Being the drive coach

[indubitably]

Right off the bat, just the fact that you are asking all of these questions tells me that you will do just fine at your first competition as a coach, taking the role seriously will result in quick adaption and success.

Regardless, teams have many different uses for coach but generally the coach is the most strategic mind on the drive team. This year the coach may be more important than ever as it would seem that this years game is among the deepest in terms of in-game strategy. The way that you choose to communicate and decide upon strategy is ultimately up to you but most teams will have a preset strategy going into a match.

Before every match, it is common to discuss strategy with your alliance partners. You may have to go find them, but they may also come to you. Be confident in your knowledge of the game rules and don't be afraid to speak your opinion on what strategy you think will be the most effective and why. Even teams that may seem to be set in their ways with what they want to happen in a match admire confidence and competency in a drive team.

As far as in game coaching goes, you will just have to figure out the most effective way to communicate with your drive team members and this year, other coaches as well. Some things to keep track of may be time remaining, status of you alliance members, and effectiveness of current strategy.

In eliminations, the alliance captain will have the biggest say in what strategy will be implemented but it is still a very collaborative effort.

Don't try to burn yourself out and do everything at once, just make sure what you are doing is effective and you will be fine, good luck!

[LeelandS]

Welcome to the Coaching Game! I'm going to preface this with coaching is one of the most emotionally and physically draining experiences I've ever encountered. It's a full time job during competitions, but it is extremely enjoyable and rewarding in the end. So I hope you enjoy your first competition as coach!

As far as preparing your team goes, drill them in real match settings as much as possible. My old team used to blare music throughout our practice area and have kids cheer and scream next to the field. Tip: On Friday and Saturday of competitions, things get really loud. You need to make sure your drivers can hear, and you can make yourself heard.

Drill them on things your team strategy will required. Trussing, passing, receiving passes, catching and scoring are all things you may want to try. If you don't have another team's robot available, have humans simulate their actions, like passing, trussing, receiving passes, etc. Just be careful!

Rule knowledge is important. I, personally, don't like to direct my drivers every action. I like to give them main strategic points (pass forward-right, receive back-left, set up to catch) as opposed to step by step instructions (turn 90 degrees clockwise and drive, keep going, keep going...), so it's important my driver knows what he can and cannot do to avoid fouls. Overall your drivers should know the big points to avoid costing your alliance the match for a dumb reason.

Memorizing strategies is where things start to get tricky. For this game especially, I think you need to know less specific strategies and more ways your robot can accomplish a task. When the three teams of an alliance meet, they all have common goals: To win, and to gain as much as they can to influence their seeding (i.e. assist points). Remember that. Each team will have their own ideas on how to accomplish this. This is a mutual discussion. You are all equal, don't let another team try to impose their strategy on you if you do not feel comfortable with it, and vice-versa. Discuss match roles with your partners based on who is the most capable for the position, and what strategy has the greatest chance of success against your specific opponents. Make sure you and your drive team (as well as all members of the other teams) understand the strategy. Tip: DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE STRATEGY. There are few greater ways to lose respect in the community then to deviate from a strategy and steal the spotlight, especially if you cost the alliance the match. Just stick to the strategy.

In-match, there is going to be a lot of inter-team communication. Make sure you know who is passing and who is receiving (have your partners shout "Team xxxx passing" and respond with "Team yyyy receiving", or something like that). Just make sure you keep good, audible communication in-match. Other than that, it's up to how practiced your drivers are. Make sure they stay focused on the match, and on what you are staying.

In eliminations, strategy does change some-what, because you and your alliance partners are focusing on long-term success, rather than just one match. It's really up to you how you want to handle it. I try to treat it like an even fielded discussion, but in the end, I leave it up to the alliance captain to decide. They picked their alliance, they earned the right to direct how we play. But that's just me. Other than that, the same holds true for the rest of the game.

Post-match is extremely important. If you win, celebrate with your team. If you lose, make sure to stay positive. It can get very difficult to keep team morale up if you're racking up losses, but it is important not to let your team get disheartened! Wins and losses are meaningless in everything except ranking. If you perform well, the good teams will recognize this in scouting. Play your all every match, and always discuss with your team on what they can do to improve next round. Never stop improving! You can always get better.

I hope this helps!
-Leeland

[DampRobot]

Because everyone else has posted such great stuff, I'll keep my comments brief. This experience comes first hand, as well as from listening to many of "the greats".

You should work closely with your scouts, before and after matches. You should never go into a match not having a good idea of who you're competing with and who you'll be facing.

Don't get tunnel vision to your team. Especially if your drivers know what your role is in a match, you can sometimes make far more difference coaching annother mediocre robot to great defense than by telling your team what they already know to do. This is even more true in elims, when how a third seed plays will often make or break an alliance.

Finally, and most importantly, your job as coach is to tell your drivers how much more time they have and what the score is. They don't have time to look at the scoreboard in a match, and them having this information is critical. More so than anything else, this is your job as soon as the match begins.

To review:
1) Know thine enemy (and alliance partners).
2) Work with other teams during the match, if appropriate.
3) Never leave your alliance partners guessing about time or score.

