|
Stress
I can't find a thread specifically about stress at competitions, and it's something I've been wondering about since Chesapeake. Our entire drive team got pretty stressed during the competition, before just about every match, even the practice matches. Every time one of them was even slightly nervous, they made me freak out(silently; I don't think they realized how bad it got).
My question is, how bad does your team stress out? What do the coaches do to keep them calm right before matches? What kinds of things do you do after the day's competiton is over? Our drivers went back to the hotel and played Halo 2 a bunch, but I made a note to bring tons of extra-strong stress balls next year to keep on the robot cart. |
Re: Stress
Our drivers were selected more for the fact that nothing stresses them out than the fact that they were the best in practice. There were people on our team who were better drivers but nobody who could take the stress and still perform as well. That should be one of the most important factors in deciding your drive team.
|
Re: Stress
Trust me, as a new driver last year I was scared when going out into matches. This year I am a lot more lax about the whole thing because I am used to it. The stress doesn't even bother me. They will get used to it after a while and will learn to ignore everything they don't need to focus on. The only annoying part is the long wait right before your next match when you are Q'd up. In that case the stress balls are good to have :rolleyes: . But don't worry about it, just remind everybody that this is supposed to be for fun. Winning is not everything and its not worth going crazy over it. After matches are over, let strategy group worry about compiling all of their information and everyone else should take a break. If you do this, you will find that you are re-juiced for the next day of competition. (Okay, I guess the strategy guys get a break too :p ) But just remember to wear you GP on your sleeves and have a good time!!!
GO 1403!!! |
Re: Stress
I concur. Our drivers were chosen for their utter lack of human emotion. Well, not really. But they don't stress or get over-excited or bummed that easily. I personally probably got more stressed than they did, but I'm always stressed about things anyways.
|
Re: Stress
haha...the word stress means nothing to me. I do not stress out when I drive.....nor am I stressed out before the match. It's wierd because I never seem to get stressed out.
|
Re: Stress
Stress? STRESS? How about having nearly the whole team sick at a competition, with half of them out, now THATS stress.
(j/k VCU guys) There are many things our guys do, including me, first is to have a plan, second is to chill out before the match (iPod shuffles really work nicely here) and then stay calm. You NEED to remember, from a competition stand point, that once you are behind the barrier with the bot on the other side on the floor, it's all chance. You can weigh the cards in your favor with a great auton, great robot, etc, but in the end it's chance, and unless you run away from the controls, nobody, I mean NOBODY can say it's your fault. Respect is the key. Now, as for the Chairmans away, well, hehe, that's a whole 'nother story. :) |
Re: Stress
I think the key is that when you go the competition you need to look at it as a fun event. As long as you have fun during the competition, it really won't matter how you did.
You all may also be a little stressed out because this is your first season, as time goes on you'll probably gain a better sense of calm. I've never experienced being a member of a rookie team, but I can imagine that there is a lot of stuff that our team has done so many times that its second-nature while you all are going at it for the first time. My advice is just go out there, do what you can do, and learn some stuff in a really fun why while your at it. |
Re: Stress
Stress is always a hard thing, and will be always present in compotition. The key is to focus it into a driving force that will push you into the win.
|
Re: Stress
Being that this is my first year driving I got pretty stressed out at competition this year. Even before the first practice matches I was really stressed out, because I wanted to do good. The time when I think I get the most stressed at competition is when the robot isnt working and we have to fix in it like 5 minutes, but for driving stress, I just tried to not put that much pressure on myself and just try to concentrate on each match, and just take one match at a time. Towards the end of qualifying matches I didnt really get stressed out, but when the time came for eliminations I got very stressed out and it was very hard to calm myself down, but overall to relieve ur stress just have confidence in ur bot and ur driving skills and just do what ur supposed to do
|
Re: Stress
This is my first year as a driver. I transferred High Schools just for my last year of high school. I'm a rookie this year on team 85, which makes it a true honor that they have chosen me to represent our team and drive. Driving can be a stressful thing if you let it be. The best way I've found to look at a match is to look at it as if your taking 6 weeks of hard work, sweat, money, time, and energy for a joy ride.
