Pressure on Drive Team

[Max Lobovsky]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Max - we got picked by 211 to be alliance partners at Pittsburgh - when the elim matches were starting our two drivers were in the pitts, half asleep on the floor

not that they were up all night - they were just very relaxed and laid back

BTW - are you really an engineer? 17year old engineer? thats amazing :^)

hahahah, well i didnt want to put student because i want people to know what my function on the team is. As you pointed out, the thing that might stop me from calling myself an engineer is experience, but what im doing can't be mistaken for anything other than engineering, so there i am. We have essentially a single mentor (though a dedicated one) involved in robot design and construction, so basically everything is up to the students. Another reason we are stressed like hell.

[Zorkinian]

As a fellow driver, I can tell you how it works on our team.

The drivers and the robot are the real "avatars" for teams, as the robot is what several people have labored over for several weeks and the drivers are the ones who best qualify to operate it.

The drive team is responsible for getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night, and we spend a lot of our free time concentrating on the game, thinking about possible strategies, and going over future matches in our heads.

The team itself gives the drive team fairly free reign - as long as the drivers act responsibly on (and off) the field, no blame is given, and the drivers appreciate that. Mistakes can be made on the field, but as long as they are learned from, it's okay.

Pressure imposed on the drive team from external forces (team memebers, mentors) is, in my opinion, unjustified and possibly harmful. A good driver is under pressure already - as an avatar of the team, it is his/her goal to present the team is the best possible manner (once again, on and off the field), and this pressure to perform to one's best in every way is more than enough pressure for any individual. Outside pressure can only distract a committed driver from his goals.

For the most part, it's up to other members of the drive team and the team itself to recognize when a drive team member is pressuring himself/herself too much, and try and loosen them up a bit. Sure, matches get lost, bad things happen, you make a terrible mistake that costs your alliance the game - but don't focus so hard on your failures that you are unable to succeed.

I'd say these are distilled words of wisdom from our drive coach, Andy.

[AmyPrib]

Well, being a new coach, I think there is a very fine balance of "pressure" or rather teamwork that needs to be applied within the driveteam. I do not feel that a driver or operator should be the ones making all the strategy decisions. In this game especially, there are so many things going on, that there is no way the driver can see what the best move is all the time. That's why you have a coach, operator, and human player as extra sets of eyes.

Now depending on the experience level of the operators, they can make their own decisions at any given moment to the best of their ability. Veteran operators have a hand up in the decision making capability. Rookie operators would probably need more coaching. Rookies may also feel more "pressure" simply because they don't have the experience at operating or strategy choices, and they are always trying to do their best.

I do feel that the driver and operator need to have a very good line of calm communication, because they literally have to work together in operating that robot. As far as the coach is concerned, I think one of their main roles is to guide the strategy, while taking as much input from the student operators as possible. I think that some level of strategy should be thought out before you get to the field because that also eliminates confusion on the field. I think if all 4 drive team members have good communication, trust, and teamwork, the confusion factor will be minimized, if not eliminated.

As far as one of the original questions, I don't think that so much pressure should be put on the student operators that they get flustered and pressurized on the field, or they may wind up making unnecessary mistakes. Nor should they be "fired" if they make a couple critical mistakes. It's a learning process for everyone in many aspects. Each team needs to figure out what the right balance of seriousness/pressure and fun is for them, because we are to have fun, as well as go far in the competition.

This year we had driveteam try-outs. We had several candidates for each position, gave them all chances at our first regional, and by Friday morning, felt comfortable to narrow it down to one person per position based on various aspects of their performance.
Regardless, the drive team needs to know how to work calmly under pressure. You may have other team members critiquing your performance each match, but it's typically constructive criticism to help you improve and tell you things you may have missed.
There's always times where students/adults will freak out during matches, but in my opinion, as long as it's not 100% of the time (or even 51%), you're probably doing ok.

Everything's not always about winning (even though it's great to win!). Mistakes happen, everybody makes them, learn from it and go on. And the amount of sleep... depends on the person, but 7-8hrs should do.....

and by the way, I don't think any member of the drive team should feel they need to take full responsibility for losses, mistakes, etc. And nobody else should make you feel that way. If the drive team is being "blamed" for everything that goes wrong, then it would seem there's something wrong with the level of team support. If you put the blame on yourself, buck up and remember that you didn't (and shouldn't) make every single decision that led to any result. Same goes for winning. Chances are, there's a large number of people involved in the team's results, not just the driveteam.

