Drive team prep

[lark95]

Just wondering what all you other drivers/drive teams do to prepare between matches? Help out in the pits? Get chased out of the pits? Or just hangout?

[Pretzel]

If there is nothing that needs to be fixed on the robot, the drive team of 1619 acts as our "robot experts" who talk to judges (and anyone who will listen) about our robot. To this end we usually stay in the pits until the end of the day, with a break for lunch, to ensure there is always someone ready to talk to a judge if they were to approach us. The drivers are always with the robot during the competition, and are often the people who were most involved with it over the season, so it makes sense to have them talk to the judges for awards as well.

When possible we will use our time to relax (I usually check out chief Delphi during these down periods) in whatever way the individual feels like doing so. Some like to go button hunting, I prefer to sit down, and others will climb up to the stands to watch matches. We usually talk with each other for a good portion of the day, making jokes and discussing matches/strategy, so it ends up being a lot of fun.

[NHoffmann]

Our current drive team is our lead programmer, our systems lead, and our chassis team lead, so whoever we are in between matches, we tweak and tune our robot back up to as close to 100% as possible. Other than that, I personally go up to the stands and grab a water or something when we don't have any changes, or a long turnaround.

[xXhunter47Xx]

Push-ups and sit-ups, 5 reps of 10 or until next match starts.

[Lij2015]

What your drive team should do really depends on your team size.

Mediumish sized and above? Get them out of the pits, they'll get too worn out otherwise. Our mentors will often kick the drive team out if we're down there too long when not needed.

Small team OR they're your best students in mechanical and electrical area? Use them where needed

[MrTechCenter]

Depends. If there's a relatively quick turnaround, then the drive team will go and talk strategy with our alliance partners for the next match. Otherwise, we tend to have the drive team leave the pit area and just hang out until they need to do strategy for the next match. This gives the drive team a chance to relax, and the pit team a chance to do some work (if it's needed) without the pit getting too crowded.

[Xavbro]

We usually go and scout for our next match. Talk to our next partners and try to get a strategy set before we get into queue. We also will watch other matches to see how some of the other teams are doing. We try to stay out of the pits because they can get too crowded.

[lark95]

Originally Posted by xXhunter47Xx

Push-ups and sit-ups, 5 reps of 10 or until next match starts.

This one sounds particularly relaxing.

[Dukenator76]

What our team does is we have a priority list of what we do...

1. If the robot breaks the drivers are the two presidents so we fix the robot if something critical breaks.

2. If nothing goes wrong with the bot we are talking with our strategy team and looking how we can get more points faster. Or we talk to them about how we can help other teams that are aligned with us to make the alliance maximize our points.

3. Next we will go around to all the teams playing at the same time as us and we will figure out the alliance strategy and make sure that we have a plan of attack.

4. if all of this is done we relax and go grab a water or food or something.

And finally right before we go out to the match and we are queing we make sure to go back over the strategy with our alliance to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing.

And then rinse and repeat

[Sunshine]

Our drivers will be talking with upcoming alliance partners setting strategy.

[Sperkowsky]

I do handstand pushups, our hp throws a baseball, and our coach hits a tennis ball.

All joking aside being I am one of the build team and electrical team members I have no breaks. I will be fixing the robot driving the robot and feeding the robot.

Our hp is also a build team member and our coach is the programming lead.


We have no breaks but being we earned our positions by being the most dedicated we dont need breaks anyway

[BenGuy]

Speaking from experience, team 3641 has a list of priorities.

1. Can ANYTHING at all be improved or fixed on the robot? (The drivers on our team are usually the head build team members as well, so we improve / fix the robot first.)

2. Talk to alliance members of our next match(es) and determine the strategy / plan.

3. Are all batteries charged and ready?

4. Go to the practice field and practice / improve everything from teleop to auton.

(If around Lunch, then go eat after priorities 1 and 2 are handled.)

That's pretty much the process, but if nothing else to do, always go to the practice field. And for any new drivers - MAKE SURE YOU'RE DRINKING WATER!! You can easily get so dehydrated while at competition, I know from experience....