Is defense necessary in practice rounds?

[MrForbes]

at AZ regional the practice rounds were much more laid back than the the action on Friday. Most practice rounds were missing a team or two or three, and many of the teams were indeed having trouble just getting the robot working. So there really isn't much opportunity to practice strong defense, and it could be quite annoying to those teams who are struggling with whatever operational problems they're having.

On the other hand, if your robot does have trouble dealing with the mild skirmishes in practice, you'll be in big trouble on Friday and especially Saturday...best to find the weaknesses early so you can have more time to figure out a way to fix them!

So perhaps the best approach is to discuss your defensive practice plans ahead of time with the other teams, and only engage in "rough play" with permission. And if you are asked about it, you might consider letting the opposing teams practice defending you, because it is a major part of the game and you need to figure out how to deal with it as soon as possible.

[Paul Copioli]

Communication is the key. If you are trying to tune something in, then just simply ask the other team to lay off during your round. They will probably oblige. In many instances we have done this and the teams respected our wishes.

[sanddrag]

We've done that even in a real round.

For practice day, if something is going to break, I'd much rather break it then than on Friday.

[nuggetsyl]

In nj we play some defense and someone asked me if it was necessary to play it in a pratice round. After thinking about it I think from now on we will try to avoid playing defense on pratice rounds since teams are trying to trobble shoot problems. I figured by not playing defense (in pratice) it will help allow teams to become better shooters in the real rounds because they will get a better feel for the feild.


shaun

[EricH]

At least in past years, FIRST has said that you have to ask before contact in practice. They haven't said that the past couple years, though. They should bring that back.

[chaoticprout]

Originally Posted by EricH

At least in past years, FIRST has said that you have to ask before contact in practice. They haven't said that the past couple years, though. They should bring that back.

My question is why? Practice is there to practice, prepare you for the real game, and to fix the problems with the bot. If you practice without contact, you're taking a huge factor of the game away, thus...making practice useless in some senses. My $0.02