Being the drive coach

[DampRobot]

Because everyone else has posted such great stuff, I'll keep my comments brief. This experience comes first hand, as well as from listening to many of "the greats".

You should work closely with your scouts, before and after matches. You should never go into a match not having a good idea of who you're competing with and who you'll be facing.

Don't get tunnel vision to your team. Especially if your drivers know what your role is in a match, you can sometimes make far more difference coaching annother mediocre robot to great defense than by telling your team what they already know to do. This is even more true in elims, when how a third seed plays will often make or break an alliance.

Finally, and most importantly, your job as coach is to tell your drivers how much more time they have and what the score is. They don't have time to look at the scoreboard in a match, and them having this information is critical. More so than anything else, this is your job as soon as the match begins.

To review:
1) Know thine enemy (and alliance partners).
2) Work with other teams during the match, if appropriate.
3) Never leave your alliance partners guessing about time or score.

[Nemo]

Your drivers have tunnel vision since they will be super focused on your team's robot. There is a lot of other stuff going on that they won't be aware of, so the coach should try to pay attention to those things: the score, the clock, and the other five robots. That is pretty challenging, because your instinct is to watch your own robot.

Sometimes the drivers won't give up on a task that isn't working. Your fans in the crowd will be asking "why don't they give up on that and do the other thing?" Drivers have a certain expectation of what is going to happen, and under the time crunch of an intense match they are often poor at changing tactics when things go differently than expected. The coach should try to have the presence of mind to recognize those situations and make adjustments.

[BoilerMentor]

I have been a drive team coach for many years both as a student and as an adult mentor. I have coached both a rookie team and veteran teams.

As drive coach, your role at a very minimum will be to keep your drivers focused at the task at hand. Ultimately you have to do what your drivers need you to do and as you've spent some time coaching you’ll get a feel for that. It isn't something we’ll be able to tell you. Some drivers need a lot of work; some only need a little bit. At competition, while in interactions with other teams, your role will be to act as an advocate for your team. The drive coach should be present in the discussions of strategy with other teams, ahead of a match, in the pits (Not in the cue). They should be familiar with both the teams on their own alliance and with the teams they will be competing against. Keep track of your drivers and make sure you know the match schedule well.

A timeline of events from before a match to after a match goes like this:
Teams start out by getting together in the pits to discuss strategy for the upcoming match. Teams work together to figure out what the best role will be for all robotics involved in the match and also discuss potential issues with the opposing alliance including working offense and potentially defense. The drive coach makes sure all the drivers are present with the robot and all are ready to cue at the appropriate time. While in the cue, go over the robot and make sure it is ready for the match, confirm strategy with the other alliance member and make sure the level of function of all the robots has not changed. The coach may also have to run and get anything that is missing. Here is where many teams differ and you need to plan ahead of time what you want to do. Sometimes the coach will help carry the robot onto the field. Sometimes the coach is simply in charge of moving things out of the way for the students. I, personally, allow the students to handle everything and do what they need me to do. When the match starts, make sure your drivers do not jump in during autonomous. They must stay behind the line. After the match, assist in taking everything off the field and debrief with the drive team. This is the time to talk about how a driver could have done things differently, give them praise for things in the match, or whatever you need to do. It may be wise to use the roses, thorns, and buds techniques. Tell the students things they did well (Roses), things they could improve on (thorns), and things that are starting to look good but could still use work(Buds). Be sure to keep the message positive overall.

This week, try to get a feel for what your drivers need. Run timed matches, don’t just drive. Set the clock and start. Even practice load on and load off so you have a feel for what the role of each drive team member is.
As far as being familiar with the rules, focus on the things that can earn you fouls. Communicate frequently with your human player because he/she is a very important part of the drive team and this year can rapidly incur a large amount of foul points easily.

As far as the strategies go, this is your most important role as a coach. As a drive coach you will be the advocate for your team in making sure your robot’s strengths are incorporated into your alliances strategies. Often coaches, especially adult coaches, can be pushy when it comes to strategy decisions and it is important to remember to hold your ground especially when you feel as though you have a good grasp for your team’s performance and strengths and you feel as though they are going to be misused in that particular match. Teams will often misrepresent their performance in a strategy meeting and you need to be able to identify and gently correct those situations while also being realistic about what your robot can do. Over-inflating your performance only hurts your alliance as a whole.

During a match, coaches interact with each other and this year inter-alliance communication will be critical, especially later in the season or in eliminations. I tend to think coaches will play a large role in this season. While interacting with other coaches, stay calm, keep your tone even, but speak loudly enough to be heard over the sounds of competition. Generally coaches need to stay close to their drive team but if you need to move to relay a message to another alliance member, that is perfectly reasonable.

