Adult vs. Student coaches

[TimCraig]

Our team has gone both ways. Our rookie year was 2004 (Stack Attack) and we put adult coaches on the field because we saw most of the other teams doing it. We also thought it would make things go better as a rookie team. The job of field coach was rotated through several of the adult mentors.

The next fall at a local competition I played floor coach for several matches and just got really irritated having to ride herd on the rest of the floor team so from then on until the last regional we did last year, we had student coaches. I do know that on one occasion the floor team abandoned our strategy because an adult coach on one of the other teams told them to so I sympathize with your assessment of that.

I was talked into coaching at the last regional we went to last year and did so through the practice matches and the qualifying matches Friday morning. At that point we'd been in first place most of the morning and then just before lunch slipped into 2nd place. However, the last match the rest of the floor team totally ignored my instructions so I figured why bother with the stress of coaching if they're not going to pay attention and didn't coach again. Coincidentally, they didn't win another match.

Personally, from the perspective of my team, I don't think any of the students have the presence to be good coaches on the floor. None have made the effort to understand the game and how to apply it to our robot.

I do agree with you that FIRST should make the rule one way or the other though. Few students are going to successfully negotiate with an adult in those situations.