Stress

[Argoth]

Our drivers this year were both football players and I was an ex-baseball player soo we are all used to the tension. Plus doing the can-can with our semi's alliance partners helped too.

[JulieB]

As the coach I must admitted that I Freak Out at a lot on people due to the stress but, after the day of practice I'm able to clam the drivers down.

[Kiwi_queen]

I think that, like R81 Honda said, the best way to prevent stress is to be prepared before you even go out there. - know what your robot's strengths and weaknesses are, try to imagine every game plan you can, and try to think of ways you can salvage the game if one of your bot's weaknesses is revealed.

also, don't think of competition as a "do or die" situation - think of it as an "I hope I win, but the important thing is that I'm having fun" situation. if you make winning your first priorety, you'll more than likely stress out over every little thing and end up losing more than you win (not to mention it won't be fun anymore). but if you chose to accept the fact that you probably won't win every match, but that you'll do your best to try, you'll have fun, and your stress-level will go down, which will allow you to think more clearly and have a better shot at winning.

[Cowmankoza]

Im a first year driver on a second year team, stress does tend to get to you

however as mentioned above, just relax, usually i just find myself dancing, not well but none-the-less dancing, and the shear stupidity of it calms me down , and after competition i often resort to halo 2

[techtiger1]

Originally Posted by Cowmankoza

Im a first year driver on a second year team, stress does tend to get to you

however as mentioned above, just relax, usually i just find myself dancing, not well but none-the-less dancing, and the shear stupidity of it calms me down , and after competition i often resort to halo 2

Haha Koza you are awesome !! Rookie of the year drive no matter what happens at nats. If u stress u don't show man your doing great. Dave Guzman( who posted earlier) if I am Drew the man with the tetras. U my friend are Dave master of the joysticks. Our Drivers rock!! Oh yeah good luck to all the drive teams remember it's just a game and have fun!

[dubious elise]

No matter what, stress and the way you handle it does play a large role in the game. Our drive team this year usually just talked to people (refs, other drive teams, pit crew members from our own team, each other) to stay cool or watched the matches. The best advice I can offer is to enjoy yourself as much as you can. As awesome as it is to win, you have to remember that there are things infinitely more important than winning; hence the reason that there are so many spirit, design, and community involvement awards.
Personally speaking, I tend to be a complete ditz at competitions. Not intentionally, persay, just in the sense that I make myself completely oblivious to the importance of each and every match. Though I can perform well under stress, I also make more mistakes - being comfortable with your role before you actually get into a competition helps immeasurably. Hence, if I convince myself to not take every match so seriously, I will perform just fine!

[evelyn1503]

i think that i wase the only one that got so strest out thet i almost had no sleep theru the hole intire watterloo compotion whael it wase me and dan sivic form gm that wer themoste strest out

[Keith Chester]

As drive coach, first thing I do in the match queue is make sure that my drivers and alliance partners (and even our human players, which is odd considering that we rarely use them) know exactly what we're going to do, or PLAN to do. Then we all quiet down and watch the match before us. That's all. I don't think it's because we're stressed, but it's more of a "playing the game in our heads" type thing.

Yea, it's stressful and hot under the lights on the field. Especially during the finals. But when you think about it as, "Man, am I proud to be here," and "Man, no matter what happens, this should be a cool match," stress tends to fade away.

It also helps to have a pair of excellent drivers you can be confident in- I've seen these drivers operate, and I know that no matter what tragedy could possibly befall us on the field, they can react excellently to these situations, even better with a bit of guidance from me.

As a side note to fellow drive coaches- I tend to not get stressed DURING a match because I'm too busy trying to take the Field in as a whole to try and see everything and impart that information to my drivers.

In the end, always remember - you should not be stressed, for you have already succeeded! You have built a robot in six weeks in your high school years. If that's not a story to tell the grandchildren as these six year olds watch FIRST on TV, rolling their eyes and mentioning something about you roaming with dinosaurs, I don't know what is.

