This post is inspired by the recent “This is the Year” post but I wanted to talk to as many drivers as I could reach before this season to remind them of things that I feel are key to leaving each season, competition, and match feeling inspired. While I am just a fourth-year member of an FRC team (8088) and not a coach or experienced mentor, I just wanted to remind everybody about things we already know.
First off, there is always an opportunity to win. When we build our robots and grow our teams we aren’t looking to stagnate we’re looking to grow. Never enter a match with the idea that you can’t win. Sure, go for the ranking points that are more attainable for each alliance member, but anything can happen so always try your hardest to win or at least close the score gap.
Second, treat everyone on the field like your own team. Remember that even if you’re an adult with the best intention to develop your drivers as many growing teams need, all drivers are teenagers trying to grow themselves. Any words stated leave lasting impacts on those around so try to make them constructive and controlled.
Lastly, take your time, even if it has to be a small part of our 2:30. Every second counts but if communication is lacking, angered, or frantic then nothing flows smoothly. So breathe. Take a second even if it is during tele-op to breathe and encourage the same to your teammates to keep emotions controlled and positive growth coming.
I understand the strong emotions on the field and have become frantic and sometimes angered in the past during matches. It can be hard since we all feel the weight as drivers of all the team’s efforts on our shoulders as we perform with it alongside two other teams. Just try and think about these things this season and I think we can all help each other a lot more. As many have said, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Another reason I wanted to post this to ring in the new year was to get input on ways teams stay calm on the field and other aspects people have seen to be important during a match.
Been drive coaching for 15 years, so here are a few more tidbits from my perspective:
— it’s a team sport, and not even the best teams can win a match by themselves. Always play to every alliance partner’s strengths, help them achieve their goals (whether that means staying out of their way, or giving a little nudge mid-match if requested). Never be greedy
— The driver(s) should always be focusing on driving, ensuring the robot is going exactly where it needs to go and doing what the strategy calls out for. It’s the coach’s responsibility to help manage traffic and coordinate between the other teams, do timekeeping, etc
— when something goes wrong (either a driver mistake or a robot breakdown), it needs to be the coach, not the driver, to own it and take the responsibility/stress off the driver. The coach should be directing the driver to change strategy to something else that can still be productive, and vocalize/communicate the issues and change to the other teams so they can fill in. Driver should do the best they can to perfect the modified strategy
— Build checklists (written down, not memorized) for match/driver station setup, and take them with you to the field every single time. Have other drivers verify the steps are complete. Even the most experienced driver can forget a crucial step in the moment, and losing a match capability due to a setup mistake is unfortunate
— Never play a match “for the stats”. I know some teams base their scouting on stats alone, but context is incredibly important and experienced teams recognize this. A drive team shouldn’t play an endgame just to maintain a “perfect stat” record if doing so is suboptimal for alliance match strategy (eg choosing to climb/balance vs scoring more teleop points)
I love how drive coachs and strategists ask other teams about what they feel comfortable doing during a match, they don’t base the strategy on stats alone.
I have been co-driver for the past 2 years and am now transitioning to drive coach for my team 2357. I wanted to mention how my team formats our drive team as I feel it is extremely efficient and distributes stress and pressure evenly between the drive team.
In Queue
Our team likes to get in queue as early as possible to give ourselves enough time to prepare both strategically and mentally. While waiting for our match, everyone goes back over the strategy we talked about earlier to make sure all teams remember the plan and are able to perform there part. We then use the remaining time we have to just calm down while watching the match before us.
Setting up
I’m not sure if this is consistent with most teams, but we have our drive coach and technician load the robot onto the field while the driver and co-driver setup the driver station.
During the match
A lot of the “During the match” portion is determined before competition when planning controls. When we plan out our controls we try to have as much of the commonly used controls on the drivers controller. This takes away a lot of the back and forth communication between driver and co-driver which gets pretty hectic during the match. Now this may sound like it’s putting all the pressure on the driver, but we try to make things like intaking and scoring into one button press to make it as simple as possible. We like to have our driver in what we call “shark mode” where all they are focusing on is what’s in front of them.
It is then the co-drivers job to callout things like which game piece to get, where to score, and redirect the driver when picking up a certain game piece isn’t working. The co-driver also has what we call panic mode controls which maps out every single motor and solenoid to a button combo on the controller (except for drive of course).
The drive coaches job is to do all the normal things like keep track of time and coordinate with alliance mates but also make sure the drivers are calm, motivated, and focused and help navigate them through any problems that we might face during the match.
This has been something we’ve been slowly improving on in the past couple of years, and I think this year we will be able to drive, communicate, and coordinate at the same level as some of the pro teams. If anybody has any questions I would love to elaborate.
Since there are quite a few drive coaches here, how do y’all recommend getting into being a drive coach?
I am interested in becoming a drive coach, if the opportunity ever presents itself. However, I am a bit nervous due to being female and looking like a teenager as an adult.
My team like many others has student drive coaches so don’t worry about not looking older. As far as getting into it goes the best thing to do is to form a system early in the season with your drivers and get to know them and how they think. The drive coach role for my team is that we keep track of the movement of all robots and guide drivers to the best place on the field while communicating strategy advancement/change. Key points: know the rules, know your drivers, find a system to keep everything enjoyable and calm.
I’m a student drive coach, and have been since my 9th grade year. And yes, it’s challenging when you get to work with these dominating adults who seem to think that their strategy is unequivocally the winning one (well, not really, but that’s what it may seem like). Just be confident, not only in yourself, but in your robot and its abilities, and you’ll be able to be a perfectly fine drive coach around others.
As for how to become one, I would talk to your team’s LM and find out how the drive team is selected. Like Dylan said, understand how the robot operates down to every bolt, and develop a relationship with your team’s drivers. If and when your team takes a test on the game manual, make sure that you have the highest score there. Knowing the rules (and demonstrating that knowledge) is key to inspiring confidence from yourself and your teammates.
As a rookie engineer and driver, it seems that calmness, coolness, and the ability to keep your head as a driving coach make the experience a lot better. I know I get mad often when someone isn’t/doesn’t want to cooperate[ing] and I think that simple commands and a calm, chill voice and attitude help you both focus and enjoy the game.
Something that can really lend itself to naturally becoming a drive coach is familiarity with strategy, match play, and when to redirect course. As a drive coach of 13 years, I always recommend to any coach new or old to watch a lot of match video. Checkout a mix teams and years be it the best teams in your area or the elite teams we see in Einstein.
Watch their best matches of playoffs and worst matches. What changed?
Did they make any big changes in how they played the game from qualification to playoffs?
Watch their highest and lowest scoring qualification matches. How are they playing with or around partners? What’s working and what’s not?
Sometimes a low scoring match means something may have gone wrong. Maybe a mechanism broke or an autonomous plan failed. What could they have done differently or what did they do really well given the circumstances?
Watch how teams lost in playoffs. What could they have changed mid-match as a team or directing their partners to change the outcome?
Each of these and more “What if” questions can offer something for coaches to put in their toolboxes to consider. I find they provide a lot of confidence in making decisions on the field.
So I am a fairly new drive coach for our team and this is our first year using swerve drive. Is there any practices for new swerve drivers to do? I’ve been having them do a solemn course, playing the XRC simulator, and some of the challenges from the 2021 season. But is there any others that other teams found that helped with increasing the drivers skill?
When we jumped on the swerve train we found the best practice was repetition! We set up slalom courses and the 2021 driving courses and spent hours and hours just driving them at different speeds, different directions, changing the direction mid run. All I can say is practice, practice, practice!
