How can I become the coach of my own kid’s VRC team? Do I need any kind of certifications?
No, I don’t believe there are any certifications you need to get started as a coach in VEX. After all, anyone can go and start their own teams, regardless of their background.
However, you might find some of VEX’s own certifications to be useful if you’re new to VRC. They offer this for free, but I don’t know how good the courses are as I haven’t done them myself.
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Here you go:
https://vrc-kb.recf.org/hc/en-us
No specific certifications needed. However, read carefully the Student-Centered policy.
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Welcome to the Forum. There are really no official requirements but it’s a good idea to become associated with a community to gain experience.
- I would recommend understanding the Student-Centered Policy
- Specific to coaching: Vex Coaches Start Here
- There is a great deal of additional information located here: RECF Knowledge Base
And, you are always welcome to post questions here.
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Hello there! I’m a VEX Robotics participant, so I’m not that sure about coaching, but I found an article from the VEX library that might help. Let me know if this is helpful to you!
I don’t think so - our organisation has an informal “mentoring” system. There is one year where they do not let us do VEX, so that we can focus on our GCSEs (a type of public exam here in the UK). Despite this, people are allowed to help the younger years, and each team often has one mentor. For our school, the only requirement is that you have done VEX before, but there is no official qualification you need apart from that. So, depending on your organisation, the requirement will be different, but there is no VRC-wide regulations on becoming a coach.
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Relatable 
But generally, get in touch with other coaches in your event region and they will be happy to help you.
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just make sure you NEVER touch their robot
when students are not present.
Adults are absolutely able and welcome to work with students together to fulfill the goals of the student team members. There are no rules that deny the adult coaches the opportunity to assist students who are actively participating. In fact, openly encourages adult mentorship within guardrails.
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The real key here is to make sure the students do all of the work on the robot.
If there is an issue with too few hands, you hold the robot still and let the student do the work…
My wife and I have started a middle school and high school team for our kids along with several other homeschool families.
It is very useful to have a field available for the students to test their robot.
I think our kids have learned more in the seasons they did not excel than the ones they did…
Our goal for any given competition is:
- Did you do your best?
- Did you play fair?
- Did you learn something?
- Did you have fun?
If they can answer yes for all 4 questions, the competition was a success.
Wayne Johnson (coach for 72247A and 72247B)
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Thank you all for helpful info. A follow up question. Can VRC team be only 3 team members? What is the ideal number of team members for middle school VRC team?
One of the most important things you can do to be a VRC coach is to read the game manual, and be sure your student’s read it, too. Nearly every question you have (including the one you just asked) is answered by the game manual: https://link.vex.com/docs/23-24/vrc-over-under/GameManual
In our organization, we try to make our VRC teams 3-5 students each.
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We have had as few as 4 students on a team (worked pretty well) and as many as 9 (WAY too many). I would recommend 4-6 as a good compromise.
Don’t be afraid to ask some family friends if their kids want to join the team. It can be a fun experience!
A lot of this also depends on the specific students. You want all of the students to be able to be involved in the project. If someone is always on the sidelines and can’t touch anything, then there is an issue.
Reading the game manual critically is always worth doing.
The team is allowed to send up to 3 students to the field as a ‘Drive Team’ each match. You probably want them to be able to send at least 2 this year (one to help with match-loading triballs).
Personally, I have found it beneficial to have at least 2 drive teams in each team (so students can breathe during a busy day of competition).
Best of luck!
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Yes, of course! But by personal recommendations I would say 4-6. I believe that there’s no limit though, but the recommendation is 3-12 people (I can’t remember which website I found it from).
In my experience, 3-4 is the best size to have everyone contributing and engaged. Teams of 5 or more tend to have members not actively participating, which can spiral into pulling the active members into the “hey look at my phone” game.
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My preference is three to four people. This works well when all team members are dedicated to robotics.
Larger teams can work well, as long as they’re organized well. Everyone on a large team should have a specific job and they should plan tasks for each team member to accomplish. This also helps for people who want to do robotics but don’t have as much time as others as there are more people to spread the work to, unlike a small team where if someone is unable to or refuses to work it can be hard for the other members to pick up the slack.
One more thing, if you are to make a large team you should make sure that your work area has the space for all of them, or that each team member is assigned certain days to complete their tasks. This can also prevent the
Having to many people in a small space will often hinder any work that people are trying to get done, especially if there are not enough tasks for everyone to do.
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