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Re: Adult vs. Student coaches
This very debate came up on our team in the hotel on Friday night. We ran both students and adults as coaches in Cleveland and plan to run only students in Milwaukee.
I have coached for the last three years and stepped down this year (though I did go out for 2 matches) so that others, preferably students, can have the experience. Even though I was the only one out of 5 coaches that has had any FIRST coaching experience, all 5 coaches did well.
If a student goes into a pre-match meeting with a game plan in mind and strategy suggestions, there is no reason they should be ignored. As a coach, I never turned away an idea just because it came from a student coach. Anyone who does is NOT acting in the spirit of FIRST.
There is one example that was brought up at our meeting, however, that makes sense. All sports out there are coached by an older, experienced adult. FIRST is a sporting event, so should coaches also be older? Do adult mentors take away from the experience? No, I don't think so. To be honest, I've met a few coaches out there that can act less mature than student coaches.
Kev
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Team 71: 1999, 2000 (Driver), 2001-2002 (Driver, Animator) // Team 1064: 2003 (Co-founder, Coach), 2004 (Coach) // Team 1714: 2006-2007 (Mentor, Coach) Team 1675: 2005-2007 (Mentor, Coach), 2008 (Mentor), 2009-2017 (Mentor, Coach) FLL: '04 (Judge), '05 (Ref), '06 (Ref), '07 (Ref), '08 (Judge, Ref), '09 (Judge), '10 (Ref), '16 (Judge Advisor) // Ref: '05 (IN, IRI), '06 (IN, IRI), '07 (IN, IRI), '08 (WMR, Curie)
WI RPC: 2006 - 2016 // FRC Inspector: '07 (WI), '08 (WI, IL), '09 (WI, IL), '10 (WI, CMP), '11 (WI, IL, CMP), '12 (WI), '13 (Northern Lights) 2007 WI Woodie Flowers Award Finalist // 2011 Wisconsin Regional Outstanding Volunteer // 2011/2013 Midwest Regional Chairman's Award
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