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Re: Defense
As a mentor and drive coach for a team that has played defense to great effect I feel I may be able to offer some advice.
First off, the 2014 field is very different than previous years. There are no protected zones during teleop. There are no major obstacles to avoid, and therefore no choke points. During the 2013 season HBR played defense primarily in the open midfield section in order to minimize the potential for fouls.
In my mind the most important things a team playing defense can do are:
Not be penalized.
Not damage opposing robots.
Maintain an oppressive presence (no one on the opposing alliance crosses the field without interference)
Often alliances will become so frustrated that they will have a member try and play counter defense. This is a good thing. That means a robot from their alliance isn't scoring AND you can continue working on one of the remaining two. Counter defense is a difficult task and hard to do cleanly. At BMR in 2013 in the finals the blue alliance basically threw away the two matches that had to be played, because one of their partners incurred a technical foul in BOTH of the matches. It is still my belief that the robot in question was intentionally attempting to damage HBR's robot and thus the technical fouls occurred. You can watch the video and judge for yourself. I personally believe that when an alliance or member of an alliance has become so desperate as to try and damage your robot to prevent further defensive play you are playing defense correctly.
Some notes regarding this field we'll be playing on and the game we'll be playing in:
No safe zones + for defense
Open field, no choke points - for defense
Delicate, difficult robot to robot interaction + for defense
Necessary changes of possesion that will often involve an uncontrolled ball for a period of time + for defense
a single game piece + for defense
All in all it is a great year for defense, but I'm really hoping that we don't have to resort to that. Generally HBR builds a drivetrain that can play defense well and develops an offensive mechanism on top of it. This allows us to keep defense as a fall back in years where it is a reasonable, permissible strategy.
It is immensely important that your drivers absolutely, without question, know the rules regarding defensive play. Every instance where a technical could result.
If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help you out. Watching and coaching defensive play is a blast and the audiences and announcers notice and react. If you play well, you put on a good show in addition to winning some matches.
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