Is defense necessary in practice rounds?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

You design a robot that can score but is not very strong.

I design a robot that cant score much but can push anyone.

You want to practice getting on the ramp.

I want to practice getting you up the ramp.

Both teams are testing their strategy. I see nothing wrong with defense on practice day.

[Joe J.]

With most of the past games I've seen I would agree that Practice day should be for practicing scoring, BUT this year we are not only allowed to play defense in the game, theres a whole 40 second period of the game where your alliance is on DEFENSE. Its a major part of this years game so you should practice it.

[Btower]

From the tournament manual.

8.2 PRACTICE ROUNDS
8.2.1 Schedule
The Practice Rounds will be played all day Thursday. The Practice Rounds schedule will be available on
Thursday morning. Practice Rounds will be randomly assigned. Each team will be assigned an equal number
of Practice Rounds. At some events, additional rounds may be available on a standby basis. Each Practice
Round will consist of a ten-minute period in which teams may operate their robot on the field. The first five
minutes of each Practice Round will start with a 10-second autonomous period, and followed by a “free-form”
session, in which the robots may be exercised to evaluate operational characteristics, gain driver experience,
determine system robustness, etc. The second five minutes of each Practice Round will be conducted as a
“match” with approximately two minutes for set up, two minutes and fifteen seconds of regular game play
(including autonomous operations), and one minute to clear the field.

So I'd say defense is necessary and allowed within reason. Thankfully, I'm the one who gets to decide "reason", sorry.

Seriously though, should we make an field announcement, say at a drivers meeting prior to the start of practice rounds?

On a second practice related topic. Should we allow team extra practices on a standby basis, if another team does not show?

[Jon Jack]

If a team is playing defense in the practice rounds and they see that a robot is breaking, on their alliance or not, they should have the common sense to make an effort NOT to hit that robot.

I do agree that if a team needs to test a part of their robot and they request not to be hit that match, teams should not hit them.

Remember, that team could be on you alliance in qualifying matches. If that team isn't allowed to test their robot, they might not be as effective of an alliance partner as they could be.

[gren737]

Defense during the practice rounds at BAE was fairly significant, we were actually flipped during one and one of our friends, Team Discovery, had a gearbox broken from being rammed by an oppenent.

The more practice time teams have to get "dialed in" on thursday means for better competition friday and saturday. If they spend all day thursday in the pits fixing stuff that's broken during practice rounds they may never be able to compete up to their full potential when it counts.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

You design a robot that can score but is not very strong.

I design a robot that cant score much but can push anyone.

You want to practice getting on the ramp.

I want to practice getting you up the ramp.

Both teams are testing their strategy. I see nothing wrong with defense on practice day.

Tom,

Assume I've got the defendingest robot in the competition and you've got a shooter, defender, whatever. Would you appreciate it if I spent 10 minutes defending your robot up onto the ramp and pinning it there? Would you like it if in the process of defending you, I accidentally knocked your robot over?

You don't particularly need another robot around to practice defending against. Pushing things is not as hard as you seem to think, just practice driving and you'll be plenty prepared for defending. Failing that, if you really really want to defend someone, then seek out one of the teams on the field and ask them if you can practice against them for a while. An offensive team with all their bugs worked out will probably want to practice shooting and maneuvering against defense. Much, much better to ask permission than to ask forgiveness for annoying a team that's simply trying to get a robot working.

[abeD]

I've always heard how you practice is how you play, but you should still keep it within reason. If your bot is a defensive bot then yes practice defending the goal then when you are sure that you can (10-20 seconds) go do something else, remember let the other team practice too.