Traits of the Drivers, Coaches, and Human Players

[mhayon]

Hey,

I'm from a rookie team who still has yet to choose drivers, coaches, or human players. How do you recommend we go about finding them?

What skills should these people have? We threw around some ideas, we came up with the Programming guy, because he knows the controls; the Mechanical guy who knows how the arm will work; and kids that can improvise what to do on the spot. What other capabilities should these people have?

Thanks,
Matt (of Team 1676)

[Sscamatt]

They also need people skills as they will need to communicate with alliances. Especially important since there are 2 partners instead of 1 this year.

[Michael Leicht]

go to the ECDU forum and find something about drivers

[Corey Balint]

Once you have a drive base complete, get the prospective drivers out and make them drive through a course and do some tasks with the robot; eg., weaving through objects, stopping/changing directions on a dime, changing speeds just using the controllers(shows softer hands). For the coach, have the driver blindfolded(if in a safe area) and again, set up a course for the driver to run through. This time only allow the coach to direct the driver(will also show ability of driver too) and see what happens. Also, test the coach and driver with some strategy ideas. My suggestion is watch some matches from last year and have them come up with strategies for/against certain robots, and see which ones sound best/were used the best in the game.

Driver-Fast Reactions, fast thinker, good strategist, great leadership ability(very important because no one wants to see a fool who disrespects others and can make a bad name for your team driving your robot), must obviously know the game, good vision, responsible, good focus, knowledge of your own robot, good hands, and a good listener.

Coach-Very verbal, fast thinker, good strategist, good vision, focus, and the ability to talk to other coaches.

edit-also, both should be able to commit to decisions fast and stick with them. Changing ideas a lot during rounds could end up hurting you.

[Bleric]

To tell the truth, the best way to choose your drivers is to have them practice and see which one is best. Good drivers can come from any team, really.

As far as personality goes, it's very, very, *very* important that they are good listeners. I know it's sounds kind of cheezy, but last year our drivers never really communicated, and.... it wasn't pretty

[slickguy2007]

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

Once you have a drive base complete, get the prospective drivers out and make them drive through a course and do some tasks with the robot; eg., weaving through objects, stopping/changing directions on a dime, changing speeds just using the controllers(shows softer hands). For the coach, have the driver blindfolded(if in a safe area) and again, set up a course for the driver to run through. This time only allow the coach to direct the driver(will also show ability of driver too) and see what happens. Also, test the coach and driver with some strategy ideas. My suggestion is watch some matches from last year and have them come up with strategies for/against certain robots, and see which ones sound best/were used the best in the game.

Driver-Fast Reactions, fast thinker, good strategist, great leadership ability(very important because no one wants to see a fool who disrespects others and can make a bad name for your team driving your robot), must obviously know the game, good vision, responsible, good focus, knowledge of your own robot, good hands, and a good listener.

Coach-Very verbal, fast thinker, good strategist, good vision, focus, and the ability to talk to other coaches.

edit-also, both should be able to commit to decisions fast and stick with them. Changing ideas a lot during rounds could end up hurting you.

Listen to Cory, he really knows what he is talking about when it comes to these things. Also, make sure whoever you pick to drive knows that no matter what they do, they should always listen to the coach. The coach is the one who is watching the field and making necessary changes to the strategy. Make sure you pick a driver and operator who always listen to their coaches and don't decide to do what they think is right. Make sure your coach can be heard by everybody. This year it is important because you might be on one side of the player station and you might be trying to communicate with the team on the other side of the player station. Communication is key and having a well prepared team behind that player station is very important.

GO 1403!!!

[Kyle]

I think that the drivers that you pick should know your robot inside and out and know the rules of the game even better. there are some stiff penalties in this game and a driver that keeps cool and is a good listener that gets you a 30 point penalty isn't the kind that you want. The human player should be the calm one of the group because one false move at a high point of a match right when your bot is about to cap the tetra to win the match your human player jumps up and oops there go's the Win. The coach should be a person who can think on the fly and be able to know what the driver is going to do at every move and then be able to Guess at what the other team is going to do and able to communicate that to the drivers.

[Karthik]

The most important quality for a FIRST driver is maturity. Unlike driver skill, which can developed through practice and training, maturity is something that develops over a longer period of time. FIRST competitions are stressful events. You need to have someone who isn't going to buckle under the pressure. Your driver has to be able to handle being center stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. Whether perceived or real, the driver will be feeling the weight of the expectations of his/her entire team. It takes a very strong character to handle this type of pressure and responsibility. Being able to stay calm, cool and collected through all this requires a huge amount of maturity.

I like to choose drivers who've shown some sort of demonstrated ability in high pressure situations. People who've excelled in varsity sports are natural choices. But in general, people who are task oriented, possess a sense of urgency and are determined fit the bill nicely.

Another factor is aggression. You need a driver who's not afraid to mix it up. If your driver approaches a match with the attitude of "I don't want to break the robot", you're going to have a hard time emerging victorious. In this competition, you really do need to "drive it like you stole it". That being said, there must be limits to the aggression. A driver who is needlessly aggressive and cannot obey the rules will cause undue headaches.

