How does your team scout?

[jblay]

I find that, especially for a team that has not done in depth scouting before, a computer system or anything beyond the simplest thing possible will cause chaos. In my opinion the thing to do and the thing that we do is keep the data as simple as possible. Just cover the basics for each match(balls scored, hang, can they go over the bump or under the tunnel, etc...) and then leave tons of space for your scouters to comment because that on its own will allow you to pick up on sleepers and understand the capabilities of each robot.

Things like charts and graphs using computers aren't really that useful. All they do is save you time but they do not help with making the right choice for selections and the comments are key for developing good match by match strategy. All creating complicated computer programs and scouting sheets does is risk chaos in the stands and the benefit is minimal. When you have the simple raw data you can figure out which team is better fairly easily and graphs aren't really necessary when you can just look at the numbers and compare two teams.

The comments are the key to developing good strategy and if you try and make everything complex you sacrifice this and end up with this raw data that you would have regardless just less efficient but the difference between the teams is so great that this efficiency is never necessary.

We used to always try to have a complicated system but then I came along and made everything as simple as possible and I think we have one of the best strategy approaches from the teams that I have interacted with throughout my years in FIRST. In my opinion too many teams try complicated systems and only the best teams pull it off because they have the man power and the member dedication. I think that for most teams out there something simple is the best option.