Drive team stress?

[bEdhEd]

I remember my first time driving the robot. It was at the 2009 WRRF CalGames off season event, and I was a rookie. The only reason I was driver was because the drivers were seniors and they had some standardized testing to do, and I was the next best choice. Being a driver can be extremely nerve wracking, because your team is relying on your skill. I constantly felt the butterflies in my tummy during eliminations, and it wasn't even a full event!
I did my best to get past the stress by remembering that I've practiced for this, and I filtered out everything else and focused on my objectives. I let the coach do their job, and I communicated with my co-driver. We finished as finalists that day, and that was my first ever live match competition, and the experience of driving was very rewarding.

I was on the drive team every year since up to 2013, and the butterflies went away after my second competition. I think you have to find a way to manage stress on the field. One way to help you reduce your stress is understanding that all the pressure isn't just on you. It's also on everyone else on the entire team , from the human player, to coach, to the designers, builders, and programmers. All their work culminates towards making the robot, and their combined skills are necessary for the robot to even work. I think when you meditate on the fact that driving is an important job, but isn't the only reason why you would win or lose a match, the stress can lessen because the pressure to perform is not just on you, but on the entire team. That's how I look at it.

But the hands down best way to reduce your stress is to increase your driver confidence, and that comes from the experience of practicing and competing.

The first matches ever can be terrifying, but once you've got 10 or 20 matches under your belt, you just can't wait for the next match to start!