During eliminations, most of the strategy time should be spent between matches and not while you are preparing for a match in the cue. Often cuing positions of the opposing teams will be nearby and you don’t want to give up your edge with an opposing alliance. Generally speaking, there is no problem asserting yourself if you feel strongly about a position and have data to support your position. We have always treated eliminations as an open discussion but it seems to be the alliance captain that makes the call. We have been able to persuade the captain with scouting data, however. Strategy discussions should generally be closed-door with only drive teams. Don’t bring your whole team.

Best of luck at competition! If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a private message.

[brrian27]

This is my second year of being the drive coach for our team, and I really enjoy it! The job really gets you more involved in what is happening in competition, and helps you meet other teams.

Last year, one of my biggest tasks was making strategies with our alliance members. Go well in advance to your alliance members and work out a basic strategy with them. I would usually take along our human player to help. Keep in mind their abilities and what their best roles would be. Sometimes you have to tell a team what you need them to do, and sometimes you have to act as the dominant member of the alliance. Other times, another alliance member may tell you what to do.

During a match, I think the coach has a much larger role this year. You must coordinate with the other teams on your alliance about assisting and other roles. The action on the field isn't too fast-paced, so you'll be able to be aware of everything that is going on. Additionally, you are the contact between your drivers and human player. Make sure they are on sync with their tasks.

I hope you enjoy being the drive coach. It really is an awesome job! Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

Good luck this year.

[Lil' Lavery]

I've been a drive coach on and off since 2006 (mostly on), so I'll do my best to answer your questions. Let me know if you have any others, or if you'd like any more information.

Generally before each match teams will go around and attempt to talk with the other drive teams on their next alliance, in order to discuss the strategy they will follow. Figure out who on your drive crew, whether it be you, your drivers, your scouts, or some combination of the above, will engage in these discussions. Sometimes, when matches are close together, this discussion will get pushed back until you're in the queue line right before a match. But generally try to do it at least 10 minutes ahead of time, to give teams time to communicate the strategies to their drivers.

More often than not, I find that teams are willing to cooperate on what strategy to employ. Most teams know what their role is, even if they exaggerate their capabilities. Teams are also pretty understanding and flexible about other teams wanting to get their mechanisms working on the field, and show off their capabilities to scouts. Granted, with only one ball on the field this year, there may be a little more contention for Aerial Assist. But overall, I only remember a couple of heated discussions about what strategy to use in a match. Late in quals, if a team is particularly high seeded, usually they're going to be very focused on continuing to win matches to become an alliance captain. This may be the hardest time on attempting to determine a strategy, as they are going to be very win focused while other teams may be trying to make a final push at showing off their robot.

Both you and the drivers need to be very familiar with the rules. If there are any you're unclear about, check the FRC Q&A. You'll also have a drivers meeting before qualifications matches, and you should have an opportunity to ask the head ref questions about how they'll be calling certain rules. It may be handy to have a binder with the rules handy, or to have it on your phone, in case an alliance partner is unsure of something or you need a refresher. There will be a question box where a student can ask the head ref about a ruling during the match that just transpired, should you be unsure of where or why a penalty was called.

Work with your drivers on some practice drills this week. Work to get a concise set of communications that can be relayed easily. Saying vague phrases like "go around" or "left side" may result in the driver reacting in a way other than what you intended. Come up with some simple sayings to communicate certain maneuvers clearly. Better yet, train those maneuvers until they're second nature for the drivers. The less you have to micromanage your drivers, the better off you will be.

Communication with other teams during a match is always tricky. The coach will often have to walk near their team to do so. Speak up, but try to avoid sounding angry. Don't touch them on their shoulder or do anything to take their attention away from the field. Speak clearly and explain quickly what needs to be communicated. Quick, one sentence instructions. "Help in red zone!" or "our arm's broken, you guys shoot" are the types of communications you should give.

In the eliminations, usually the alliance captain (high seed) is given the final say on the strategy. That isn't always the case, as some may chose to defer to other teams or get a group consensus. But assume the alliance captain is getting the final say, unless they say otherwise. After alliance selection, each alliance will gather and discuss strategy. Since alliance selections usually happen before lunch, make sure you find time to eat! Don't skip out on getting food to talk strategy. Many alliance's drive teams may chose to eat lunch together and discuss strategy, depending on how much time they have, what repairs need to be done, and the venue's lunch situation. Expect for more attention to be paid to scouting information and the other alliance during eliminations than was spent during qualifications. More defensive strategies, and higher risk maneuvers, may also be used more often.

Overall, remember to keep your cool. Other teams are people, who can make mistakes. Your drivers are people, who can make mistakes. You can make mistakes. It happens. Take each one is stride and move on to the next match.

Andy Baker once said that the coach should always give credit to the drivers, and take the blame for whatever goes wrong. I agree.