Student or Adult Coach

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by TylerS

If your goal is to win matches (it might not be) then pick the best person for the job.

This might be a student, mentor, support animal, whatever. The hard part isn't deciding between a mentor or student it's about identifying the individual on your team who will best fill the role of a coach and how to do that is a whole other discussion.

BRB, giving my dog all my 1923 shirts & freeing up weekends

Joking aside, this is pretty much it. Each team is gonna do what's right for them, and as long as the team itself is happy overall with the decision, then it's all gravy. I like to think our kids are happy with me as a coach, but if our student leadership ever approached me with a solution they thought might be better for our goals as a team, I'd be more than willing to give it a shot.

In my experience, a great deal of coaching success comes from striking a balance - between being confident and headstrong enough to make a call regarding the match, and being gracious & accommodating enough to be an agreeable and likeable partner for quals and elims alike.

That is a trait of maturity, which (for the most part) is achievable at any age.

[Lij2015]

If you have a student qualified enough to do it, the experience is amazing. I've never driven with a mentor drive coach before so I don't know the difference from a drive prospective, but if you're team isn't a regional powerhouse type team I can imagine it would get them taken more seriously with an adult coach.

[GeeTwo]

Apart from two or three matches our rookie year, we've always had a student coach. If we found ourselves without a single student capable of the role, we would have had an adult there, but it's a bit of team culture that if there is a student who has shown him/herself capable of the job, the job goes to a student. Whenever feasible, the adults are mentors, advisors, and consultants rather than directors of team activities. It may not be best decision in terms of being competitive as a team, but this policy has helped us grow an awesome crop of upperclassmen and alumni. And that's what it's all about: inspiring and developing the next generation of (tech) leaders.

[snoman]

Let me start by saying I have seen some very bad adult coaches. They try to take over figuratively if not literally. They try make up for shortcomings they have experienced in the past.
That being said a student off of our Drive team asked for an adult mentor to coach.
The reasons they gave were they didn't feel another student would be comfortable correcting them if they did something wrong. Also to mitigate the intimidation Factor of another teams overzealous adult Drive coach

[3175leheh]

We've always had a student coach, because we've found that our drivers and operators (also students) relate and understand the student coaches better, and they believe that they're on the same level, instead of a teacher-student dynamic.

[Chief Hedgehog]

What is this program about?

For me it is about creating an environment for students to further their own development. This program is also so advanced (compared to many other HS programs) that the mentor role is crucial.

It took me a few seasons, but I do understand the need for some teams to place an adult in the Drive Coach position. Depending on how the students adapt, it may be best to have an adult in the Coach role. I also understand that some teams have an adult in this role because 'that is how we have always done it'.

Neither is wrong. I have been fortunate to have very mature students that understand the game at a level better than most mentors. I have also always coached my students up to take these leadership roles.

All of that stated, I would not hesitate to put in one of my mentors as the Drive Coach if I felt it was warranted. However, I have not reached that point yet - and that is a kudos to my drive team.

[NShep98]

I personally am in the "Do what's best for your team" boat. There's a reason this poll is going so evenly.

As far as I am aware, my team has always had a student coach, for reasons I won't bother repeating. Our rule, though, is that the coach is required to have been one of the two drivers in previous years. This year is my first time driving, and the coach is a senior who was the main driver last year. It makes me feel better to have a coach with such direct experience in my role.

[EricH]

I have heard of one possible solution to the "overzealous other team's coach" problem.

Student coach, Mentor attends strategy meeting with the drive team. Keeps the overzealous coaches in line, at least in theory.

[Squillo]

Ours is a young adult, team alum, former driver. Why? Because we have a very small team this year, and the students are all very busy building (or in the pits, repairing), programming, scouting, analyzing, and driving. It's just a matter of a shortage of personnel. Two drivers and HP have to be students, a couple of students run scouting, and the rest are mainly builders or programmers. We basically don't have a student to be coach, heck, we don't even have enough drivers this year (we usually have a few backups but this year I think we only have one).

[Sperkowsky]

We have a student coach who is only a Sophomore but, she is good at it. She knows the rules very well and communicated extremely well. We have never had an adult coach as our team is very student run but, I have nothing against an adult coach.

[wazateer1]

Originally Posted by NShep98

Our rule, though, is that the coach is required to have been one of the two drivers in previous years.

I have only just this year begun to focus on match/alliance strategy heavily on my team, but never have been a driver before. I would really like to continue to be in strategy next year, but am a junior, and not the driver this year. What do drivers gain from playing the game that a good coach needs?

Our coach is a student, and (as far as I am aware) hardly ever even drives our practice bots. For the record I feel like he is at least as good a leader as any mentor on our team.

[NShep98]

Originally Posted by wazateer1

I have only just this year begun to focus on match/alliance strategy heavily on my team, but never have been a driver before. I would really like to continue to be in strategy next year, but am a junior, and not the driver this year. What do drivers gain from playing the game that a good coach needs?

Our coach is a student, and (as far as I am aware) hardly ever even drives our practice bots. For the record I feel like he is at least as good a leader as any mentor on our team.

The reasoning behind this rule is based on the premise that the coach now knows how a driver thinks, and is better able to be effective that way. On top of that, they have now had experience with the stress that comes with being a part of the drive team.

I will say again, do what is best for your team. This system works for us, but not necessarily for you.

[BobbyVanNess]

We've been running student coaches since 2011. It works. It just takes some additional effort to ensure that the drive team dynamic is good and strategy is adaptable on the fly. We have a strategy leader/lead drive team mentor position that trains the drive team and mitigates any nonsense in alliance strategy. We also go over the backup plan with the drive coach for every match.

Having a student coach puts a little more weight on the drivers and takes a lot of time and practice to get a student to the point where they can run the drive team effectively. But as long as we can field a competitive student coach, we probably will continue to do so.

[BeardyMentor]

It depends almost entirely on the human resources available to an individual team. We try and use a student as a drive coach because none of our mentors really want to do the job of the drive coach. There are many reasons to have a mentor be a coach and equally as many to have a student do it. There really is no right answer. Find what works for your team abilities, culture and strategy and do that.

When we select our drive coach, we first look for the ability to be calm and observant. After that we look for the ability to stand up to adult coaches that may not have OUR teams best interests in mind or not on board with a strategy we know works for us and calmly explain why we are not jumping to do what they want us to do. Equally important is the ability to be diplomatic in negotiations with other teams with regards to strategy before, during, and after the match.

If for some reason we cant find these qualities in a student a mentor will step up and fill in until we can get someone. Luckily, we have only ever had one match where a student was not able and a mentor had to fill in.

[Citrus Dad]

We've made it to Einstein with both a student (2013) and adult (2014, 2015) coach. I used to be strongly for a student coach but now I can see the advantage FOR OTHER TEAMS ON THE ALLIANCE of an adult coach. It helps that we have one of the best adult coaches going, so I can see what's an almost optimal set up. An adult coach first commands more respect from the other teams (and probably it better at recognizing when other teams have better leadership at the moment). And second an adult coach is probably better able to step back and look at the entire alliance. Plus the continual experience allows the adult coach to develop lessons learned.

We give our students substantial drive coach experience in the fall at off season events. We run multiple bots and usually go to 3 events. We also try to give our young mentors that experience as well.

But I don't have a strong opinion on which is preferred. I'd rather see an insightful student coach than an inept adult coach. And student coaching is a great opportunity to develop leadership. I would hope that an adult drive coach might recognize budding leadership skills and step aside when they recognize a great talent.