What does a driver need to do play the best defense possible? This question is mainly for swerve.
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- Know the rules. A good defense does not draw fouls. A couple of tech fouls and you would have done better to have set in a safe corner.
- Practice driving. A lot. You need to drive better that the offense.
- Know where the bottle necks are. Defense is often about slowing down the offense.
- Remember, a good offense is better than a good defense.
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I will add - defense is not about running into and “pushing” the robot on offense. GOOD defense is about putting yourself between the other robot and their objective, and staying there.
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I would suggest watching a lot of match videos, as they will expose you to various defense strats and counterplay faster than even driver practice can get you. Half of effective defense is strategy even an average skilled driver with great strategy will can play highly effective defense. Einstein 2022 had a lot of effective defense played in many different ways and is worth watching.
As for driving in specific. First, you need to comfortable driving the robot. Effective defense requires quick, aggressive, and controlled driving to react to your opponents to prevent them from getting their way. Being able to stay on opponents bumpers (when appropriate!!!) will allow to to significantly slow robots as now you have some control over where they can and can’t go and what they can and can’t do.
As for specific interactions, generally rotating the opposing robots is pretty effective. They will be unable to shoot if their shooter is not pointed at the goal, and swerve defense bots will always be able to put more torque on an opposing robot than their own drivetrain can which significantly hinders them.
Additionally, most shots this year are blockable. Staying glued to the opponent’s shooter is an option. Even better however, you can get in front of your opponent and raising your climbers will deny most shots and block the apriltags. Because your opponent will have to drive a further distance to get a shot off than you need to drive to block the same shot you have an inherit advantage which counters the reaction time advantage that offensive bots usually have.
Citation needed. In many games, highly capable offensive teams throughout the years, especially in 2022 found situations in which they’d rather play defense because its a more effective strategy. And this year’s game looks to favor defense more than 2022 did.
Good defense can also involve exploiting flaws in a robot. For example in 2022, dawgma 's robot blocked 2607’s limelight, so we caused them to miss shots by getting in the way of it. If the other team can’t pick up off ground, stopping them from getting to the feed station is strong. If they can’t do station that well, grab the ground notes and move them away. There is no “one size fits all” defense.
Note in so many words. 
In the end, You cannot win if you cannot score points.
George Washington wrote in 1799: “…make them believe, that offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence”.[1]
Mao Zedong opined that “the only real defense is active defense”, meaning defense for the purpose of counter-attacking and taking the offensive.[2] Often success rests on destroying the enemy’s ability to attack. This principle is paralleled in the writings of Machiavelli and Sun Tzu.[3]
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A lot of anticipation is required to be a good defense robot, knowing how the other drivers respond to defense and how they play the game. If you can consistently guess your opponents movements you can shut down entire cycles which can often decide the match.
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Context: I was heavily involved in match strategy in 2022 when we won a regional as a defense 2nd pick. These are my own tips along with some from the other teams we worked with that year.
To be a good defensive robot (to be picked):
You should have a solid consistent auton and endgame.
You should be fast. Default driving should be 100% with some buttons to slow down if needed. You should be very practiced. Even if this is with someone yelling locations to get to or having you avoid cones on the ground.
You shouldn’t get penalties. Know exactly what the rules are. Is the podium applied if any part of the robot is touching? Or only if the bumpers are touching?
You should get in people’s way. Anything to get a robot to take a longer path is useful.
You should know your opponent’s weaknesses. This is a lot of scouting, but if they have LEDs, find out their patterns. Then you know when they will shoot and can hit them right before. Hitting someone as they shoot is better than hitting them before they shoot or after.
If they can’t go under the stage but you can use it. If they can physically fit under the stage, but they don’t go there, use that.
You shouldn’t be afraid to break your robot. Build strong, but also build repairable. Nothing on your robot should take more than 7 minutes to fix or replace (playoff match timing). Your bumpers must be strong and well attached.
This isn’t an exhaustive list but should be most of the things we think about when defending.
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Quoted for emphasis.
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Think I have said this before here, but you need to weigh your impact on the match. if you can stop the opponent from scoring 5 points in the time it would take you to score less than that, you have had a positive impact on your team point wise. If that time would have had a higher impact spent scoring, you should be doing that instead of defending
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Understanding the Types of Defense is important. I talk about it here in this thread:
You should know your opponent’s weaknesses. This is a lot of scouting, but if they have LEDs, find out their patterns. Then you know when they will shoot and can hit them right before. Hitting someone as they shoot is better than hitting them before they shoot or after.
If they can’t go under the stage but you can use it. If they can physically fit under the stage, but they don’t go there, use that.
Very Important, in rapid react we exploited hub shooters by pinning them into the lower hub and slowing down their shooting. harder to do this in fields like 2023 and 2024 but zoning people out and extending cycle times is the name of the game
You shouldn’t be afraid to break your robot. Build strong, but also build repairable. Nothing on your robot should take more than 7 minutes to fix or replace (playoff match timing). Your bumpers must be strong and well attached.
This, our win in 2022 came after we basically gave the driver the go ahead to go ham and not care if the robot breaks in the process (it was the finals so win or go home anyway)
That being said, while i dont remember exactly what match it was, there was one bit of defensive play from 1678 at worlds last year that comes to mind. Turns out they were just as good at defending as they were at scoring.
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Something else that is super important is knowing where your teammates are going to play and not getting in the way and causing a backup. Also, be opportunistic, if you see a way to draw a foul, go for it.
do this lol (1678)
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