor 2009-2013
"We can't change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." -Randy Pausch
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