On field Coach - Student or Adult

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by rcmolloy

Our team certainly enjoyed playing against Shockwave this year. You guys certainly were one of the more competitive teams in Galileo and also up in the PNW.

Thanks. You guys were certainly an awesome team to play against in the finals. You guys played great and earned your way to Einstein. Also, it was great hearing all the nice things your alliance had to say about us after the finals, and its why your alliance includes some of the most respected teams in FIRST.

[Koko Ed]

We use a student coach. It gives them a sense of ownership.

[notmattlythgoe]

2363 uses a student coach as well on our team. I can vouch that on several instances quick decisions made by her this season won us matches.

I think both sides have their advantages and disadvantages. Mentors will almost always have the experience, where students will always bring a fresh outlook on how to play.

I also agree 4488 had a killer robot, it was great being on Galileo with you. I just wish we had had an opportunity to meet you on the field during the qualification rounds.

[weberr]

If student achievement is you goal, then how you get that to happen can be done many ways and in different approaches each year. We have a phenomenal parent/mentor/coach who was previously a soccer coach. What makes him so special, is that he is able to assess the needs of the drive team: model structure, strategy and problem solving skills, as well as how to communicate and defuse a situation. As the students achieve during the year, our drive coach fades back promotes students to take over the role of drive coach. It is a win-win situation as students are set up for achievement rather than trusted into the position and having to swim.

Our team is small; we have about 17-18 students with 7-8 always in attendance, so having fantastic mentors/adults like our drive coach is almost a necessity. We are also a young team, with only four years under our belt. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to have 70 or more students on the team five years from now. Would that change our needs? I do not know.

[Jay O'Donnell]

1058 has a mentor that has been our drive coach for years, but he allows the students to decide what strategies we want to use and how we want to play, and then helps our drivers to do that. During offseasons we'll usually have a student coach as long as we have a student not already on drive team that we think can handle it.

[mrnoble]

This was the first year that we had adults (myself and a recent grad switched off with each other). It seemed to fit the needs of the game for our team, as the team was structured this year. It was lots of fun for me, as in ten years I had never been on the field. We'll reevaluate next year and do what's right.

[pandamonium]

We have a student as the on field coach but an adult alumni (me) support them. This prevents issues with overbearing teams and intense interactions between adult coaches. Pre match is alot for one person. Now you can have too many but an adult and student is a good fit. It also allows for the mentoring through working with adults that first is all about.

[E Dawg]

We use a student coach every year. Personally, I find it provides a sense of continuum for the student-run aspect of the team. We built the robot, so we get to field it (not that any of our mentors would do a bad job of coaching). Plus, it helps us practice being leaders and teaches us how to advocate for ourselves.

[kristinweiss]

Our team always has a student as the coach mainly because our team prides ourselves in being so student run

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by NorthernTaco

Our team always has a student as the coach mainly because our team prides ourselves in being so student run

Same here.

[dag0620]

We always use a student coach, as we try to have things as student ran as possible. Also, we don't really have any strategy intensive mentors on the team, so its usually a Senior who takes up that roll.

This year, we considered changing to using an adult coach, mainly do to our robot, and possible safety issues with it. It was felt having a responsible adult with authority on DT could prevent a volunteer or other team member from getting hurt in the rare event they tried to handle our robot. In the end we went with a student coach, and had no issues what so ever.

[Anupam Goli]

While we tried out having a mentor coach during an offseason event, we ultimately decided to have a student coach. With such a volatile mentor base (read: College students), we think having a student that is dedicated and can 100% attend every competition would be the best fit for the coaching position. Our student coach is very knowledgeable about the game and strategies, and is trained by our experienced mentors on how to coach. The scouting leader, scouting mentor, strategy mentor, and the coach all work on the match strategy though before the match is played.

[PayneTrain]

422 has been, to my knowledge, a team that has operated with a student coach since its inception up until this year. This was the first year where a perfect storm of sorts occured and the students asked me to coach. Students on 422 are very astute individuals who are very well suited to gaining an edge on the strategy and scouting of the games, but given student makeup of the team (all seniors and most juniors have well defined roles they enjoy on or off the drive team), the inability to identify a student we could plug into the role and have it work as well as an adult, and the game this year looking like it would be hell on a drive coach, I stepped in.

I was a drive coach in parts of 2010 and all of 2012, where we took objectively terrible robots to finalist appearances, and came back as adult this year to take an objectively mediocre robot to a top 25 finish on the division. Whether or not 422 moves back to a student, picks another adult, or keeps me is something to be done in our end-of-season review. I did enjoy my time as a drive coach every time I have done it, but this year especially has taken a toll on me. I do know I would definitely relinquish the role at the request of the drive team or if myself or others find a student who could bring a better perspective to the game than me.

[JohnFogarty]

I've been on both sides of the coin with this particular choice.

When I was a student on team 1102 it was understood that at both the FTC and FRC team level that our coach would be a student. I was that coach for 2 out of my 4 years on the team, and then I was one of the drivers the other 2 years. Honestly, I think I would have preferred an adult coach. The student coaches we had didn't seem to contribute much to the strategy, maybe that was just my team, or just the years I was on it.

Now that I'm one of the head mentors of 4901 we use a college student/adult coach for mainly leadership because our students are inexperienced. Plus our coach was a driver once himself. So he knows the pressure and tactics required of the position. Next year it might be different, I'm not sure yet. It all comes down to what we decide as a team.

[Nemo]

We use student coaches, but there was one year when I acted as the drive team coach. That works out pretty well in hindsight, because now I'm able to prepare a student to be the drive coach much better than I could if I didn't have that experience.

Preparing the drive team coach is a really important piece of the puzzle for a team that wants to be competitive. It is a bigger job than it looks, and there are a number of things about it that make it very challenging for a student. I would agree that it's a great experience for a student to have.