Competitive Driving

Driving in competitions can be stressful. Our drivers need to be able to keep their cool, be flexible, and operate efficiently on the field.

Tips:

• Make sure the robot is properly maintained and prepared (see Competition Maintenance). A broken robot will make all your well-honed driving skills go to waste.
• Know your controls. Don’t look at your remote. If you’re still at the stage where you don’t know which buttons do what, then you’re not ready. If you waste time during a match clicking the wrong buttons, then you’re as good as dead.
• Two tries. For example, if you are trying to grab an object off the side wall and you miss the first time, try again. If you miss the second time, go find another object. There is no time to figure out another angle of approach. Every second counts.
• Slow down. This may seem counterintuitive, but in order to play in the most efficient manner, you need to keep yourself calm. Often in the middle of a match, the pressure makes 5 seconds feel like 20. Make sure you’re properly aligned and balanced before each move. You’ll find that doing things right slowly the first time is better than succeeding after a couple of poorly executed attempts.
• Don’t let the opposition get in your head. I’ve seen teams that give up after they fall behind slightly in the beginning of the match. Think about it. You still gain more by trying your best than by giving up. Even if you lose, you still gain strength points and you can still impress potential allies.
• Play to your strengths. If you are playing against a robot that does something better than yours does, don’t fall into the trap of fighting back on their terms. Play to your strengths, and if you’re able to keep yourself calm and efficient, you’ll usually come out on top.
• Talk to the driver in your alliance. Make sure you know who is supposed to be doing what. In the 2016 - 2017 season, we had multiple instances where our allies did more harm to us than the opponent ever could. Most of the time, it was due to poor communication and our allies driving into us. Also, make sure to establish who is good at doing what. If you’re good at defense, tell your ally to play more offensively, and vice versa. If you don’t coordinate your robots, then you’ll be doing more harm to each other than good.
• Consider what your coach is saying. Normally there is a person on the team that always goes up with you to point out tactical advantages and observations, as well as possible strategies. Take what they tell you to do into account, but don’t always rely on it. As driver, you usually have the best sense of what to do.
• Listen to the judge. If they give you a warning, they usually mean that if you make the same mistake again you can get disqualified. Don’t argue with the judges unless you’re absolutely sure that they are wrong. You want them on your side.