Training Rookie Drivers

[RoboDriver1718]

Yeah, the only thing we do is have who ever wants to drive tries out on the old bot to see how well they do and if someone is better at driving than the original driver than that peron would take over and the second best driver would b a backup just in case something happens.

[kawelch]

A couple of thoughts occut to me...

1) if you go to multiple regionals use two drive teams... one new and one veteran.

2) if you go to one regional make time for the newbies to practice on your practice day. They can also run it if yo uare well ahead or well behind on saturday. Similar to subbing in the b-team in a blowout basketball game.

[Justin M.]

Me and another teammate have been the main driving team since Aim High, which was my Sophmore year. We will be also driving every match this and next year. I personally think that having a strict, dedicated, and well trained "field team" is essential to FIRST. Some teams don't take driving too seriously, which I think is the most important part - whats the point in having a good robot without a good driver. If one person drives, the other controls the manipulator, it gives the person a chance to know that part of the robot like the back of their hand, sees how it changes and performs as it goes through matches, etc., which wouldn't happen if drivers were alternated. Next year's offseason I'll be training a new team to drive, but chances are I'll still be there with the coach's pin.

This year we have a solid slot for driver 1 (chassis movement), driver 2 (manipulator control and movement), and human player. That way everybody can get into the zone and work flawlessly as a team. Everybody knows what to do and how to do it.

[Kiori]

Originally Posted by Justin M.

Me and another teammate have been the main driving team since Aim High, which was my Sophmore year. We will be also driving every match this and next year. I personally think that having a strict, dedicated, and well trained "field team" is essential to FIRST. Some teams don't take driving too seriously, which I think is the most important part - whats the point in having a good robot without a good driver. If one person drives, the other controls the manipulator, it gives the person a chance to know that part of the robot like the back of their hand, sees how it changes and performs as it goes through matches, etc., which wouldn't happen if drivers were alternated. Next year's offseason I'll be training a new team to drive, but chances are I'll still be there with the coach's pin.

This year we have a solid slot for driver 1 (chassis movement), driver 2 (manipulator control and movement), and human player. That way everybody can get into the zone and work flawlessly as a team. Everybody knows what to do and how to do it.

I understand where your coming from. I'm piloting our robot this year at competition and chances are, next year too. But, during off and build season, I'm going to be training the rookies for when I and my partner (2nd driver) graduate high school. At the moment, my partner and I have the most experiance out of the whole team. besides that, our whole team wants us to pilot it this year too. Either thats dedication, or we have a problem somewhere, lol. Anyways, Like I said before in a previous post, have the most experianced drivers in competition, but train rookies during off/build season.

[Brandon Holley]

You gotta drive that bot like you stole it man. The rookies will have their chance next year, but why step down when its your senior year. Take them under your wing and give them all the knowledge you have, but after nationals its time to "hang up the sticks" and let them take over.

If you have earned the right to drive the robot, then drive it. The rookies will understand and they someday will have to pass the torch to their own set of rookies.

[Rabbit222]

JT, my senior year was the best season of my driving career. Why? Because not only did my team get the world high score for Aim High (79,469,222), but I received a donation from a local supporter to go to nationals when our funds were painfully low. Things like that make you want to drive your senior year. I'd say drive your senior year and enjoy it one last time because after that, I'm sure you are going to miss it as much as any other graduated driver/operator before us. Between your veteran drivers and your noobs, put your veterans on the sticks (or game pads) when you graduate. Right now, show them around, teach them every little last thing they need to know to be successful drivers. Connection is key. I know this from my experiences. Don't neglect the younger ones however. When your team goes to mini regionals, have the younger drivers compete while keeping the veterans around for those tough times. You don't get any better experience than mini regionals. Something new I'd like to start doing with my team is having a kit bot for driver training. The soul purpose of that would be to get interested freshman or sophomores on the boat early. As they progress through the years, they will be more than ready when they take over. Maybe starting something like that will be beneficial to your team. I hope I helped in some way if not I backed up what most people here are saying. Best of luck JT.

[BRAVESaj25bd8]

I was actually currently having this very same dilemma only a few days ago. I was the manipulator as a freshman, manipulator as a sophomore, and main driver last year. I was almost certain that last year was going to be it for me until I saw our results. We attended two regionals and got two silver medals. This made me wonder if perhaps I should tryout once again for the driveteam my senior year. I was on the fence about this for the entire offseason and half of this year's build season until the other day.

I realized with help from my mother that whomever picks the drivers is the one who should make the decision, not the driver. There are two main types of teams in professional sports (sorry for the analogy to sports but it really fits here). You have the teams that are rebuilding and training their young talent. Then you have the teams who go for the championship. What you have to decide is... is this a year that your team could possibly compete at a very high level or is it a year where you should think about having one of those great years in another 2 or 3 years down the line? Even though we won two silver's last year, I feel like this could be our best robot since I've been on the team. That's why I decided that I'll be trying out to be a driver. If, however, after our first competition, we see that we are in a rebuilding year, I might step down as driver for nationals (if I were the one chosen to be a driver in the first place).

It boils down to the fact that it's not the driver's decision to make which direction the team wants to go. It's up to whoever picks your drivers to decide if you have a serious chance of kicking butt like you guys did last year. Just my $0.02

By the way, congratulations on your FLR title last year. What a GREAT final round we all had. Hope to see you guys back on top this year.

-Bobby D

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

25 has the track record of letting the seniors drive. Then when they graduate, you put a group of sophmores on the sticks, because they have one year of experience. It's worked decently for us. We have a three year cycle, thats pretty good wed say. Our seniors go out near the top normally. And its much better to have a seasoned veteran in there, than have a completely new driver every year. We just felt mcuh more comfortable doing this. Granted, some other teams do it much differently and have equal success. We just seemed to find that it worked for us.

Like Corey said, every 3 years we get new drivers. Last year, he and Bharat were the driver and operator for the competition season. That spring, rookies would try out driving during qualifying and practice rounds at off-seasons events. The elimination rounds, we would have the seniors drive. After seeing the rookies drive, new ones would be picked for drive team for the upcoming season; these are the people that would drive during the off-seasons in the fall, allowing them to get some experience.

This seems to have worked quite well, and it makes the transition pretty smooth. For the most part, the team looks for sophomores to be the rookies on the drive team so they will have plenty of time to learn how to get better.

[114gopher]

My two cents:

The experience that is gained by an experienced driver usually outweighs any gained talent by having a rookie driver. Drivers have to make split-second decisions that don't always involve driving, but also strategy. We hold driver tryouts, and have had an extremely talented driver. He is a senior this year, and will likely be driving. His experience under pressure is invaluable to the team. What I would suggest is to put next year's driver on the field as HP or coach, or even operator if that isn't a complicated job (depends on your bot of course). Especially if they are HP (which isn't very intense this year), they can watch and observe, and learn to deal with the pressure of being out on the field.

But that's just me!