Adult coach?

[pufame]

Originally Posted by Waynep

If you look at 6 teams that made it to the Einstein this year, all 6 of them had an adult coach behind the glass. There are many advantages to having an adult coach.

We all work hard for our teams reputations, and we don't want them tainted by others because of overzealous actions in the heat of battle. Having maturity and experience giving directions is greatly beneficial. A successful coach analyzes the entire field/game and does not just focus on his/her robot. Communication skills are important to as pointed out earlier in the thread.

...You don't win unless...

First off, I don't see how showing that 6 teams on Einstein had mentor coaches has ANYTHING to do with the argument at hand. So they may have had a successful year. Not that I'm accusing any of these teams of doing this and I really respect what those students on those teams have managed to accomplish, sure if we really wanted to have a successful year then it would have been easy to have professional trained engineers run the entire team. But, success on the field isn't what it is about, is it?

As to having student coaches "crack under pressure" or ruin the team reputation is completely and totally bogus. I have worked with dozens of different student coaches, not once did I ever see any of them lose focus, look only at their robot, or do any other action that made their team perform to less than their potential. In addition to this, even if the student coach were to crack under pressure, isn't FIRST the program where you want the student to learn how to cope with pressure? The students that coach these teams will presumably be some of the premier engineers in the United States in the coming years, would you rather have them learn to deal with pressure when they are competing in a high school robotics competition, or when engineering a military helicopter?

...FIRST isn't about winning...

Honestly, as a student working with students, sure we were all bummed when things didn't work out on the field, but never did it make us wish we had more of it done for us. We took this experience and made our next match that much better, and the match after that even better, and then our educations and careers after that the best they could possibly be.

I am not trying to attack any team, or anyone. I simply want as many students as possible to get the experience from FIRST I have been able to receive.