Do Drive Team Personalities Influence Success?

[Jeff K.]

It can never be said enough, communication is one of the biggest factors. If no one is talking, no one is knowing what the other person is thinking. A driver that is argumentative also doesn't help. I remember my freshman year, as operator, the driver kept yelling at the coach to shut up, which was not his job...we weren't very successful. The coach role is quite possibly the most important part because you may have an amazing driver and an equally amazing operator, but if there is no connection they'll just fall apart and be out of sync.

Both also need to keep up with each other. The slowest person will bring the team down. The whole drive team needs to work together to understand each other better, even if it's just at a few team meals, understanding each other to get a connection helps a lot.

[hallk]

It is called a team for a reason; they need to function as one. Drivers need to be able to make quick decisions. Drivers should also be able to support their decisions especially when facing heat from the team after a match. They must be able to communicate well with their team and others. There is a fine line that drivers need to balance between being too passive and too aggressive. Drivers need to know the limits of their machine (being able to do quick fixes is also helpful). I have found that drive teams are not as effective unless each driver is able to do those things.

[JesseK]

From what I've seen in 2 years of coaching, personality influences the experience while maturity and desire influence success. 2 years ago our drivers and human player were very mature and we were fairly successful in every match.

This year's chassis driver was somewhat intraverted yet very focused and driven. The manipulator driver was very extraverted and knew the mechanical components of the bot better than he knew the back of his hand. We had much more success in interacting with many teams this year than we did last year, but last year we technically have a better win/loss ratio. This year's lack of field success was more due to technical difficulties than driving though. I guess it really depends on your view of "success". The first time we hurdled after a grueling season, I considered Atlanta to be a huge success.

This also reminds me that we have a "tribal dance" video recorded in Atlanta that needs to go up on youtube...

[Nica F.]

Having all friends on drive team of course seems like a good thing, for all the getting along purposes, having more fun, good vibe etc. But on our team we make it clear that business is business. Don't take any personal feelings onto the field. You work with your teammates, everyone is on your team, so you in fact have to work with everyone.

It's all about the respect. Everyone on drive team has to respect one another, the HP/Robocoach, operator and driver have to respect the Coach and also each other.

I have been in situations before in which everyone on drive team weren't exactly my best friends, but you deal with it, you need to get the job done, and we did just as fine as we did with people I was friends with "before getting on the field" per say. In fact, I think being on drive team with these people actually may have brought me a little closer to them (looks back to 9th grade haha).

-My 2 cents and reflection on my own team.,
Nica

[JoshD]

I believe that what kind of personality a drive team member has is a huge factor on your success. Our main driver was being extremely stubborn this year since he is also a programmer and the IR board wasn't working.

When he stopped taking suggestions from other people, I had to step in and remove him from a few matches (with consent from our team leader). We did put him back in after a he had a few matches to calm down.

Overall, our performance was definitely reflected with our drive team cohesion.