P.S. - Don't eat spicy food before a match, or a marathon of matches like eliminations. It never ends well. Trust me.

[tiffany34990]

our team just stresses if it's almost time for a match and something is broken...but we remain calm and just solve the problem and let the stage crew take the bot away when it's time.. usually then pit crew just walks off so there won't be screaming and all...our stage crew listens to their headphones and to stay focus and be "in the game". but taking walks and leaving the area is a good idea.....that's what i do all the time since i'm basically not allowed to leave my pit @ all unless it's to watch a match or get my food.
at the end of the day we just all crash..review over the day and try to make any improvements. and now both the pit crew and stage crew each have a check list to make sure we do everything when times are crazy before a match..so in major time of stressing, it won't make us forget anything

[dmurdz]

I think that both our drivers handled the stress at our regionals, pretty well. They just put their game faces on when it was gametime.

All the drivers should stay cool and have some fun.

[Joe J.]

Not2B is right he does do the stressing out for the team ... that how he got the nickname Heebe Geebe. And he was right about not stressing about winning. Also when we picked the drivers we had to carry out three tasks with the robot while the rest of the driver hopefuls got to yell, scream, and be loud and distracting to simulate a competition. We did the same thing when we tested our human players.

[Bcahn836]

Events are stressful, for the drivers, the pit crew, the mentors and even our cheering section. Emotions go up and down several times over the span of 3 days and even weeks before and after.

For the drivers its stress and pressure because you don't want to let down your robot, team and alliances.

For the pit crew, with only a few minutes in between matches they are doing everything they can to get that robot into top condition, and always tweaking the programming.

For our mentors, looking out for the safety of everyone, making sure the drivers the pit crew and the alliances are on the same page.

For the cheering section the emotions of the matches, awards, the well being and hydration of the team and also scouting.

In an event the whole team really goes on an emotional roller coaster, but the nights at the hotel when we can just be kids really helps, when we are not thinking about the competition.

[ICE MAN]

Hi everyone, this will be my first reply. so here i go. now i know that most high ranked and average teams tend to have driver teams, which all they do to my knowledge is drive the robot. i know this thread is about stress and how it affects the driving team and how to reduce it. well i started about four years ago and have been in robotics ever since. most people would call me a natural non-stress kind of guy. now stress can be caused by many things. my theory on how stress is caused is through the human not knowing the future and the general unknown. this may sound weird but for me it tends to be correct. most people stress over what a test might be like or contain. in this example most drivers will stress over the unknown of what the next match will be, how the robot will drive, or if the robot will even work. for me most of these ideas run through my mind minutes and even hours before a match, but normally i am one who does not show it. now i will talk about how i think stress can reduced. in my cases the more i know about the robot the better i fell. my team consist of up to at any given time five to seven people. so naturally there are no divisions of teams. i am the current robotics president which also entitles my to the lead designer and auto cad (maker). so when during the build system i know everything about the robot. this tends to help me because i know how the robot will 1.) work and react to certain things and 2.) that the robot will work and hopefully not break. since i worked and built most of the robot i have no real fear of the robot working because i know my work is valid and i tend to not make mistakes. so my solution to whoever is on the drive team is to try and get as much involved on the robot than most people. this will help because you are the one who will be driving the robot in the end. the more you know about the robot the better prepared you will be for competition. in my case this solution tends to reduce stress on me and my fellow drivers. hope this tid bit helps.

[oaktown1188]

our driver was pretty cool with everything and she was only a sophomore last year. we didnt have any upperclassmen on the drive team last year but the underclassmen seemed to handel it well. maybe its because I was never around for the rounds and rarely saw them but they seemed cool and collected.

[ChuNalt787]

Have classical music playing in ur pit. believe me it calms the nerves. its really good to have in the background to think to. I read somewhere that patterns in the music help develop thinking patterns.