To get ready for a match I go over the plans with the co-driver on last time then sit back and jam to the great music their playing. Some of the most fun and best matches my co-driver and I have had, we lost do to lack of rows, penalties on our allaince, etc. You just can't let it bother you. I really enjoy driving, its an awesome experience. -Carl |
Re: Stress
I belive I do very well under stress I attribute this to my experince in Radio controles car racing. One of my elders and good friends would teach me how to be cool under pressure. During practice he we would put our cars out together, and he would set up several difficult scenarios such as passing in difficult turns, dealing with slower cars on the track and one of the most difficult things to do, which was keep a car which may be faster from you from passing you and doing it cleanly. Basicly what I had to do was when he would pull up behind me I would have to tighten up my lines and trry my hardest to go full wick and make few mistakes. Over time I found that a reasonable amount of pressure would help improve lap times and in the end get me race wins.
As far as the robot goes, it is fairly easy to keep stress to a minimum. What I think is a great asset to the driver is a good coach, simply someone who lets you know where you need to go, and that everything is going okay. At this point the coach and I have gotten along fairley well, and I trust that he is going to keep me and the operator calm. I will be honest with you though, right after the qualifying matches ended and I saw that we were 2nd seed, some of the pressure started to catch up to me. Also the looong 2 hour break between the qualifiers and the qtr finals made me think alot. What really calmed and eased me was spending time away from the hectic pits, and the crowds and just sitting in the stands alone, listing to the music which was playing on the stadiums sound system (Simple kind of man by Lynard Skynard really calmed me down). So at nationals I for sure will bring a CD player to listen to. |
Re: Stress
Stress? What is this stress you speak of?
The only stressful thing i've had is the guy who plays human player on our team. I'm positive he doesn't try to do this, but when he tries to get his voice louder, (for when we're on the field) his voice starts sounding angry... quite stressful for the people around him. |
Re: Stress
On my team, I get stressed for th students. So, the drive team doesn't need to get stressed. (They all make fun of me because I get nervous for the team)
But seriously, I (we as a team) don't put a whole lot of emphases on winning. I mean, it's nice. And if we loose because we did something stupid (like not hook up the arm) then I'll "stress" the importance of using the pre-flight check list. I hope that I let the drive team drive without a lot stress, as there shouldn't be alot of pressure. The stressful part is over - the compition day is just for fun. |
Re: Stress
In our team we have two drive teams and we alternate drivers every match so there is no streess for either of the two teams. (Both teams are ecxellent)
I do relize i feel a little nervous when im in the 15 seconds of auto mode specially in the finals but once my hands are on the joysticks I close all my surroundings and focus on what im doing. Also having two drive teams allows me to take half of the responsability which also means more fun at the stands. An advise to the stressed drivers: Don't feel like you are responsable for winning or losing, just do your best and think that if you do what you do is because no one does it better than you so as long as you do what you think is right you and your team should be happy. Dave |
Re: Stress
Quote:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...=driver+stress |
Re: Stress
Our drivers this year were both football players and I was an ex-baseball player soo we are all used to the tension. Plus doing the can-can with our semi's alliance partners helped too. :P
|
Re: Stress
As the coach I must admitted that I Freak Out at a lot on people due to the stress but, after the day of practice I'm able to clam the drivers down.
|
Re: Stress
I think that, like R81 Honda said, the best way to prevent stress is to be prepared before you even go out there. - know what your robot's strengths and weaknesses are, try to imagine every game plan you can, and try to think of ways you can salvage the game if one of your bot's weaknesses is revealed.
