Quote:
Originally Posted by BrendanB
Yep, I have seen and heard those exchanges several times! The one that sticks out to me the most was during a practice match at a one day off-season and another team's drive coach just lost it in the last 10 seconds....I have personally seen a tendency of students behind the glass to have a large amount of profanity while driving from both coaches and drivers. No one should be on the drive team if they can't hold their composure in high stress situations and still represent their teams. There isn't a blanket rule FIRST can make that will fix this. This comes down to team's decisions on who should be on the drive team and why.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimmeh
Agreed completely. Which is why I'm glad that Frank mentioned this in his blog. If anything, I learned something new, in that I can take complains like that to Pit Admin and something will be done about it, which is far better than being left upset because the coach is one of the "Greats" and "can do no wrong".
|
What you two have said above is not wrong. However, it is somewhat naive.
Don't get me wrong, I expect a certain level of professionalism, but I know that coaching in high intensity situations may not bring out the best in people. As such, when all hell breaks lose and control was "so 2 seconds ago", sometimes, yelling
(even a little profanity) provides a temporary, mental release.
Once again, don't get me wrong. Personally, I've been on the receiving end of the raging coaches. Coaches who will fling blame and hellfire at my students. That I will not stand for. But, it's a competition, and as such, I expect it to get a little dirty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Billfred
Normally, the drivers and college student coach have been cooped up together for the entire six weeks and have already had plenty of time for personalities to gel.
The only two exceptions to college students coaching were in 2011; at Peachtree that year, all of our college students were prevented from traveling by an exam that Friday that was announced Monday of that week. Since I was the only mentor on the trip with coaching experience, I took the role. (I like to think that turned out okay.) At Championship that year, the regular coach asked me to tag in for a mental health break after some really taxing matches. I probably would've needed the same in the same situation. In any case, I'm more than happy to be the backup.
|
But that's exactly my point. Drive teams function so differently with different people. Even the human player brings something to the dynamic of the drive team. Changing up the dynamics during the season (even if it's one trusted mentor to another), introduces unwanted variables to an already volatile process.
Anyways, I suppose this specific topic is really "whatever works for your team" deal. I've known teams that have drive team rotations so that many people get to take the bot for a spin.
- Sunny G.