Have Any New Driver Advice?

[JaneYoung]

Try to rest and eat when you can.
We have a 'quiet' room for the drivers at the hotel that they can retreat to when they want to in the evenings. There's a lot of activity during the evenings with scouting meetings and social activity - but the quiet room is theirs.

Also, eat. A lot of times the robot needs attention during the lunches, etc. and that is important. Keeping yourselves fueled is important as well. While at the arena, our drive team/pit crew needs take priority and they are fed first so they can get back to the pit if they want to. If they can't leave the pit, we save their portions for them. If you or any team member has special needs, make sure your adult team leader knows. Examples would be medication or food requirements and perhaps family stuff that may be going on. That is private but if your adult leader knows, he/she can help make your 2007 competition experience a good one for you.

[Conor Ryan]

Don't be a perfectionist.

Say your picking up a tube, after half a second you realize it's not going the way it usually goes. Drop it, pick up a new one. Don't sweat it, it's better to pick up a tube easily than to wrestle with a cranky one.

As Joel said,

[ZachKahn]

Trick out your OI. Make sure it's something you're comfortable driving with. Go to Pep Boys or another automotive store to get a custom shifter.

If you're old enough, go drive a car. If not, go to an arcade.

Practice makes perfect. Try new things on Thursday during the practice matches.

[Rick-906]

some helpful advice here, i'm for sure going to advise my drivers to read through this.

have a ritual, this works well for the sports teams at my school, a pre-game ritual gets you psyched for the match and gets your head in the game... i recomend a certain snack/energy drink/lucky charm/song/dance [haka anyone?]

[Duke_of_Hazard]

Originally Posted by ZachKahn

If you're old enough, go drive a car.

I forgot about that.... if you have access to a manual transmission car, those give you a feel for operating mechanical things (smoothness, weight balance, feathering the throttle/sticks), which makes life as a robot driver much easier.

[crafty]

Thanks for starting this thread. I am also a new driver this year, and I have found these posts to be very helpful.

[burkechrs1]

Some things i have learned from 2 1/2 years of driving are:

-Stay calm; when I stress or put pressure on myself I tend to perform poorly
-Don't be afraid to change your strategy on the fly; just cuz you say that's what your gonna do doesnt mean everything is going to go accordingly
-Go along with the flow of the match; Kinda like the previous one, change the strategy to fit them match that is going on now; try to compliment your team rather than be the team
-Don't be afraid to bash your bot a little bit; once you try to play conservative everything tends to fall apart (i've learned from experience). Plus the team gets bored if there is nothing to fix between matches ;-)
-Communication;if you know someone on your team that makes it easier to keep focus or communicate with, bring them on the field as a human player or whatnot. Good communication is a must
-And lastly have fun; the second you turn it into something other than a game, the pressure builds and the matches dont mean anything anymore, then the wheels fall off.

So just go out there and have fun. Nobody is perfect there first match. Try to spend the practice matches pushing your bot to the limits so if something does break or go badly, you know it's something you shouldn't do in a real match. So just go out and have fun and let whatever happens happen. Good luck man

-Chris
Team 668

[Bharat Nain]

Know your robot. You should be able to repair it and spot problems easily enough

Be friendly with other teams and drivers. Trust and reliability is important in alliance selections.

Be consistent. If you try to cap the rack 50 different ways every match, chances are you wont come off as a good team to pick, even if you have a great robot.

Sincerely see what works for you and stick with it. Usually going out of your way for something makes you end up with nothing. This does not mean you play so conservatively that you cry is a bolt falls off.

Play fair.

[Brian Mocci]

Make sure to rest as much as possible!
Leave the pit work to the pit crew, a calm driver will outperform a stressed one every time. Also, since most of the driving elements have all ready been covered, dont forget about your role as a team representative! Know your robot as well as you can, and be prepared to discuss it with potential team alliances. Be kind and helpful to everyone you meet and always be appreciative of alliance partners ideas and suggestions.