**FIRST EMAIL**/Practice Match Poll

[Tottanka]

Greetings Teams:

FRC staff and volunteers are reviewing potential improvements to the practice day schedule. We would like to increase the throughput of teams practicing. Some teams find that working on their robot is more valuable than practicing. That leads to empty spots on the field and incomplete practice matches.

Please review the three options described below and detailed in the pdf file attached to the thread on the FIRST Forum. Review them with your team and vote for your preferred format. In order to vote, you must log in using your 2007 Q & A forum account and vote only once per team. Once your team has voted, you cannot change your vote. The forum will close on November 12, 2007 at 12:59pm EST.

Option 1: Status Quo
For details of how practice matches have been run in the past, please refer to Section 9.2.1 in the 2007 FRC Game Manual (FRC Game Manual website)
Option 2: Open Practice Followed by Option 3
There is no practice schedule for the first third of the day (open practice matches)
Teams line up and practice on a "first come first serve" basis
Teams may not occupy more than one spot in line or on the field
Open practice matches are one match only (less than five minutes total)
Open practice matches are for the first 1/3 of the day, Option 3 for the remaining 2/3 of the day
Option 3: Status Quo with Filler Line
Empty slots are filled, as needed, by teams who are ready to practice
Practice schedules are generated as before, w/ 10 minute practice match length
Filler line is limited to ~6 robots (dependent on venue space), additional teams must keep an eye on the line and line up when the last spot opens up
In order to wait in the filler line, you must have your robot and may not work on it while in line.
Hint: think about the singles line at the ski lift.
Thank you for your time and your input.

Go Teams!

[Tottanka]

And im gonna ahve to go wiht option 3.
Option is obvioulsy off.
Option 3 seems more challanging, and fun. 10 minutes games are awesome!

[lukevanoort]

I like option two a lot, but I think it might work poorly for larger regionals; hence, I would go with three.

[Molten]

I like option two. It is simpler and will allow for us to jump in when ever we get a modification of our robot finished. We won't have to have one person to keep track of the field. We really can't afford to have a person dedicated to such a trivial task. We are a small team and need every member available. However, I do like the idea of changing it a little. We only really made it to half of our practice matches last year due to design issues.

[Kirk]

Option 3 seems to the the fairest solution. Every team has the same number of minimum matches and if they want more they can wait in line for it.

[Richard Wallace]

I'd vote for Option 3 with one modification: to enter the Filler Line your robot must have completed inspection and received its sticker.

I strongly dislike Option 2 because of the traffic flow problem it would create at many regional venues.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I like Option 3. I've seen forms of it work at off-seasons and everyone seems to like it.
While on the subject of practice matches, I'd also like FIRST to allow them to actually be practice. If a robot gets stuck, breaks, needs adjusting, etc. while on the field, a team member or two should be allowed to go on the field briefly to aid the robot, as long as its safe to do so.
Numerous times I've seen team members stopped from going on the field when it was clearly safe to do so.
Basically, don't run practice matches like normal matches. Give teams more freedom on the field.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Option 3 seems the best, but I'd really like to vote for a modification to it. Specifically, teams would be scheduled for n practices originally. Teams would be limited to n + x total practices, where x is determined based on regional team load etc. Once the team has reached n+x practices, the rest of their scheduled practices are mandatory byes.

The basic idea would be that teams fixing things etc would be missing matches early in the day, and at the end of the day everyone would be working, so there would be many many fewer missed practices. So the teams that were fixing things wouldn't really get much chance to make up for time they missed in the morning. By limiting the number of practices for teams that were getting extra practice in the morning, more spots would open up in the afternoon when the teams donating their morning spots would need them.

[ChuckDickerson]

Option 2 seems to be the best of both worlds to me. Heck, at our regional last year there were only 8 or 9 teams ready to role by the end of Thursday anyway. Everyone else was hard at work all day in the pits and most of the practice matches were empty or at most had only one or two robots on the field a lot of the time. It was very frustrating wanting to be on the practice field and having to wait until our next slot. Whatever is decided I am really encouraged that FIRST is looking into ways to make better use of the practice times on Thursday.

[Kirk]

Someone should move this to the general forum with a poll for just the 3 options with no modifications or changes to them. That way more people can see this and comment on it.

[njamietech]

Option three sounds good. It would make the matches more of a practice than it has been in the past.

[Pavan Dave]

Option 3 is the best by far. I don't like option 2 because for one, it will be very messy and unorganized, and two, it will not get the rookies "in gear" for the actual matches the next day.

[rees2001]

I could see option 2 working better for the later week regional competitions when teams have competed once or twice. For the first few weeks I would only schedule 1/2 day open practice & 1/2 day scheduled practice. I don't think there should be any qualification on robot inspection. Even the most organized teams at their first regional take at least an hour to get everything checked off.

I do like the fact that FIRST recognizes that there could be a better way.

[Steve W]

#3 looks good but I agree that any team in the line in the afternoon must have passed inspection. The inspectors have a hard enough time now. If teams can line up with their robot to play or get inspected, guess what doesn't get done till last minute?

[FIRSTMa2104]

I like #3 but (not sure if anybody mentioned it) will batteries last the whole 10mins.