also, don't think of competition as a "do or die" situation - think of it as an "I hope I win, but the important thing is that I'm having fun" situation. if you make winning your first priorety, you'll more than likely stress out over every little thing and end up losing more than you win (not to mention it won't be fun anymore). but if you chose to accept the fact that you probably won't win every match, but that you'll do your best to try, you'll have fun, and your stress-level will go down, which will allow you to think more clearly and have a better shot at winning. |
Re: Stress
Im a first year driver on a second year team, stress does tend to get to you
however as mentioned above, just relax, usually i just find myself dancing, not well but none-the-less dancing, and the shear stupidity of it calms me down :p , and after competition i often resort to halo 2 |
Re: Stress
Quote:
|
Re: Stress
No matter what, stress and the way you handle it does play a large role in the game. Our drive team this year usually just talked to people (refs, other drive teams, pit crew members from our own team, each other) to stay cool or watched the matches. The best advice I can offer is to enjoy yourself as much as you can. As awesome as it is to win, you have to remember that there are things infinitely more important than winning; hence the reason that there are so many spirit, design, and community involvement awards.
Personally speaking, I tend to be a complete ditz at competitions. Not intentionally, persay, just in the sense that I make myself completely oblivious to the importance of each and every match. Though I can perform well under stress, I also make more mistakes - being comfortable with your role before you actually get into a competition helps immeasurably. Hence, if I convince myself to not take every match so seriously, I will perform just fine! |
Re: Stress
i think that i wase the only one that got so strest out thet i almost had no sleep theru the hole intire watterloo compotion whael it wase me and dan sivic form gm that wer themoste strest out
|
Re: Stress
As drive coach, first thing I do in the match queue is make sure that my drivers and alliance partners (and even our human players, which is odd considering that we rarely use them) know exactly what we're going to do, or PLAN to do. Then we all quiet down and watch the match before us. That's all. I don't think it's because we're stressed, but it's more of a "playing the game in our heads" type thing.
Yea, it's stressful and hot under the lights on the field. Especially during the finals. But when you think about it as, "Man, am I proud to be here," and "Man, no matter what happens, this should be a cool match," stress tends to fade away. It also helps to have a pair of excellent drivers you can be confident in- I've seen these drivers operate, and I know that no matter what tragedy could possibly befall us on the field, they can react excellently to these situations, even better with a bit of guidance from me. As a side note to fellow drive coaches- I tend to not get stressed DURING a match because I'm too busy trying to take the Field in as a whole to try and see everything and impart that information to my drivers. In the end, always remember - you should not be stressed, for you have already succeeded! You have built a robot in six weeks in your high school years. If that's not a story to tell the grandchildren as these six year olds watch FIRST on TV, rolling their eyes and mentioning something about you roaming with dinosaurs, I don't know what is. P.S. - Don't eat spicy food before a match, or a marathon of matches like eliminations. It never ends well. Trust me. |
Re: Stress
our team just stresses if it's almost time for a match and something is broken...but we remain calm and just solve the problem and let the stage crew take the bot away when it's time.. usually then pit crew just walks off so there won't be screaming and all...our stage crew listens to their headphones and to stay focus and be "in the game". but taking walks and leaving the area is a good idea.....that's what i do all the time since i'm basically not allowed to leave my pit @ all unless it's to watch a match or get my food.
at the end of the day we just all crash..review over the day and try to make any improvements. and now both the pit crew and stage crew each have a check list to make sure we do everything when times are crazy before a match..so in major time of stressing, it won't make us forget anything |
Re: Stress
I think that both our drivers handled the stress at our regionals, pretty well. They just put their game faces on when it was gametime.
All the drivers should stay cool and have some fun. |
Re: Stress
Not2B is right he does do the stressing out for the team ... that how he got the nickname Heebe Geebe. And he was right about not stressing about winning. Also when we picked the drivers we had to carry out three tasks with the robot while the rest of the driver hopefuls got to yell, scream, and be loud and distracting to simulate a competition. We did the same thing when we tested our human players.
|
Re: Stress
Events are stressful, for the drivers, the pit crew, the mentors and even our cheering section. Emotions go up and down several times over the span of 3 days and even weeks before and after.
