Drive Team Fatigue

[DarkRune]

Oh where to start...
I'm our driver from last year and for this year. Last year at our second regional, I completely let myself go without knowing it. I ate near nothing, drank even less, and worked harder than I ever had before. The adrenaline kept me going through the competition, but I got home saturday night feeling great, after all we'd earned our ticket to champs, however come sunday morning my body refused to cooperate. I was severely dehydrated and couldn't move around the house. So after last year here's a couple of things I've come up with for this year:

Yes coffee tastes great, but you know what keeps you going longer than that burst of caffeine? A glass or two of water and a nice morning jog.

If something breaks in the match, well you tell the pit crew exactly what happens, that's what they are there for. Have faith, they are the almighty pit crew, they can and will fix everything. Go take a break, go for a jog, DRINK MORE WATER, watch a couple matches, talk to other teams, pit scout, talk to your scouters, engage the people in the stands. You are there to help your team succeed, everyone looks up to you, they will help you every way they can so return the favor and engage your teammates who are in the stands pulling those long scouting shifts.

For alliance selections, send someone else out. Let the drive team weigh their opinions in before hand and then send them to the stands or to go eat lunch during the selections. They're going to spend the rest of the break strategizing with their new partners, no time to eat then.

Most importantly, eat a filling dinner, do whatever strategy talks you need to with scouters and such, and then straight to bed. Drive team needs the sleep.

tl;dr: LOTS OF WATER, whatever your contribution in the pit is, someone else can do it better. Eat food whenever possible. And sleep, lots of sleep.