Tips for Driver Practice

[IKE]

Have a couple drills.
for driver skills. Figure eight or barrel racing pattern. This will help famaliarize the driver with the controls. Use it as a warm up each practice.

To practice taking commands. Mark out 4 to 6 spot on the floor. Have the drover collect the ball, drop it off at a particular spot the drive to another spot.

Also have a couple plays you practice . Your main single team exercise. An alternate. Get those rock solids.

Having dummy defense and scoring around obstacles is good as well. You may want to practice moving a dead partner out of the way as well this year.

[JamesCH95]

To start we usually setup and obstacle course with a few different game elements: driving fast along the side of the field without smashing into the barrier, driving around obstacles, picking up the game piece, and scoring the game piece. This is drill type about speed in completing game tasks. Usually myself and another coach (who both used to be drivers when we were students) set a time on the course with 1-2 attempts. Then we have the students try to beat it. They usually do, by making vast improvements in their driving skills when they see just what a robot can do. This usually results in some very interesting variations in how to approach an obstacle course too.

Another type of drill we do we humorously call "screwing with the drivers". We have them do various game actions in a random fashion, emphasizing adaptability and reaction time. My favorite variation this year was having the robot in the middle of 4 people and each person had the choice of rolling the ball along the ground, tossing it to the robot, or tossing it to another one of the 4 people. The drivers (and drive coach) had to react to each move in a split second to acquire the ball and then 'score' it at one of two goal locations.

[Xavbro]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

Another type of drill we do we humorously call "screwing with the drivers". We have them do various game actions in a random fashion, emphasizing adaptability and reaction time. My favorite variation this year was having the robot in the middle of 4 people and each person had the choice of rolling the ball along the ground, tossing it to the robot, or tossing it to another one of the 4 people. The drivers (and drive coach) had to react to each move in a split second to acquire the ball and then 'score' it at one of two goal locations.

This sounds like a pretty awesome idea!! How have your drivers responded to this type of practice?

[JohnGilb]

I posted our team's approach in 2011:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...48&postcount=9

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Xavbro

This sounds like a pretty awesome idea!! How have your drivers responded to this type of practice?

Its similar to having a good defensive bot in terms of drive frustration. Good driver candidates handle it well and get better. The ones that get overly frustrated or flustered usually don't wind up being drivers. I suppose it makes a good litmus test for who is good under pressure.