Picking drive team?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by stundt1

Would you want to pick the best team or pick the best people individually?

The best team, hands down.

If the best people don't work together, the best team will beat them. Now, if the best people form the best team, they'll win every time.

[smurfgirl]

My post in this thread almost exactly describes what I would say here, so here's my response below:

1) First, we determine who is interested in driving. The students who are interested in driving all get an equal opportunity to practice on old robots to get used to driving the base, as well as on our prototype robot, to practice whatever functions are exclusive to each game. We build two robots (one for practice), so we extend this process past when we have shipped the competition bot. A week or two before regionals, we decide on our official drive team. There are some important characteristics that must be taken into consideration:

- Drivers must listen to the coach at all times
- Drivers must work well with each other (good chemistry)
- Drivers must exercise good judgment- we don't want to see reckless or stupid driving on the field
- Drivers must be agile and quick
- Drivers must have a good handle on the rules and game play
- Drivers must have a decent idea of basic strategies the coach will use
- Drivers must know how the robot works
- Drivers must follow all team rules, since they are the most "visible" people during a competition
- Drivers must have x hours of practice on that year's robot (it varies from year to year)

Writing those things out, it seems like we're ridiculously harsh in our driver selection process, but we're not super-rigid about rules. Students who are motivated to read the rules, get familiar with the robot, act appropriately, and practice driving have a good shot at qualifying.

We also choose a back-up drive team, (the next two people who qualify based on these criteria). The back-up drive team is used for if the primary drivers are sick, need a break, are not on their game, etc.

2) We use a similar selection process for coaches (we only do student coaches). Once we've figured out who is interested, they train by instructing the drivers who are practicing on the different robots. Again, there are a lot of characteristics we would like to see in a coach:

- Coach must work well with drive team (good chemistry)
- Coach must be able to think quickly and rationally
- Coach must be able to exercise good judgment in tricky scenarios
- Coach must stay calm and level-headed- no panicking, and no screaming at the drivers
- Coach must have an excellent handle on the rules in the manual- our coaches usually know the rules down to the wording, and the number of the rule (like <G42>)
- Coach must understand game play, and have some pre-determined strategies laid out
- Coach must work well with scouting team to determine strategies based on partners/opponents
- Coach must spend time watching other regionals and analyzing game play to better our own
- Coach must know how the robot works
- Coach must follow all team rules, since (s)he is the most "visible" person during a competition

Again, even though it seems like a lot of rigid stuff listed out, it's not too hard to fit most of these criteria if you actually try. We also choose a back-up coach, (the next person who qualifies based on these criteria). The back-up coach is used for if the primary coach is sick, needs a break, is not on his/her game, etc.

3) As you can tell, we have two drivers. One controls the base of the robot, and one controls whatever game-related piece we have on the robot, like an arm, a claw, an elevator, a shooter, etc. It's easier to split up the tasks so that each person can focus on their own part.

Edit: I thought of something else you might want to take into consideration. You mentioned the stress of the competition as a factor in why your driver selection wasn't quite right. When our drivers are practicing, we crank up distracting music really loud, have our spirit team cheering, spectators, and other various people around the area to simulate a competition. It does distract the drivers a lot, and it definitely helps to prepare them for competition. Also, if you have old robot, you might want to have people driving those robots as well as the new one to "get in the way" just like you'd see at a competition.