Quote:
Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92
There have been a lot of posts about jerk/rude/aggressive adult drive coaches, but I haven't seen any posts about jerk/rude/aggressive student drive coaches. The issue is the jerk/rude/aggressive drive coaches, irregardless of their age. If you think that those behaviors are exclusive to adults, you're kidding yourself. It has nothing to do with the rules about the age of who is eligible for the position.
|
Carl, this is a really interesting point. Having seen this from both the student and mentor side of things, I'd say that there's probably similar numbers of 'rude' student coaches as there are 'rude' mentor coaches out there - but their actions are interpreted much differently.
In the case of a rude student coach, more often than not, their actions seem to be due in part to a lack of 'wisdom' and/or 'maturity' in their position. More often than not, those who would fit into the 'rude' category are often teams that we can all empathize with - A team going into one of their final qualifying matches, with a number that you may or may not have heard before, their robot is 'awesome' - according to them, and they want to show their stuff before alliance selections with the hope of getting picked. More often than not, we seem to let these slide because in reality, we've probably all been there at least once and can empathize with a student that's pouring their heart and soul into their efforts and may come across as overly forceful or 'rude'.
Mentor Coaches can be a bit different, but can also come across in the same way as Student Coaches mentioned above. It seems like some of 'rude' mentor coaches fit a similar mold, where they're unreasonably forceful or just plain mean and have no real backing to be that way. When we encounter these people, it seems like they'll be rarely forgiven, and after being 'rude' enough times seem to end up on the collective 'do not pick' list.
I guess what I'm getting at here, is that there are two different kinds of 'rude' going on here - one is something that we can relate to, a by product of being in the heat of competition and having the dreams of an entire team riding on your shoulders with the other being something that we can't relate to, and that's just an unexplained attitude towards another team because of some random reason that isn't based in logic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92
Team 20 uses a student drive coach, but we understand and respect other teams' decisions to use mentors in this role. Let's face it, some of those mentors are phenomenal sources of inspiration. Those 9+ students on the field with that alliance all get to work closely with them. Would those students be more inspired if a student was on the field performing the same role as that inspirational mentor? Having students work closely with adult mentors who are role models in STEM is the way that FIRST aims to change culture and inspire young people to become leaders in STEM. Do not forget that the FIRST mission says "mentor" the exact same number of times it says "young people".
|
That, all of that.
Some of the most inspirational people in my FRC Career have been Mentor Coaches. Sharing a booth for a single match with the right person can be just enough to change an entire teams outlook on their season, or their FIRST experience. I can think of all of the times when I was a driver as a student and I would receive a comment from some of the mentor coaches that we played with and against in our travels and I can honestly say that a lot of the lessons they taught me or reinforced in me still stick with me now that I'm an 'Adult.'