I respect the decisions of teams on both sides of the fence. Many posters here have made the point that a coach needs to be chosen on a basis that fortifies the dynamic and goals of the team and I can not agree more. I can see where students can learn as a coach, and where students can learn by being coach by an adult. I do want to make the point that in both cases, there will be a few lessons unlearned. Unfortunately, we must accept this, and determine which is better for the team as a whole.
However, I want to give everyone another student's perspective based on my own experiences. In the case of an adult coach, the drivers are able to soak in a portion of the same lessons they could learn as the coach themselves. On 148, the drivers are often left to speak with other teams and form alliance cohesion for upcoming matches while our adult coach is off doing other things. As a two year JVN coached driver, I'm learning how to act, speak, and conduct myself as a professional in a gracious manner on the field, off the field, and in communication with other teams, just like I would coaching*.
There are simply too many ways drive teams can work to determine one specific way of running one. I can only speak for myself, but I feel that with an adult coach on 148, I have in no way missed out on any lessons I could possibly learn. I'm not sure that I would feel comfortable or be trusting enough of another student to coach me through matches. However, I have had the great pleasure of working under JVN, a great teacher and friend, so my opinion may be biased.
Wanting to win isn't necessarily a bad thing either. You can't say that winning and learning are opposites and take away from each other, because they simply don't. Winning will teach you to act with grace, professionalism, and humility. A large lesson every student on 148 had to learn last year was to win with humility. One way that some people look at winning and losing is which one you have more fun with. Personally, I have more fun when I'm doing well, whether it be sports or robotics. Winning builds confidence, and gives students an incentive to work hard. Many Wranglers worked harder than ever this year, soaked in everything they could from our mentors, and learned how to work hard under pressure, all because they wanted to go for two. Winning can be a tool of inspiration. Inspiration is what this is all about after all right?
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*148 is blessed enough to be able to compete in the VEX Robotics Competition with multiple robots. We take this opportunity to use student coaches, and I'd like for every team to think about using this as an identical opportunity for themselves. If your students feel that they want to be a coach, this is a great chance for them to gain the experiences that student coaches can earn. By competing in both competitions this way, your team will be able to get the best of both worlds. Maybe you can even use this as a chance to evaluate the best way your students learn and make a decision on how to run both teams in the future.
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...but that's just my view.
