Thread: No more adult coaches
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Unread 24-06-2002, 03:33
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#0047 (ChiefDelphi)
  
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When the line between 'adult' and 'student' is thin..
Posted by colleen - T190 at 04/13/2001 2:32 AM EST


Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and WPI.


In Reply to: No more adult coaches
Posted by julia walsh on 04/12/2001 8:02 AM EST:



I think Deej spoke of it somewhere down the line on this thread, but he and I were on-field coaches for T190 this year.. together we have 12 years of FIRST experience and 8 years of driving experience (symmetrical too.. just the way Ken likes it ;-).. and both our positions on the team plus experience lead into us being chosen to coach..

But both being only sophomores (and recent transfers to WPI).. what are we, adult or student?

When we're out there.. unless you know us, you'd prolly think we're high schoolers.. and if such was the case 'not want to listen to us'.. but fact is, I listen to the person with the best ideas.. 'student' or 'adult'...

And I found that it was less that the 'adults' didn't want to listen as the 'students' didn't... adults tending to be a bit more compromising actually.. where as students went in with a set objective (most likely and normally decided with the help of advisors pre-match) and refused to comply to the alliance's needs...

It was a problem all around.. but I don't think it's fair to discrimate one group from the next.. especially when on some teams they are barely distinguishable..

The real problem was the different desires of teams.. in regionals it tended to be that teams wanted to 'do their thing' so they could know it worked and debug, etc.. in nationals it came more into some people aimed for 100points, some for 200pts, 300, 400, 500, etc.. and those varying desires made it difficult to convince teams to 'go for it all'.. when they were perfectly happy with less..

That's a problem with a game you can't 'win'.. there isn't really as common of a goal for teams as FIRST would like to think...

And as for adult coaches hitting the buttons.. maybe instead of worrying about age and stature of your coaches, worry about how well they know the rules.. it never happened on T190, although we can readily be mistaken for high schoolers, cause we knew the rules..

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