Firstly I have had the pleasure of being in several very good drive teams, and working with many more. I have been in the position of operator, driver, and coach throughout my FIRST career.
Firstly, attitudes on the drive team are what I consider to be the key factor with what makes a drive team work so well, and that starts with the coach. The coach on our team is not only in charge of what our drive team does on the field, but what it does off the field as well. He/she makes sure the drivers get food, makes sure we get to where we need to be on time, etc. This individual is the backbone of the drive team to me. Teams that have good drive coaches are the most pleasurable to work with, and perform better on the field, even if the drivers are average. They leave a good impression of your team, even if your performance in the match wasn't stellar. Who are you looking for? A responsible, calm under pressure person. Then you look at their skill at being an actual coach.
Skills are easy to improve. Attitudes are not.
This goes for all the rest of the drive team. The entire drive team needs to have trust in the coach. Select the coach with the best attitude with the willingness to learn, and choose students who respect that coach.
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Originally Posted by Vupa
Number one: Our drive team members have absolutely no chemistry together, they do not dislike each other, but for the most part are not friends. They simply seem to be on separate wavelengths, making communication more difficult.
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Practicing will help fix this. Do things together that isn't robotics related.
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Originally Posted by Vupa
Number two: The drivers are uncomfortable around the drive coach. This goes back to the lack of chemistry, the main driver often does not feel confident in the drive coach's decisions, but the operator who is fairly meek, becomes torn between two people telling her different things, this led to quite a few mishaps during the season.
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We set a standard that the coach's word on the field is the law. If a driver repeatedly failed to listen on the field, I doubt they would be driver much longer on our team. Drive team should be informed of the match plan, and be able to discuss it before the match, but on the field there is no time for discussion. The coach is watching the whole field. The drivers are not. The coach has the most info available to them, so they make the calls on the field.
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Originally Posted by Vupa
Number three: For champs we switched out drive coach due to the issue present in number two. We found ourselves without anyone seemingly qualified to coach that will be around for several years. Personally I believe that having a drive coach is essential for communication and not having someone who can stay and learn from year to year is detrimental.
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Addressed earlier.
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Originally Posted by Vupa
Number four: The operator is not seemingly competitive and becomes stressed easily affecting her overall performance. She also needs quite a bit of reinforcement and directions during matches. The main driver who is not the "directing" type does not pair evenly with the operator or the drive coach, leading to a lot of miscommunication.
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Again attitudes are everything. Choose drivers who want to drive and do well while remaining calm. Skill will come with practice. The operator may just seem non-competitive or perhaps rightfully stressed? Carefully evaluate before you remove someone from the drive team as it may effect the people involved greatly.
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Originally Posted by Vupa
Number five: When there are no other seemingly "qualified" members among the team for driver, but the current drive team chemistry does not work, is it better to choose the next best option or to continue with the current drivers. Assuming that practice has not started.
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Again attitudes over skill. Skill will come later if the driver has the right attitude. 4476's current driver played a practice match in 2014 where he couldn't drive in a straight line, let alone score. After a summer of practicing before the 2015 season. He was a well above average driver, and is already eager to improve this skills further. Attitude is (almost) everything.