Mentors on drive team

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by big1boom

Lets see....
1) Younger, thus, faster reflexes
2) Most likely played video games, and capable of processing multiple streams of information faster.
3) The student coach will hopefully be one of the friends of the drivers, and will be able to communicate with them based on their prior experiences.
4) A student coach should have had experience in previous years as scout, or driveteam. Hopefully this will push them to notice the little things that are important.

I realize that not all teams are capable of fielding an effective drive coach, but I do believe that the vast majority of team could perform just as well if they implemented a student coach.


Almost all FIRST teams have students for 4 years. This allows plenty of time for progression up the ranks to coach. For example, by the time students are Seniors on my team, they have assumed the role of active mentor. The main job of the Seniors is to train the future team to be successful. And my team is run out of a 3 year high school(soph-senior), so (almost) no students are on the team for 4 years.

Younger != faster reflexes. You are making the false assumption that "adult" means ancient and slow and frail. You realize I count as an "adult" as does my younger brother. I'm pretty sure that we have at LEAST equivalent reflexes to any student out there.

Played video games? REALLY? Multiple information streams... ok, come watch my development method sometime, 2 machines, 3 monitors, hundreds of tabs... I never lose anything. Age/video gaming has nothing to do with information processing.

Friends? Sometimes that is a downside, when a coach says to do something the driver needs to do it not take it as a suggestion from a friend.

As an adult I've scouted, driven, and coached. I also have 8 years of watching events, that experience is never a hindrance. I also have the benefit of knowing many of the other coaches and am able to formulate an educated guess on what they will do based on my interactions with them. How many students can claim that?

Heck, if your next argument is that we adults get tired and cranky too easy (since that would complete the rest of this stereotype) I would encourage you to try to keep up with me for a day, should be pretty easy right? After all, I'm old and slow and can't process information.

Excuse me, I have to go see the attendant about my sleeping pills for my nap. Where did I put my cane?