Mentors as Drive Coaches?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Will Andrews

It seems to me that when the mentors get involved with the drive team they take away from the students. If you're telling the students exactly what to do in the matches then what's the point of even having the students drive the robots? Why not just let the mentors take over? Having mentors coach might make your team more successful but since when is the focus of the competition on winning matches?

Since it is a competition, the focus is on winning matches whenever you're on the field. Any time you're not on the field, the focus is not on winning matches, true. But if it's a competition, and it is, how are teams not supposed to focus on winning matches?

I think a lot of it has to do with coaching style. The best coaches will tell the drive team high level stuff like "There's one in the corner, go get it and score 3's" or "Go balance this bridge" instead of giving turn-by-turn directions. Or they'll coach to the drive team's level. And you're telling me that a student coach won't tell other students exactly what to do in the matches? That's one I would have a hard time believing across the board, though for individual student coaches I could certainly believe it.