Aerial Assist and Ill Will

[JimBowey]

This is an opportunity to direct greater focus on gracious professionalism. And for goodness sakes, no coaches or mentors on the drive teams, please.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by BrennanB

Just be very careful about doing something for a somewhat small gain, that could affect your team's image for several years to come.

The worst thing I saw a team do to another that permanently damaged their relationship with a team happened at Texas Robot Roundup in 2011 where a team accepted being selected in an alliance and then went home. The team that selected them was so furious they vowed to never pick them again at any event.
It turned out the team had actually already left and a lone stud net stayed behind and was inadvertently the lone representative for that team in alliance selection (he obviously did not understand what was going on). After he accepted he left too.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by JimBowey

This is an opportunity to direct greater focus on gracious professionalism. And for goodness sakes, no coaches or mentors on the drive teams, please.

Here we go again...

[PVCpirate]

I'm just gonna go get my 10 foot pole to not touch this with.

[JimBowey]

So is gracious professionalism the dead horse, or is it the bit about grown ups playing in a kid's game?

I'm new here; help me out.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by JimBowey

So is gracious professionalism the dead horse, or is it the bit about grown ups playing in a kid's game?

I'm new here; help me out.

The whole coach thing Some of the best and brightest mentors in FIRST (including National Woodie Flowers award winners) are robot coaches. Saying they don't belong on a drives team is a bad idea and is just gonna start up another fight that goes nowhere.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by JimBowey

So is gracious professionalism the dead horse, or is it the bit about grown ups playing in a kid's game?

I'm new here; help me out.

Do a quick search on the topic of mentors/coaches as the drive coach to see previous threads.

There are plenty of threads on the topic and it gets debated several times a year. I'd recommend reading through it as there a lot of sides and view on the matter.

But please let's let the topic stay out of this thread to stay on topic.

[GaryVoshol]

Another thing that generates ill will is when a team comes in and says, "This is what we're going to to this match, so you have to do ..." I don't care if it's the top ranked team in the event, or in the country for that matter. Don't go dictating what others will do just because of your standing or reputation.

If you're an alliance captain in eliminations, then you have some say. Still, as an alliance captain, you should be soliciting information and advice, not making demands. The alliance captain has the final decision, but be sure you're making an informed decision.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Another thing that generates ill will is when a team comes in and says, "This is what we're going to to this match, so you have to do ..." I don't care if it's the top ranked team in the event, or in the country for that matter. Don't go dictating what others will do just because of your standing or reputation.

If you're an alliance captain in eliminations, then you have some say. Still, as an alliance captain, you should be soliciting information and advice, not making demands. The alliance captain has the final decision, but be sure you're making an informed decision.

That's why this year more than any other year it is important to get into the que line as early as possible to consult with your partners to come up with a suitable strategy for the match instead of just stumbling up onto the field at the last second and winging it.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

That's why this year more than any other year it is important to get into the que line as early as possible to consult with your partners to come up with a suitable strategy for the match instead of just stumbling up onto the field at the last second and winging it.

In my experience match strategy (even in qualifications) happens before you're in the que line.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Gregor

In my experience match strategy (even in qualifications) happens before you're in the que line.

If it isn't, you need to change that!

[Canon reeves]

Alot of people fail to see the big picture, including pretty much all of the team except me. They don't realize that winning every match isn't as important as you think because you will get paired with the worst possible alliances against the best teams, it happens. But whats important is that YOU and YOUR team focus on what they can do and preform well. Last year, our robot only had an arm that could flip over, if thats how to word it, but if we extended all the way it was a penalty. We had our last match against the top team at our regional, who also proceeded to win worlds, that we were against. We could score a few frisbees in the low goal but it wasn't worth it, we were with total rookies, who couldn't score. I had to fight my whole team for 20 minutes to convince them we would be better off showing that we could do good defense, which we did towards the end of the matches but not yet notable to scouts, than to try and out dump the best team. In the end our own alliance member broke their promise and tried to play D on them, which they couldn't at all, and ended up making us miss the other robot by trying to shove us out of the way so they could do it which caused us to get nowhere. Was it our fault, in a way yes, like I said, we hadn't done anything noteable until day two of quals, but moral of the story is, I believe that if you do what you do well, every match, than your alliance won't hold you down. Its about getting picked for finals for teams like me, not trying to prove yourself every match when you obviously can't. People need to realize this, and this isn't directed towards the top teams, yall do what yall do, I am in no position to tell yall anything, but rookie and newer teams, do what everyone has been saying, they say it for a reason, do what you can do and do it well! If I'm wrong anywhere, please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm all about constantly learning!

[Bill_B]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

...
You can always point back to Karthik's "it is better to be a 10 at one thing than a 5 at two things." ...

He's got a lot on the ball and I think we can count on another notable robot from his team this year. However true this pseudo math homily may be, do you think it translates into other versions? Say maybe "better to be an 8 at one thing than a 4 at two things." Or "better to be an 9 at one thing than a 3 at 3 things." I mention this because there may be cases where a team cannot be a 10 at anything.

I find that the most difficult task for many, many people is evaluating external advice. Even the advice of your own mentors gets rejected without supporting rationale, so what chance has an alliance captain at a competition? I never cared too much for Vince Lombardi's quote about winning being the only thing. It turns out he had a lot more useful advice about teamwork and many other subjects. I especially like: "Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." I need to make a large version of this to grace the shop. It won't be perfect or even excellent. Could be good though.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Gregor

In my experience match strategy (even in qualifications) happens before you're in the que line.

Originally Posted by pfreivald

If it isn't, you need to change that!

At regionals or championship, I'd agree with you. Strategy discussions happen much more frequently in the queue line at district competitions, thanks to the tighter match turnarounds. Often at least one of the members of your alliance won't have returned from their previous match until it's almost time to queue up again and/or will have to spend the little time they have between queues to repair their robot.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

At regionals or championship, I'd agree with you. Strategy discussions happen much more frequently in the queue line at district competitions, thanks to the tighter match turnarounds. Often at least one of the members of your alliance won't have returned from their previous match until it's almost time to queue up again and/or will have to spend the little time they have between queues to repair their robot.

Then you need a strategy person (we use our drive coach) to seek out other teams ahead of time to iron out who is doing what in the next match. If they have to talk during repairs, so be it.