Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

Amidst all the talk of teasers, kickers and programming I see very minimal discussion about the role of the human player in this years game. While it's true that unlike last year's game the human player cannot win you games they most certainly can lose you games. Especially if they are given the task of handling the trident. From the looks of it you don't have to be athletic like you had to be last year but you need to be efficient and cool under pressure to do that job well.
It amazed me last year how grossly unprepared so many teams were regarding their human players last year with poorly trained human players who had no ideas about the rules of the game and what to do.
I can already visualize the worst case scenario where the human player fumbles the ball out of the trident and has to chase it down with a back log of balls rapidly piling up. Out of panic they simply grab the balls and finger roll it into the ball return like George Gervin in order to get the job done. I would not be surprised to witness this happening once or twice in the first week of regionals.
I impore teams that after you have built your humps and towers to take the time to build your human player a trident so they can get used to handling it but just as importantly make sure they read and understand the rules of the game as well.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

The biggest thing this year - Do NOT drop the ball! If it rolls away from you, you will get a penalty for exiting the area to chase it down. Or if you wait for someone else to get it back to you, you will start to get DOGMA penalties for slow return - one penalty every 2 seconds after you hit the time limit.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

In response to the post above, I would think that it'd be worth it for the players to just jog the ball over to the trident player.

If the trident player has the trident, and the side players throw the balls to the trident player, then he/she will have to catch with one hand. I know that whoever our human player is will have to make that catch, but I don't think it's worth it to possibly lose control of a ball.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

For any coaches weary of choosing human players this year because you're worried they might lose their cool mid-game, a good indicator of someones ability to keep focused is their attitude while playing video games. I know people who get completely frustrated when they're behind, almost to a point when they're ready to start swinging; these people would definitely NOT be a good choice for a human player this year.

My team holds a video game night every once in while (when we're not super busy of course :p), and I believe events like this can be used to asses peoples attitude under pressure. Especially to first year teams who haven't yet been behind the glass before, sometimes it does get extremely frustrating; plan for it. :)

"This year, a perfect human player score is 0"

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

I agree with all the comments above.

Recap:
Build a trident and practice

Walk/run the ball to the middle player, DO NOT THROW

All human players should be calm and focused

Human players should manage the ball and the coach should manage the drivers

Practice, practice, practice

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

i agree to... everyone is focusing on the driving this year... but if you don't have the human player who knows the rules and has practiced for awhile... your just not going to cut it in the regional.

i know i have been practicing with our human player during spare time... just basically throwing the ball to him to place on the trident. But i strongly recommend taking one night and just practicing.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

Ding, ding,ding. This will cause teams to lose many matches this year.

So the question will be: When the human player drops the ball and it rolls outside of the alliance station do you chase it (and get a penalty) or hope that enough balls come through the goal to keep the DOGMA from penalizing you too much?

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

The biggest disappointment I have about this year's game is the lack of opportunity for the HP to get involved directly in scoring this year (or for any year in fact).
We havent even bothered making a trident for this year and dont plan to.
We got enough issues to deal with.:ahh:

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

Luckily, the HP's role this year isn't one that requires much thought if they have read the rules. Hopefully everyone on your team has.

You'll either be running the ball to the guy with the trident or you'll be using the trident to snag a ball on the return. Do it as soon as you get the ball. Don't game the timer.

Pretty simple if human players are members of a well prepared team.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

This isnt just about the human players either.
It is up to the rest of the aliance to communicate, and score enough balls to rack up the score, but not too many that the human player is overwhelmed.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

I agree that we all have issues to deal with, and one of them is to build a trident and practice the ball exchange. Granted the Human Player is less of a factor this year, BUT don't let he/she lose the game for you if you didn't practice the move.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

Who has built a trident? The ones we built (following the drawings) are very snug over the ball. It almost seems like the best technique has been to put the ball on the ground and stab it with the trident. Has any one else found this to be the case?

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

Our kids built one last weekend.

Ours is snug on the ball as well.
It's made from PVC pipe so it's kind of heavy. I hope the competition one isn't as heavy.

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

We've built it......and broke it, twice. I'd advise against trying to catch the ball in mid air with the trident :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Re: Have You Trained Your Human Player Today?
 

We had our trident built the first week :) Having handled it myself a bit, it really isn't that difficult to get up to speed on it quickly.