Driving Tips?

[thefro526]

Another Tid-bit of advice is SLEEP! get lots and lots of sleep because there is nothing worse than waking up dead tired and trying to drive. Also eat lots of food, and drink lots of water and stay relaxed. One of my rituals during a competition day is to drink alot of caffeinated things. I find that they help me concentrate Lol but dont OD and drink like 10, I usually have coffee and doughnuts/bagel for breakfast, Some random competition food for lunch with a red bull/monster and sometimes at the end of the day I will drink one more redbull/monster for good measure.

[Kyle Love]

1. Keep cool (literally and figuratively, keep hydrated)
2. Think on your feet, have a reaction for everything that could happen on the field
3. Know your robots limits, don't overdrive (no pun intended) and cause unneeded failures
4. Take constructive criticism, listen to input from other drivers and team members
5. Don't get a big head, your human, everyone else on your team is, don't act like your worth more then them
6. If you break something on the robot, offer to help the pit crew fix it
7. Be adaptive to different strategies, yours may not be the best
8. Leave all biases on the field, when you come off the field be friendly, and not hold competitive grudges

[David Brinza]

I'll second the post by QBranch: Drive like you stole it...here's why:

I'd rather see a driver make a mistake at full speed than to be tentative and just sit there. We've got bumpers on the robot and a pit crew who can make repairs. We're all behind a driver who tries to make the most out of those two minutes.

Oh, yeah: Listen to your coach (who's looking at the big picture of the match and communicating with alliance partners). Execute the coach's commands promptly and be ready to react to the next one.

Finally, take it all in and have fun. This is supposed to be exciting! If your heart is racing and you feel a little nervous, then you're on the right side of the alliance station wall!

[GBilletdeaux930]

Alright so about the noise factor... for me when i drive, i seem to naturally tune out all the noise around me...now thats good and bad. Good, i get to concentrate on the field, bad, i dont here what my co-driver is yelling at me about refs and such.

So yea try and tune it out (cept ur co-driver and coach and such) and just relax, dont get all anxiety-ish and you should do fine.

[hipsterjr]

Change things up when driving. Don't become predictable. If you do the same thing every round, one team will eventualy figure out how to shut you down and keep you from scoring. By driving a little differently every round, you may find a better stratagy.
Also, watch how other drivers react to your actions. This information may be valuable later.

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by wpdrummer

1) The hitchhikers Guide has it right, DONT PANIC.

Funnily enough, last year my arm man kept feeling nervous during the matches, so he grabbed a permanent marker and wrote "Don't Panic" front of the control sticks for the arm.

[thefro526]

One of the most important things that I found out was to be prepared for anything. Last year I drove 3 out of our 7 matches in NJ. The first match we went out there and out auto worked great but when I came back out HP wasn't strong enough to push an overinflated tube through the chute. After waiting about 40 seconds she got the tube through and we managed to put 3 tubes up in the remaining minute and 20 seconds but it was something I was unprepared for and that cost us a match.

In my second match on of our alliance partner's transmission's broke so we went to play offense and had no pneumatics. thanks to some quick thinking by my operator and I we managed to score some tubes without our gripper.

The in the match before my third one our other driver thought it would be a good idea to have a robot ramp onto us and then he was going to ramp on someone else. Needless to say he failed horribly. Unknown to us he tore all of the wires out from under the robot. So right before my match I was notified by a mentor that all I had to work with were our two drive motors.

In the end you should try to play out every scenario you can think of with your operator and coach and decide on a plan for each. As my previous post have shown, what can go wrong will so be prepared for it. And there will be some cases where even with good planning you will lose but at least in these cases you will have known you did what you could.

Communication with your alliance is so important. Last year I was the drive coach and this year I'm the driver, and I know that tactics can mean so much more than robot capabilities.

Great example at Finger Lakes last year: Due to some odd alliance pickings, the alliance we were in for the elimination matches had 3 robots with 3 ramps and 0 arms (us, 772, and 1728). We had no way to score any ringers (except HP's) and our first opponent (the quarterfinals) was the #2 seeded alliance, with 1126 SparX (who consistently builds the best robot out of any team in the Rochester area). We planned tactics for quite a while, and although each of their robot had an arm, we held them to just 1 ringer in each of the 2 final matches during teleop. We beat them by getting the 30 bonus points each time for ramping and we felt like we were on top of the world.

Drivers, just remember that no matter how much the odds seemed stacked against you, no matter how good that 118 or 121 or 1726 looks, don't be intimidated. Keep your cool, do your thing, and rock their socks off.

[jagman2882]

i drove for three years back in the day...here are just a few suggestions

1. Stay cool....dont let things bother you...once u get rattled your done...u need to have ice in your veins

2. Be able the think clearly n decisivley...u gotta make super quick decisions...learn to make them n deal with the outcomes

3. Be smooth...be able to put your robot where you want...whenever you want

4. Dont put added pressure on yourself...even after 3yrs of this i would still get nervous before a match and get that butterfly thing in my stomach....but i think that that is good pressure...just dont let any other thoughts creep into your mind...always take it one match at a time...NEVER look ahead to the next match

for practice i would just say video games....preferably nascar/gran turismo like games....those kinds of games make you be smooth so it kind of enforces the same ideas n skills u need for driving even tho u are using different controls


just some advice for you to think about

[Laura_587]

This year, I also suggest being ready for the trackballs to come bouncing toward you, and even off the plexiglass. Just be prepared, and keep your cool. And remember to turn the robot on.

[IbleedPink233]

Some re-iterated things:
- take the matches one at a time: the worst thing that you can do is lose an easy match because you were focusing on and stressing about the match against 254, 217, and 330 you have the next day. No match matters except the one you are playing.
- Opponents are not enemies, they are playing the game, too - it is easy to make an enemy out of a team that has beaten you before and that clouds your judgement. This is especially difficult if your teammates are united against a particular team. Every team that I used to hate is now one of my favorite teams since I got to know them.
Some things that I haven't seen suggested:
- Imagine yourself driving the robot - this is a little trick that our drive coach endorses very strongly: since we are separated from our beloved robots now, the next best thing to driving them is to find a few minutes to close your eyes and imagine that you are driving the robot on the actual field, with the shiny metal, the bright lights, and the disco music. Go through the process of the match, driving and picking up a Trackball, scoring it, picking it up again. . . It sounds crazy (I didn't believe that it does anything), but it really does help get your head in the game and makes the operations second nature.
- Being a driver is a privilege and a responsibility - the mechanical team has trusted your to take care of their baby and the kids in the stands want to see their gladiator compete heroically; devote attention and professionalism accordingly.