For the drivers its stress and pressure because you don't want to let down your robot, team and alliances. For the pit crew, with only a few minutes in between matches they are doing everything they can to get that robot into top condition, and always tweaking the programming. For our mentors, looking out for the safety of everyone, making sure the drivers the pit crew and the alliances are on the same page. For the cheering section the emotions of the matches, awards, the well being and hydration of the team and also scouting. In an event the whole team really goes on an emotional roller coaster, but the nights at the hotel when we can just be kids really helps, when we are not thinking about the competition. |
Re: Stress
Hi everyone, this will be my first reply. so here i go. now i know that most high ranked and average teams tend to have driver teams, which all they do to my knowledge is drive the robot. i know this thread is about stress and how it affects the driving team and how to reduce it. well i started about four years ago and have been in robotics ever since. most people would call me a natural non-stress kind of guy. now stress can be caused by many things. my theory on how stress is caused is through the human not knowing the future and the general unknown. this may sound weird but for me it tends to be correct. most people stress over what a test might be like or contain. in this example most drivers will stress over the unknown of what the next match will be, how the robot will drive, or if the robot will even work. for me most of these ideas run through my mind minutes and even hours before a match, but normally i am one who does not show it. now i will talk about how i think stress can reduced. in my cases the more i know about the robot the better i fell. my team consist of up to at any given time five to seven people. so naturally there are no divisions of teams. i am the current robotics president which also entitles my to the lead designer and auto cad (maker). so when during the build system i know everything about the robot. this tends to help me because i know how the robot will 1.) work and react to certain things and 2.) that the robot will work and hopefully not break. since i worked and built most of the robot i have no real fear of the robot working because i know my work is valid and i tend to not make mistakes. so my solution to whoever is on the drive team is to try and get as much involved on the robot than most people. this will help because you are the one who will be driving the robot in the end. the more you know about the robot the better prepared you will be for competition. in my case this solution tends to reduce stress on me and my fellow drivers. hope this tid bit helps.
|
Re: Stress
our driver was pretty cool with everything and she was only a sophomore last year. we didnt have any upperclassmen on the drive team last year but the underclassmen seemed to handel it well. maybe its because I was never around for the rounds and rarely saw them but they seemed cool and collected.
|
Re: Stress
Have classical music playing in ur pit. believe me it calms the nerves. its really good to have in the background to think to. I read somewhere that patterns in the music help develop thinking patterns.
|
Re: Stress
How do I deal with stress? Music.
The last big presentation I had to do last semester, I was worked up. (Last-minute small stuff, really. Moral of the story? Get it done five weeks in advance to practice.) So I went in search of some music to calm me down. I downloaded John Cena's "The Time Is Now" (iTMS link) on a lark (and partially because my roommate watches WWE RAW and his entrance music was stuck in my head), and loaded it on the iPod. Worked like a charm. Don't even know why it worked...but I figured I'd share. (Since that's only three minutes, and I needed a bit more music, I wound up sticking it in with a playlist of other songs, including some Wu-Tang Clan, Incubus, OutKast, and Chocolate Starfish-era Limp Bizkit. Fill yours with whatever gets you mentally ready.) |
Re: Stress
Stress is a perfectly normal human reaction to what goes on at a FIRST event. And its not just the drive team, its the whole team
imagine being the team "Empress of Lodging and Nurishment" standing at the check-in desk at the Holiday Inn in Cleveland Ohio, with 50 team mates, mentors and parents standing behind you and hearing "the computer shows you have 10 rooms booked in Cleveland New Mexico, not Cleveland Ohio: :ahh: The point is, it takes the whole team to get that robot on the playfield. Every year, the night before our 1st event we sat down and explained to the team that " if we win, we win as a team, and if we lose, we lose at as a team - but win or lose we are all going home on that bus saturday night, as a team" if your design team did an outstanding job then the robot would practically drive itself. If the fabrication team did an outstanding job then you would have 4 weeks of driver practice before your event... You get the idea - no single person is responsible for the success, or the failures your team will have. BTW, the result of stress that has no resolution = depression! you would not expect that, so make sure your team has plenty of time to blow off steam, exercise or goto the hotel pool, goto the team party and dance the night away - whatever it takes to resolve that 'flight or fight' instinct. |
Re: Stress
We were really stressed in the pit last year. We had to take off about 10lbs in fifteen minutes. That is really stressful work. If you slip, then the robot is disabled. Yay for the circle drill :rolleyes:
|
Re: Stress
though i have no experience driving in FIRST, i can offer my opinion on what i think would work (in no particular order)
#1) Music, preferably Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or the Beatles (in my opinon) ACDC will do in a pinch. #2) Confidence. beleive! #3) Strategy + practice |
Re: Stress
Actually I find that having a good scouting team takes away some of the stess. Massages works. Food too, just not in the pit please.
