I have been wondering what the ratio of student to adult drive coaches there are. And what are the reasons for using one or the other.
Here is data from 2 years ago.
Well I quoted someone and they deleted the comment this is hawkard…
I really want to know the data for this year,
What if we have both?
I was referring to what your using this year. And if you use both throughout the year, then why make the switch.
Similar to what I was thinking. 20 uses student coaches right now, and 5254 uses adult coaches right now.
2016… The rest of the date tends to vary through the year.
Lol, *Data
We let mentors drive the robot since they built it.
You monster frisbee!!
Us too! It’s awesome! The best part is the students cheering us on from the stands!
I’ll be here all week folks, good night! drops the mic
I believe the party line goes something like “We utilize a student coach, because we are a student lead, student built team. The mentors are only here to supervise and make sure we don’t injure ourselves.” As well, it means that one more student gets to be on the drive team, the position most teams consider one of the most coveted.
That being said, I believe that a mentor serving as a coach is more beneficial than a student coach. Having a mentor be the drive coach means that they will generally be more level headed during stressful situations, they are able to retain the subtle nuances of matches from year to year, and the are able to consistently train the next generation. A mentor coach means that they’re more likely able to bring their knowledge year in and year out. Most teams have their drive team as a one-and-done affair.
On a serious note to answer the question of “why”, there are actually several reasons we have an adult coach but a few of the big ones:
When dealing with other teams in your alliance, things can get a little heated sometimes about which team feels their strategy for the round is optimal. I frequently see other teams with overzealous/bossy adult coaches who feel their strategy for the upcoming round is the only way, and the students get intimidated by it (and will frequently “cower” to the other adult coach when they don’t have another adult to stand up for them). My goal is to help the alliance make more level-headed decisions regardless of whether the alliance partners have student or adult coaches.
Students have great decision-making abilities and are very smart, but in the end are still kids and can make mistakes (just like an adult could). What the adult has, though, is experience, and with that experience comes knowing their own history of “what has gone wrong” in the past and what to do to mitigate it. The coach is always the second set of eyes for the students to make sure the robot is configured to plan on the field, the joysticks are plugged into the correct ports, etc. There have been so many times the students forgot some of the important field config steps and it cost us rounds, and sometimes an adult with experience is the best person to double-check their work.
I feel the coach should be the best person on the team for the job, regardless of whether it’s a student or adult mentor. A team shouldn’t “force” itself to choose between picking an adult vs picking a student because of its team history or because “that’s the way it should be”.
We always had an adult coach. This year it’s me. It has always been a team alumni or a college student. Never a teacher.
Having a student coach is nearly impossible for us, as a french speaking team, since most students have limited english skills.
Sumtimes 1339 lets me be shot caller cuz I’m MLG pro strategy and gamer.
Real talk though I’ve seen a lot of great student drivers take losing to personally so by being out on the field and being the “shot caller” as long as they drive at 110% then we lose cause the shot caller is bad.
Whatever makes sense for your team based on the people within it.
Honest answer for 2667 is we haven’t decided yet. It’s probably going to be one or the other, though 
I completely disagree that a mentor will be more beneficial than a student coach. Team 599 didn’t just have a student as the coach, but the student was the person dealing with strategy in the rookie year. He did a much better job than most adults. It was something we continued year after year.
Having had first hand experience being on a drive team with a mentor coach and being the coach of a drive team as a student I think I can draw a firm conclusion.
IT DOESN’T MATTER.
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.