[Chris Fultz]

other than a few off-season events, 234 has always had an adult mentor as field coach. it is always an experienced mentor.

one of the keys, in my view, is consistency. except in a rare circumstance, we do not switch anyone on the drive team once the season starts. it is important that the four people learn to communicate and anticipate each other. we talk strategy, other robots, review what we did in a match, etc. on the way to and from the field. we try to find a group of 4 that know the game, the strategy, the robot, and can also work together as a team.

in past years, the coach and some other positions were 'rotated' or used as rewards. it was a mess, because of small mistakes that were made with a new coach or new human player that the experienced team had already worked out. someone just stepping in is more likely to make the small mistakes that lead to penalties. changing coaches was also tough on the driver / operator because they get used to a certain person and level of communication during tha match, and if it suddenly changes it can throw them off. by "rewarding" someone, we actually hurt our team and our alliance from an inconsistent level of play.