|
Re: Stress
i agree with everyone who said music.
when i was coach at the san diego scrimmage, all i needed to do was pop out my ipod and listen to the beatles or something like 80's music covers and i was fine. but at the same time, i must say that getting stress off drive team at big competitions especially if its something like the final match. so far something that i noticed that seemed to help is when we figured out wether or not our drive team became nervous when we cheered for them. we found out that it actually loosened them up sometimes. sometimes the best things to do to keep stress down is to figure out little things that can bug them. |
Re: Stress
Quote:
I work on the team animation so the stress period comes a week or two earlier, and after that barely any. The main source of my stress stems from completing and submitting the animation on time. For the other areas of the team, I'd say attempting to complete/fix 'bot in the pit is the main cause of their stress... Feeling nervous before driving is perfectly normal, preferred in fact over *not* being stressed at all, because it shows that the person actually cares about performing well. |
Re: Stress
My team stresses out waaaayyyy too easily. I mean sure it's not good when someone shouts "robot on fire, robot on fire!", but they freak out over the slightest things sometimes. I guess I'm the only cool/level-headed person on the team who is the voice of reason. Of course I also have to deal with people who try to pick up freshly cut steel and then throw it on the ground at least twenty time per day, but I guess that's just my team. This being my third year in FIRST, I've learned that stressing out doesn't help at all, and that it's just bad for your blood pressure. Oh well, I guess they'll never learn my secrets to life! :)
|
Re: Stress
Hmm... First year here, and I think my stress started about the time I asked last year's lead programmer what kinds of work I could be expecting as part of that division of our team, and the first word of his response was "uhm..."
After a long pause, he concluded with, "... stuff." And I knew it was going to be a long year. :D Music helps, I listen to an odd mix of stuff from older Linken Park, Foo Fighters, 3 Doors Down, Iron Maiden, Rammstein... Right on up the ladder to In Flames, Lamb of God, Devil Driver, Cradle of Filth, Bleeding Through... The list continues. Every so often I even throw in some classical and never think twice about it. |
Re: Stress
Many of you have posted about how you pick drivers who do not stress.
But what kinds of tests have you developed to test the stress endurance of driver canidates? |
Re: Stress
As the driver of 503’s robot last year (hopefully this year too!), me and the other driver realized that we had a solid robot and were pretty decent in what we did. Are attitude was that we could out drive half the teams and out smart (in our strategy) the other half. We had hardly any stress because we realized that if we lost a few matches, it isn’t really that big of a deal. Sure, winning is great and all, but there is no point to stress out about it. We wanted to be drivers because it is a lot of fun, and there is no point in ruining that fun with stress.
For those who listen to music, I’d suggest some Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Yo-Yo Ma. |
Re: Stress
For driver tryouts, we set up an obstacle course and get the whole team to watch and make as much noise as possible. We also played really now music to simulate the environment. All that noise added on to how much the candidates really wanna get picked, it creates just the right stress level for the tryout.