[Nemo]

Your drivers have tunnel vision since they will be super focused on your team's robot. There is a lot of other stuff going on that they won't be aware of, so the coach should try to pay attention to those things: the score, the clock, and the other five robots. That is pretty challenging, because your instinct is to watch your own robot.

Sometimes the drivers won't give up on a task that isn't working. Your fans in the crowd will be asking "why don't they give up on that and do the other thing?" Drivers have a certain expectation of what is going to happen, and under the time crunch of an intense match they are often poor at changing tactics when things go differently than expected. The coach should try to have the presence of mind to recognize those situations and make adjustments.

[BoilerMentor]

I have been a drive team coach for many years both as a student and as an adult mentor. I have coached both a rookie team and veteran teams.

As drive coach, your role at a very minimum will be to keep your drivers focused at the task at hand. Ultimately you have to do what your drivers need you to do and as you've spent some time coaching you’ll get a feel for that. It isn't something we’ll be able to tell you. Some drivers need a lot of work; some only need a little bit. At competition, while in interactions with other teams, your role will be to act as an advocate for your team. The drive coach should be present in the discussions of strategy with other teams, ahead of a match, in the pits (Not in the cue). They should be familiar with both the teams on their own alliance and with the teams they will be competing against. Keep track of your drivers and make sure you know the match schedule well.

A timeline of events from before a match to after a match goes like this:
Teams start out by getting together in the pits to discuss strategy for the upcoming match. Teams work together to figure out what the best role will be for all robotics involved in the match and also discuss potential issues with the opposing alliance including working offense and potentially defense. The drive coach makes sure all the drivers are present with the robot and all are ready to cue at the appropriate time. While in the cue, go over the robot and make sure it is ready for the match, confirm strategy with the other alliance member and make sure the level of function of all the robots has not changed. The coach may also have to run and get anything that is missing. Here is where many teams differ and you need to plan ahead of time what you want to do. Sometimes the coach will help carry the robot onto the field. Sometimes the coach is simply in charge of moving things out of the way for the students. I, personally, allow the students to handle everything and do what they need me to do. When the match starts, make sure your drivers do not jump in during autonomous. They must stay behind the line. After the match, assist in taking everything off the field and debrief with the drive team. This is the time to talk about how a driver could have done things differently, give them praise for things in the match, or whatever you need to do. It may be wise to use the roses, thorns, and buds techniques. Tell the students things they did well (Roses), things they could improve on (thorns), and things that are starting to look good but could still use work(Buds). Be sure to keep the message positive overall.

This week, try to get a feel for what your drivers need. Run timed matches, don’t just drive. Set the clock and start. Even practice load on and load off so you have a feel for what the role of each drive team member is.
As far as being familiar with the rules, focus on the things that can earn you fouls. Communicate frequently with your human player because he/she is a very important part of the drive team and this year can rapidly incur a large amount of foul points easily.

As far as the strategies go, this is your most important role as a coach. As a drive coach you will be the advocate for your team in making sure your robot’s strengths are incorporated into your alliances strategies. Often coaches, especially adult coaches, can be pushy when it comes to strategy decisions and it is important to remember to hold your ground especially when you feel as though you have a good grasp for your team’s performance and strengths and you feel as though they are going to be misused in that particular match. Teams will often misrepresent their performance in a strategy meeting and you need to be able to identify and gently correct those situations while also being realistic about what your robot can do. Over-inflating your performance only hurts your alliance as a whole.

During a match, coaches interact with each other and this year inter-alliance communication will be critical, especially later in the season or in eliminations. I tend to think coaches will play a large role in this season. While interacting with other coaches, stay calm, keep your tone even, but speak loudly enough to be heard over the sounds of competition. Generally coaches need to stay close to their drive team but if you need to move to relay a message to another alliance member, that is perfectly reasonable.

During eliminations, most of the strategy time should be spent between matches and not while you are preparing for a match in the cue. Often cuing positions of the opposing teams will be nearby and you don’t want to give up your edge with an opposing alliance. Generally speaking, there is no problem asserting yourself if you feel strongly about a position and have data to support your position. We have always treated eliminations as an open discussion but it seems to be the alliance captain that makes the call. We have been able to persuade the captain with scouting data, however. Strategy discussions should generally be closed-door with only drive teams. Don’t bring your whole team.

Best of luck at competition! If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a private message.

[brrian27]

This is my second year of being the drive coach for our team, and I really enjoy it! The job really gets you more involved in what is happening in competition, and helps you meet other teams.

Last year, one of my biggest tasks was making strategies with our alliance members. Go well in advance to your alliance members and work out a basic strategy with them. I would usually take along our human player to help. Keep in mind their abilities and what their best roles would be. Sometimes you have to tell a team what you need them to do, and sometimes you have to act as the dominant member of the alliance. Other times, another alliance member may tell you what to do.

During a match, I think the coach has a much larger role this year. You must coordinate with the other teams on your alliance about assisting and other roles. The action on the field isn't too fast-paced, so you'll be able to be aware of everything that is going on. Additionally, you are the contact between your drivers and human player. Make sure they are on sync with their tasks.

I hope you enjoy being the drive coach. It really is an awesome job! Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

Good luck this year.