Reflections After Being an FLL Rookie Coach

Best Research Award at Regionals

Top Ten Lessons After My First FLL Year

1. Expect to recruit the help of at least 4 - 6 other parents or individuals. Last year we participated in 1 Rookie Booster, 1 Scrimmage, 1 Regional Tournament. For each of those events, there are wonderful volunteers who spend countless hours organizing the events. In exchange they ask for help either the day before or day of the event. Each team that participates donates a couple of volunteers; and rightly so. I didn't realize this until we were into the season and then I had to ask parents. Although they willingly donated their time, it still would have been better had I known up front how much help I would have to ask for.

2. Not everything is what it seems. Our team did fine for our first year. I was actually a little relieved when we didn't make it to the state tournament. We were on the verge of burnout. However, I still secretly envied some of those other Rookie teams that actually did make it to State. I was a volunteer photographer and got to roam around the State competition pretty freely. Anyways, I spoke to another rookie coach who made it to state. It turns out even though the team did very well in the way of points and awards, only one kid did all the programming work. It really wasn't a "team". In fact much of the time was spent trying to corral the other kids into working instead of goofing off. That taught me to be careful about judging from outside results or appearances. Sure they made it to state, but not everyone really participated. That made me wonder... how many parents are actually doing the work? or mentors doing the work? or what are the kids really learning from this?

3. It's OK to show the kids some techniques to programming and problem solving. Last year I was so stuck on the motto, "Kids do the work" that I just threw them into solving the programming problems. Part of it was that I was also learning myself so I didn't know what I didn't know. I really wanted them to figure EVERYTHING out on their own. This year I'll try to coach with a little more teaching.

4. Get started on the Research Project right away. Even before we knew the outcome of the year's tournaments we got word of the next year's theme. It being "Food Factor" for 2011, I would start the kids already thinking of what they want to research and what problem they would want to solve. I had it in my mind that we could not start our research until after the September launch, but that's not really the case.

5. Don't push the kids to work for too long. Last year I tried extending our Friday sessions by incorporating dinner (Pizza Night) into the program. My kids were aged 10 - 12. We'd work for 2 1/2 hours, have pizza and then work for another 1 1/2 hours. That was too much for both me and the kids. By the end of the night our brains were all mush. I decided to add additional practices during the week instead of running marathon nights at the end of the week.

6. Ten kids is a a lot to manage. I've heard this one before. Don't feel obligated to max out your group. However, as a first year coach, I was grateful to have so many people participate and help pay for the start up expenses. It costs much more the first year so I wanted to spread the costs. Well next year I won't be maxing out my numbers. That old saying, "the more the merrier" does not apply here. I was told 6 -7 is a good number.

7. Use more sensors. As stated earlier, we got through the challenges w/o using a single sensor. It was a lot of trial and error that could have been avoided had we used the technology available to us. No one was really in a position to force the kids to use sensors since we were all learning ourselves. Next year will be different.

8. Don't be afraid to be the grown up in charge. Set down simple, but clear rules. Even though the kids loved being there and time seemed to always go by too quickly whenever we met, lay down the law so that all can enjoy their time and be the most productive. Have a heart to heart with the parents if you must.

9. Don't skimp on the team building. When you are working feverishly to prepare for tournaments or get your project into gear, it can seem like wasted time to take a break and do a team building activity, but this really helped us cement good camaraderie in the times where things get stressful and tough. The group really gelled well and creating that sense of friendship doesn't always come from a building or programming environment. I felt like we did this right last year.

10. Have fun! I'm so glad the kids had fun last year. We didn't have the best robot design, didn't use a single sensor, didn't always have all the parts we needed, didn't know what we were doing, but.... we did have fun! We also built a nice community and helped each other whenever someone needed it.

What lessons have you learned as an FLL Coach?