We are thinking of trying to set acutal situations for the drivers this year during try-outs. Like describe a situation to the driver just once and give them a set amount of time to react to the situation and we evaluate based on the performance. They we really get into how the stress affects decision making and not just motor skills. |
Re: Stress
personaly, i think by having stress incorperated in your system, it has the same effect as fear and nerves. they get us to do things we need to do, and alot of the time can get us to fucus on what need to be done. we had to do an entire table display, powerpoint and presentation(anyways... ALOT of stuff) because verything had fallen apart(litterally) so squeaker(grl u kno we miss ya!) and i pulled this out of our butts the night becfore competition, and we almost did perfectly, except kenesaw... had a sound system that could ALMOST be heard OUTSIDE of the building... and alot of the teams had grafics and such... i really felt like i had let my team down, but hey, next year we'll just bring saudering irons or blow torches to the competition... you know.. to make toasted marshmellows (DuH) :D well... thats all i have to say right 'bout now...
|
Re: Stress
If you want to combat stress, learn a bit about astronomy. If you are too lazy for that, download Google Earth. Zoom in on your neighborhood, and soom out slowly.
Realize that you are one of 7 billion of the most incomprehensibly miniscule specs imaginable compared to the earth, and the earth is incomprehensibly tiny in comparison to our solar system, and "our" solar system is incomprehensibly tiny compared to "our" wing of "our" galaxy, which is one of billions. BILLIONS. Chances are not even a single percent of a single percent of a single percent of the world's specs know, or ever will know, anything about you. Life is fleeting, and, in engineering parlance, negligible. Which is not to say that you should lie about painting your fingernails black and listening to Kurt Cobain, but rather that worrying about the past or future is comically useless, as you can't do anything about either and neither really matters. It's a cliche, but live in "the moment". |
Re: Stress
My advice:
-Meander the pits. Talk to other teams; every team I've talked to has a unique perspective on the game and it's interesting to hear how they approach the game. -Watch a few matches. -Take a walk outside (A personal favorite for when I only have a few minutes) -Fix your robot ASAP from returning from a match -Prep your strategy with plenty of time to spare before the next match -Eat and sleep. Mountain Dew does not count as a viable source of daily nutrition despite it's alluring green glow. Mike |
Re: Stress
Quote:
before college I enlisted in the Coast Guard (4 years) search and rescue crewman. We had to do things like going out on the atlantic off florida during gales to rescue people and one night we had to rescue a boat full of drunken fishermen from the rapids above Niagara Falls (we could clearly see the mist of the falls from where we were) sometimes people at work ask me how I say so calm when the sky appears to be falling? No matter what happens at work (or at a regional), you will NOT be in danger of going over Niagara falls in a 44ft boat. Perspective is wonderfull! :^) |
Re: Stress
The last two years our team has had the same driver and operator. I was the operator. One of my best friends was the driver. Let's just say that it was only my training as a musician that kept me from cracking under the stress (especially during quarter and semi final rounds). The way I dealt with it was by compartmentalizing the match. I had learned to tune the outer world out and merely concentrate on getting one thing accomplished at a time. An extremely linear and straightforward approach which allowed me to do each task accurately and efficiently. It worked, I would consistently perform operations as if I was back at our high school practicing, and not until the end would I realize "man, there were many hundreds of people watching me". My best personal advice to someone that is having trouble with the stress is get some practice at your school (or wherever you build) if possible. Run through routines with your driver/operator, and then when you get to competition, just focus on the robot and field elements (Never look at the crowd!). When you decide what to do next in the match, you need to merely focus on trying to accomplish that goal, make that goal your entire world, nothing else matters at that moment except your goal. Try this, it is simple, yet it seems to work for me, because it clears my head and allows me to drive out most of the stressful thoughts. Good luck to everyone!
|
Re: Stress
Wow, I never realized stress was such an issue at the competition. I was the mechanism operator for team 1318 last year, and I never, not once, felt stressed about a match. I guess I knew that thinking about it wouldn't help, and I just played it cool. I did my thing to the best of my ability, and when I finished, I was done, and knew I couldn't have done better, however the match was played.
In the end, it isn't a life or death matter. You go in, you do your best, and you go out. And no one can think less of you for it. |
Re: Stress
Quote:
Healthy...up for debate Fun...mixed bag when your experiencing it Worth it...Absolutely. It really just adds to the fun of the competition being able to get into it that much. |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:02. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © Chief Delphi