Training for Drive Coaches

[wilmo]

There really is no substitute for on field experience. A few things that will help though would be:

1. KNOW THE RULES!!! This is very important. Read the game manual front to back at least a few times.

2. Research team #'s. See who will be attending your regional/s. Look them up and research team past/colors/robot building styles/Drivers (very important on big #'s like 111, 1114, 148 and such where the drive team may be the same for all 4 years and have ALOT of experience)

3. Know your robot. Memorize where every wire goes, learn at least basics about everything, even if you didn't have a part in constructing it. This is very important when you set the robot down and see that one PWM dangling out the bottom. Know its limitations. Its frustrating for drivers to hear a coach telling them to do something impossible.

A few more tips:

1. Be patient. If a driver messes up, he messes up. Assess the situation from that point and try to make the best of it. Driving a FRC bot can be one of the most stressful experiences in FIRST, especially with your entire team is counting on you.

2. Dont be afraid to move around. So many FRC coaches stand behind their drive team and just concentrate on their bot. The GDC does not give us that big area just to stand in one place. Move around! Talk to the other coaches, act as a 2nd pair of eyes for your driver (especially important in big clusters of robots and big game elements (see 2007)) Announcements such as time left, or if the other alliance is in position to score big should be made to the WHOLE alliance, not just your drivers.

3. Stop looking at your robot! This is a big tendency. Look at the field/other robots/scoring elements. Only a few quick glances should be directed to your robot to see where it is, if it is ready to score. Keep track of all the other robots/what they are doing.

4. Talk to your human player. This was very important last year. They can act as another set of eyes too if needed.

Thanks,
Wilmo

[NickE]

One thing to keep in mind is that different drive teams require different types of coaching. Some drive teams need direct-micromanagement with the coach telling them to "drive forward, now turn left, now raise arm", where others just need a simple "go over there and score that game piece."

[BrendanB]

I would like to second the "be patient with the drivers comment". When driving a robot, things will happen and the robot will behave differently under certain circumstances. I've had our traction control mess up on me while I drove and the coach was yelling, "turn turn turn!" and I couldn't which I told him which made him yell it louder and telling me that I can turn. Along with other experiences both this year and last year.

Watching videos of matches really helps, I was able to pick up on some tricks by watching teams play at the championship which came in handy when coaching at an off-season last year as well as when I drove and operated.

I've driven both with student and coaches as the drive coach several times, and I personally prefer to have a student coach. You spend more time with the students both interacting and at competitions so you already have a closer connection with them in many ways so working with them is a whole lot easier. And if they were a driver in previous years or earlier in the year, they know exactly what to tell you and they observe what the other robots are doing and communicate it with you.

Also drive coaches and drivers both should have a good conversation with the scouting team/head scout to discuss teams and strategies for the upcoming matches. Having these little meetings and having the ability to ask even the smallest questions about a robot's performance is key in a match when you need to make a quick decision.

brendan

[robodude03]

Originally Posted by NickE

One thing to keep in mind is that different drive teams require different types of coaching. Some drive teams need direct-micromanagement with the coach telling them to "drive forward, now turn left, now raise arm", where others just need a simple "go over there and score that game piece."

That is absolutely true. I have coached for several drive teams and each has it's own dynamic. Before competitions I ask the drivers what they want of me as a coach in terms of timing, scoring, driving, etc. In the end what they ask of me usually gives me a good idea of where that particular drive team stands and how it needs to be managed. It's at that point that I would focus on feeding them information they need to hear at the appropriate time. Additionally, I found that both the drive team and the coach had to adapt to the competition. It took our team a match or two to finally hit the right stride in terms of communication.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by wilmo

2. Research team #'s. See who will be attending your regional/s. Look them up and research team past/colors/robot building styles/Drivers (very important on big #'s like 111, 1114, 148 and such where the drive team may be the same for all 4 years and have ALOT of experience)

If you want you CAN delegate this to your scouts. My team didn't do pre-event scouting so I personally did it this year, but it's not a bad idea at all for the coach to be involved in scouting. Good scouts make good coaches.

[Josh Goodman]

Chris that is very true. My Freshman year, I took over the role of head scout in Atlanta and then started coaching my sophomore year. Scouting and Coaching are very similar in many ways.

I student coached my team for the past three years and even though it may be regurgitation of other's comments, I would have to say for a sound coach, practice on the field and in competitions is number one. No matter what you do, no coach will be a pro after their first year. A lot of what helped shape me as a coach during my rookie years was experience coaching along side veteren/pro coaches like Ken Patton, JVN, and Jason Rees (to name just a few). Each year I did it I got more confident at the job until the point where the duties and tasks and strategies and what not have been driven into me. But I'll give my list so you hopefully have a good Rookie coach this year. You will see a lot of my comments are not how to train the coach after he is selected so to speak but how to choose the right one so that the training is easier.

1) Promote competition when trying to earn the position of coach in build season. If there are multiple students interested, they will try and prove to you why they deserve to be coach. I remember my sophomore year, I kept playing the "Rack N' Roll Simulator" Game against fellow wannabe coaches. This kept me on my toes, gave me more strategy ideas and was a lot of fun to.

2) Make a Game Quiz. For 1511, our entire team needs to take a quiz on the current game. I would suggest making a short quiz (maybe 20-30 questions) directly out of the rule book (NO OPEN NOTES) and have everyone that wants to be coach get a 100% on the quiz. This guarantees they know the rules inside and out.

3) When choosing a drive team, one of the most important things to include is team chemistry. Sometimes there will be a really good cohesive driver and co-driver, but when you throw a certain coach in there, nothing really blends. It's your call, but I know we have found more success when there was already a good bond between the members. Drama on the drive team is the last thing ANYONE wants.

4) Make sure the coach can command the respect of his drivers. This directly ties into the statement #3. As much as I hate to use this analogy, the drivers are tools. They need to listen to their coach no matter what their belief. If the coach says "go pick this up" and the driver spends time to argue, that isn't a good mix.

5) Finally, do lots of practicing with different team combinations. If the robot is already shipped (Hopefully you've picked your coach before that point), you can even do this with other robots from previous years.

Now, being a week 1 regional it's very hard to get in a lot of training but here's what I would suggest.

1) Go over strategies with your drive team, if you have a completed robot, test them out with it. Also, test them out again when you get to the competition on the practice fields.

2) Read the rules and all updates. A lot. Seriously. Do it.

3) After each match during the competition, go over what went well, what didn't, what you can do next time to fix it.

And my advice to whoever you happen to pick: Be Confident, Be smart, Be Assertive, Be Enthusiastic, Be a Leader, and Be Yourself. I think you will find your first regional as the biggest training help ever. Although you may not get the best record (my team went 3-8 at my first regional coaching), it is invaluable to get behind that driver station and start that training. You WILL get better at it over the year and years to come. Good Luck!