On field Coach - Student or Adult

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Adam,
thanks for saying this.
Its what many mentors who are drive coaches feel who have done it for a long time.

Teams need to be honest about their capabilities. Be realistic. The frustration lies when people claim they can do things and absolutely cannot.

I would think that every alliance in every match wants to maximize their capabilities. Its starts by telling the truth.
The data doesnt lie.

Especially at regionals, we generally come the most prepared to the pre-match discussion (I get good scouting data, plus the scouts discuss and pass along an ideal plan to me). Also, since we're usually in contention for top 8, we're usually one of the few teams in the match (later in the days) that still are truly affected by win/loss.

However, even with that being said. I ALWAYS (barring a huge time crunch) ask the other teams what they would like to do to start the conversation. More often than not, they are pretty much in agreement, and we just elaborate on that and make a more formal plan.

From there, if there are disagreements. I explain my point of view (often many teams didn't initially understand the importance of assists this year for example) and their eyes usually light up and they go "OH!" and learn something new, and generally agree with us.

Rarely do we truly have a conflict down there, and we try to resolve it as best as possible. I will never FORCE a team do anything (not that I could), as a team that has a bad attitude about a plan will often not follow it. And I'd rather know pre-match they are doing their own thing, versus having it all fall apart during the match. Sometimes I will explain to teams that them showing off a feature versus playing smart to win the match is WORSE in terms of getting picked in most games, but I generally try to avoid getting down this route as often the argument is too far gone and no consensus can be reached.

I always end with asking if everyone is both happy and comfortable with the plan. I want it to be a discussion that leads to a consensus decision.

Even with all that, I still get complaints and compliments in cases where I wouldn't expect them. Times when it seems like everyone agrees and is happy, I'll get a complain that I "talked too much", when I was really just leading the discussion and everyone was included. Some of the times I walk away from a match where we had some tense discussion and I know no one felt good about it, and I'll get feedback that my honesty and thoroughness was appreciated, even if we disagreed.