[gigaboggie]

I am the drive coach for my team this year after being a driver for Team 3042 during aerial assist. As most people have mentioned previously, avoiding defense is a huge advantage. However, there is one set of skills that I haven't seen mentioned that I believe to be really important to look for and develop in drivers. This set of skills involves leadership, communication and critical thinking. It's good to be a good driver for your own team but in most cases your team will not succeed alone. In my personal opinion, the most important aspect of driving is the interaction with your alliance partners. Drivers need to develop a great sense of strategy because a good strategy can allow a mediocre robot to compete on a level with the elite robots. If I had to suggest one thing for any driver, it would be to understand strategy at a deeper level and communicate that between your alliance partners.