I think that's how we do it....

[Ian W.]

Ideally, the drive team has no pressure.

Realistically, there's pressure from everyone.

But you know what, after three years, I've learned to simply tune it out. As the lead driver on my team, even with an almost completely untested robot that didn't work nearly up to par (we'll be fixing that tomorrow, don't you worry ;-)), I was under a lot of pressure to make everything work as it should. Well, obviously, things broke, things failed, and I didn't drive as I should have, had everything been in mint condition.

So, I went out, and I drove, and I had fun, and you know something, we were regional finalists. No one expected that, and from the moment I stepped on the field in elims, it was all fun. Pressure was gone, if I didn't win, well, we made it to the elims with 1/4 of a robot, we won in the game as far as I was concerned.

So, long story short, drive teams, don't pressure them more than you need to. Veteren drivers will be able to do most of the stuff by themselves, and be pretty relaxed. New drivers, the opposite applies. Just remember, FIRST isn't about the robot, just have fun, meet new people, and try to learn something new. Killing yourself with inhumane amounts of pressure just isn't fun for anyone.

I'm surprised no one made any pneumatics jokes yet... :-p

[Ali Ahmed]

OK this what we do.

Our Drive Team is not just team members that just drive the robot. The Drive Team are made up of the hardest working people on the team. I mean the ones working on the robot. This year we have 4 members on the Drive Team and those people include the one who operates our CNC machine at school and those basically everything else. this is the driver. He is the driver. then there is Shervin. He is our programmer and he does some machining. He is the operator. After him is the human player, Matt. He does some machining and stuff. Finally there is me. My name is Ali and I do some machining and I am back-up operater and full-time coach. We are the only ones that work on the robot so we know the robot the best and therfore we "play" with it.

I might also mention that even though we are a eight year them, Jeff and I are only Juniors and Shervin and Matt and Sophmores. We are the most dedicated and the smartest ones on the team

So thats basically what we do. There is more that I can only tell you in person.

Oh, I have a question. Why is it that that the Drive Team for other teams are madeup of people who don't work on the robot? Just asking.

[Ali Ahmed]

And about the pressure thing we only give pressure to ourselves. We don't take crap from others.

[Jay Lundy]

Back in 2001 when I was driver I felt a lot of pressure. Basically in the elimination rounds the score of all 5 teams in our alliance came down to my ability to balance 2 goals on the bridge in about 10 seconds. Drive a little too far back, the bridge tips the other direction, and we lose the regional. Luckily I never felt the pressure during the match, but I would be incredibly nervous before the match. Driving in front of everyone at the national finals on einstein didn't help much either, but luckily I didn't have to balance goals in those matches.

Now that this is my 4th year driving, I barely get nervous at all. Just whatever happens, happens. If we lose, that's fine with me. If we win, great. In the end I don't think it affects my driving ability at all whether I'm nervous or not because I'm never nervous when I'm actually driving, only before the match. During the match I tune everything out except for the field, the other driver, and my coach.

And I'm always exhausted after a regional. We've gotten good at building robots that need to be repaired constantly, so I'm usually busy in the pits.

[shyra1353]

I think that the drive team has a lot of pressure put on them

The pressure comes from everywhere. From themselves, to show that theyre worthy enough to be part of the drive team and to win the match. From other teammates, to win the match. From other teams. Even if the team is supportive and encouraging, there will always be that peer pressure put on the drive team. And it is extremely easy to sit in the stands and criticise the matches. But, then its like what Ken said earlier, we fail as a team and we succeed as a team. I don't think everything should get blamed on the drive team. I know that I have told my team a few times that no matter what happens, the driver is not to be blamed if something goes horribly wrong. Its the whole teams fault.

But then again when you choose your drive team, you pick the people who will not freeze under pressure and know how to deal with it if they screw up.

[KenWittlief]

We are the only ones that work on the robot so we know the robot the best and therfore we "play" with it.

from the tone of your two posts I get the sense there is conflict and resentment on your team.

being the person or people who put the most work into building and designing the robot has nothing to do with your driving abilities

do the engineers from Ford or GM drive the race cars they build on the track? No - of course not

on our team we have always let anyone who wants to be a driver have practice time, either with previous robots, our practice robot, and with our current robot - then at some point we have a contest in one form or another, and SEE who can actually drive the machine the best.