[Koko Ed]

Make sure they thoroughly understand the rules.
They can be as talented as can be but if they don't take the time to understand the rules and cost you matches then it really didn't matter how fast their decision making was or how well the drove.

[tribotec_ca88]

Originally Posted by Karthik

The most important quality for a FIRST driver is maturity. Unlike driver skill, which can developed through practice and training, maturity is something that develops over a longer period of time. FIRST competitions are stressful events. You need to have someone who isn't going to buckle under the pressure. Your driver has to be able to handle being center stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. Whether perceived or real, the driver will be feeling the weight of the expectations of his/her entire team. It takes a very strong character to handle this type of pressure and responsibility. Being able to stay calm, cool and collected through all this requires a huge amount of maturity.

Great point. I'm not a driver, but speaking from my experiences as a coach last year, training around in your team's classroom is one thing. Driving it in front of thousands with your team counting on you is another. I remember that before every single match the adrenaline rush would get me...I handled it fine, but I thought to myself "If being coach is already a stressful task, imagine being a driver...!!!"

Our team has annual tryouts...all we basically do is have our candidates drive through an obstacle course. I would suggest defining your driver(s) early during build season or even before the kickoff (if you have another bot to practice with), so that way these people can train throughout those weeks til regionals.

Oh, and another thing. ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP DRIVER!!!! Or two. You never know what may go wrong....

Best of luck!!!

[kpugh]

In addition to what everybody else has mentioned, it is also really important that the two drivers work very well together and get to know how the other one will react in certain situations. When one is trying to drive while the other is manipulating the arm to grab a tetra or cap a goal they really need to be comfortable working with one another as this sort of thing requires some coordination between the two.

I would suggest having some practice matches with old robots. It will get the drivers used to working with each other, as well as listening to the coach. Also have these practice matches timed so that the drivers get used to only having 2 minutes to accomplish the tasks.

[AmyPrib]

What we normally try to do is have the tryouts like everyone has mentioned. If there are many potential drivers/ops/HPs, try to narrow it down to 2-3 max per position before your first Regional.

You can have them practice and go through many driving tests and obstacle courses, but the "real" test is at an actual competition.
If you so choose, and you are going to more than one Regional and feel you can do this, you can have your narrowed down candidates try-out during competition at the first Regional. You can then narrow it down even further, hopefully to your "final" driveteam, either during that Regional or after it's over.

If you do this, you might find some characteristics (better or worse) in the candidates under "real" pressure at a "real" competition. A student may drive very well, and seem very calm at the shop when you're running them thru tests, but when you get to competition, they may crack.

[Kevin Kolodziej]

As a former driver turned coach, I can't really think of much else that hasn't already been said. Definitely give everyone a chance to drive as early as possible. There will be some that are not interested and there will be some that will rise above the rest. Mix and match your teams...run simulations with as many combinations as possible (of the two drivers).

By the time you get to regionals, you should have a primary field team and a backup field team. If you have a couple backups, thats fine. You never know what might happen (kids getting sick, etc.). On practice day, I believe we still get three practice rounds this year, so run your primary team twice and your backup team once.

Its not the same for everyone, but I never really noticed the crowd when I was a driver. The drivers should be able to react to the other teams (i.e. if they are being blocked or there is a great opportunity) but they should not be expected to see those situation on their own. That is what the coach is for. In all likelyhood you will have only a few basic strategies that you won't really deviate from...your drivers should know those very well.

Include the scouting team with the pregame strategy sessions so that all three teams are on the same page as to who has what abilities and what the alliance is up against. If you know right away that BlueA sits at the center goal the whole match, opt for a strategy that never goes to the center goal.

Above all else - relax, have fun, and win or lose, take pride in the fact that you are able to showcase your teams efforts on the field for all to see.

Good luck!!

Kev

[Ali Ahmed]

In my opinion, I think the best to choose a Drive Team is by looking at experience. All of our Drive team members have the most experience of the team. They all are not necessarily the oldest because our current Drive Team consists of 2 seniors, including myself, and 2 juniors. They also have to understand the rules very well. It also helps that they are good friends and have good chemistry. I have seen teams were the drivers and coaches are yelling at each other.

Just my 2 cents.

[hacksaw692]

Everything already said is dead on for the traits and qualitites of the field team. But I must emphasise:

Originally Posted by Karthik

FIRST competitions are stressful events. You need to have someone who isn't going to buckle under the pressure. Your driver has to be able to handle being center stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.

Some people may think they're such hot shots at driving the robot in a classroom put panic under pressure.

The first year I tried out for driving, our teacher made us drive the robot around an obstical course while the rest of the team cheered and yelled as loudly as they could to try and throw off our concentration. It seems a little mean to try and distract those trying out, but that's how it's going to be at competition; a driver must be able to block everything out around them except for their teammates on the field with them. I think it was most definitly a good way of picking drivers and controlers.

God I miss that rush...