[ttldomination]

In the past couple of years, I've often wondered if an alliance wide coach, a person I've deemed as the supercoach, would be a beneficial role. More specifically, the supercoach is the person who would control the alliance as a whole and direct teams with respect to a predetermined strategy.

Considering this year's game, I think the supercoach is more relevant than ever. With robots having quite a few possible positions, tasks, and goals (each of which can change as quickly as a ball changes possession) alliances are going to need to coordinate on an unprecedented level to ensure that each robot is exactly where it's needed.

Two minutes go by fast, so more than likely, the supercoach would be behind all three drive teams either yelling out movements or hurrying over to a coach/team to give them specific instructions.

There are some questions that arise from this:
Where does the supercoach fit into a drive teams?
Well, this year's game only requires two human players (one in the far zone and one delivering balls from the pedestal to the field). The supercoach's team would have to use their human player as their acting-coach.

Is this viable during qualifications?
Perhaps not. In qualifications you have to contend with (a) explaining the concept to other teams, (b) trusting that a good supercoach is picked, (c) trusting that the teams on your alliance are willing to orders from a supercoach, or (d) teams not having a human player capable of coaching. Any combination of these four issues could mean that the alliance isn't a good fit for a supercoach. However, qualifications would be a good test run/proof of concept for supercoaching.

Just a thought,
- Sunny G.