Putting the most time and effort into the build phase of the project does not magiacally endow you with driving skills - in fact, people who have been busy practicing driving while you were busy building would most likely be better drivers.

We also had HP pratice this year, usually people had to leave build work they were doing to go get shooting practice - and they were the best shooters.

A team is where everyone has one thing they do best and performs that function - not where one or two people try to do everything themselves.

We are the most dedicated and the smartest ones on the team

So thats basically what we do. There is more that I can only tell you in person.

with this attitude you wont be winning any chairmans award this year :c(

[edomus]

its all about having fun! I am on the drive team and we get a max of 4 hours of sleep a night during competitions.

[Ian W.]

Originally Posted by Jay Lundy

During the match I tune everything out except for the field, the other driver, and my coach.

Funny story...

I was so completely focused on my robot as SBPLI during one match, that I hadn't even noticed our alliance parnter, 311, had been tipped outside of the field, and that all of 311 was screaming at me to get the one last ball for them to shoot. After we won the match, I looked back up, and saw their robot sprawled along the rail, and asked when that happened. I just got a funny look from everyone.

[KenWittlief]

actually thats good. The coach should be the one keeping an eye on the whole field, and telling the drivers what to do next (go get those balls, cap that goal, go around the left and get on the platform)

when you are driving you need to stay focused on what YOUR bot is doing, not what everyone elses bot is doing

the coach is the captain of the team -he shouts out orders and everyone else says "yes sir!" :c)

[philipprogramer]

I believe that the drive team should have as little pressure as possible during the days of the matches. Infact I take it upon my self as captain to find out ways to relieve the pressure for each of the members. Whether it be getting their mind off the game or making sure they know exactly what has to be done in the game, I want them to be as relaxed as possible before and during a match. Sometimes you just have to trust the drivers you picked and let them do their thing with no interruptions.

[Steve Shade]

I've been coaching for a number of years and I find that each year I have to change my approach to match the characteristics of the students on and off the field. My general process doesn't change. Once our drivers are selected they work as a team along with the students off the field to set up all the matches and get the robot working. I try to alleviate the pressure from my drive team, placed by other members of the team and natural environment of the competition, and make it a fun loving atmosphere where the students have confidence in executing their plan so they can attempt to enjoy the fastest 2 minutes of their life. It is a team effort and my goal is to involve the greatest number of people who will be productive towards the team. Removing pressure from the entire team is a tricky thing to do, especially when other team leaders continue to place pressure onto the team. All anyone can do is to take the competition one match at a time, and attempt to relax though all of the emotions that develop through the course of the event.

Steve

[ngreen]

There is a lot of pressure to do well. But it depends more on what you define as being successful and who is defining it.

First, we have a lot of sponsor, a supportive community and high school. They would define success in most cases as winning. They get more recognition for this. I know they define other things as success but this is the main one. They would like you to bring a trophy home and preferably the champion one. This can put pressure on drive teams but is more distant in their minds.

Second, is expectation and past experience. They all say how being a second-year team is the hardest. I agree. Last year, with no expectations, we were able to win 5 awards (4 at LSR, and 1 at Nats). This year the pressure from last years performance is tremendous. I think a lot of people would be dissapointed if we don't have a similiar showing this year and I it is likely that we won't. This pressure is close and very detrimental to the team in general. Forgetting past experiences and looking to how you can succeed this year can help in relieving stress.

Third, the drive team can put a great stress on themselves. This is where choosing the correct drive team can be better than having the best robot. The drive team needs to be able to work together through this high stress situation. They need great teamwork, communication, and cool heads. Our main driver last year was extremely level-headed and was able to do well by not being under pressure.

But like other have said this is like any sports team. You perform as well as you can under the pressure and then left go of whatever has happened.

I always use one of my former doubles tennis partners for this example. He would play great and make great shot until he lost his cool. After that he would hold onto whatever mistake he made or whatever made him angry while he made worse upon worse shots. We went 0-16 that year.

Keep your cool under pressure and let go of whatever mistake you have made and you will perform at your ability.