Being the drive coach

[Chadfrom308]

I have been on the drive team the last 3 years with my beat friend, Johnny, and have had 4 different coaches. This is what I like as a driver.

Don't be my first coach that would stand right in between the middle of me and Johnny and tell us exactly what to do. The drivers know what they want to do, they don't need to hear that they need to be a little to the left, or that the ball is right there. They know that and they don't need to hear it again. Also, give us some breathing room (read: don't stand in the middle of the two drivers)

Do tell the drivers what is happening around them. Did a team break down? Is there a blocking opportunity? Am I about to get a red card? You know, small things like that. Drivers don't talk to other teams (in the middle of a match), that's the coaches job. Are we going to pass the ball or catch or throw? Tell the drivers that stuff, the stuff that involves other teams.

In past years, where the game was more independently based (like cycleing in UA, RR, and logomotion) we would literally tell the coach to only give us the time. That was it. Johnny and I wanted to know the time every 10 seconds or so, and that was it other than alliance things (breaking robots/coopertition).

Ultimately, its what the driver want and need. The drivers know what they are doing, so let them do it, unless it is illegal, or, has to do with alliance things.

Also, a pre-flight checklist is also good for a coach to make and check every match.

[nicholsjj]

It's great that you are taking on the challenge of being your team's drive coach. It is a difficult and taxing job during competition, but it can be extremely fun during competition.
The first thing that I want to point out is that you will more than likely be the most visual person on your team to every other competing team in the competition. You need to know every single thing about your robot in order to accurately set a good strategy with your alliance. You also will need to be the most gracious professional on your team throughout the day. That encompasses not exaggerating your robot's abilities during pre-match strategy, not yelling at the referees when you feel slighted by a critical call, and by never blaming the drives for a poor on field performance. Developing pre-match strategy's can be the most important factor due to team's different feelings at that point in the tournament. My personal feelings are that the match strategy should be made in order to best win the current match but another team might want to "try" a new autonomous or new "goalie" stick when it might not be the best situation. This is where you would need to keep a level head and even sometimes bring in other team captains or mentors to make a final decision as a group. Also, once you decide on a strategy make sure your drives follow it even if they do not want to, a good pat on the back of the head works for this .
The other point I wanted to talk to you about is your practice time this week. Work on game specific situations in practice this week such as: human loading/unloading, assisting, truss tossing, pulling a motor pwm from a motor controller, missing an autonomous shot, etc. In order to have a better feel for matches and to learn more about what your robot and drivers are capable of. Another thing that I like to do is blindfold my drivers to where they can only listen to me while driving. This make both parties better in communication, but make sure to have your thumb by the disable button on your driver station . Good Luck this Season!

[Libby K]

Everyone's said pretty good things so far- Sean, Justin, and Calvin especially. Just wanted to touch on something I also find pretty important.

Originally Posted by Justin Montois

Above all else, this. Often times your teammates will question one thing or another even when you're winning. You need to keep the drive team focused and positive. When you return to the pit after especially a loss everyone wants to know what happened or why you did this or that, you need to keep the drive team focused on the next match.

This one's especially important in my head. After a loss (or even a winning match not going the way you'd planned) there tends to be this swarm of non-drive-team-students, either along the walk back to the pit or in the pit, going 'what happened, why did we do this?' While it's certainly important to review what happened in matches and fix any issues going on, make sure you're keeping your drivers out of that frenzy. Especially during the already-stressful elims. Keep them calm, positive, and focused on the next match.

On 1923 this is pretty easily solved, as we have one mentor who's our drive coach, and another who's the 'pit boss'. When the robot comes back, drive team reports whatever issue is happening and passes on any relevant info, and the mentors and students stationed in the pit help take care of it without putting too much extra stress on the drivers. As Calvin said, other students who know how to prep the robot before a match can let your drive team relax before they're meeting with their next alliance partners.

Sean touched on this as well, but it's important for a drive coach to help act as a buffer around the students sometimes - when things go wrong, the coach needs to have thick enough skin to deal with things calmly and keep the team positive.

[who716]

also as a coach it is important to be able to switch strategy quickly and not be stuck with the first thing you planned on doing. Also for this game in particular I feel it will be important to remind your drivers of a few things, 1) making sure all the Auto balls have been scored, 2.) keeping track of the assist points for your team. 3.) time left in the game 4.) keep track of human players position.

[Keiko]

Thank you so much to all of you who gave advice.

Really has helped me feel more confident and ready for competition this weekend