Our VEX team can make some good scores like 130 for the driver skill in the Spin Up game, but very hard to go above further. I am not sure how some teams can get 200+. Is it just practice and practice? Thanks.
1 Like
It is always a combination of robot design and hard core practice.
Eg. You can’t go too far with a clawbot no matter how hard you practice, and similarly, no point giving a Ferrari to a probation driver
6 Likes
With a fast intake, quick triple shot (or cata), and 4 string endgame, you can get a 200 with probably a week of driver practice. Just a guess, but your limiting factor is likely your robot, not your driver.
A lot of teams have also been running their autonomous skills during driver, as they know that it can perform more consistently than driver (at a certain level of consistency).
1 Like
You need good practice. Practicing the wrong thing, leads to being very good at losing.
Other than the obvious, take a hard look at WHICH discs you go for, and in which order. Avoid having to turn around 180 degrees. Avoid driving w/o carrying something. A typical bot takes ~6 seconds IIRC to go across the entire field. In short, optimization at ALL levels.
Work, hard work, intelligent work, and more work.
Luck helps some also.
1 Like
I would say the greatest limiting factor is the time it takes to intake 3 discs and put them in the HG. So definitely look at intake and FW or cata. Then obviously driver. I like to tell my drivers that you have to let the robot become like an extension of yourself. You should be able to just think, and have the robot go where you want. It should become just like walking, to you. So definitely give your driver enough time to practise daily, let them get to know the ways of the robot.
Thank you all for the excellent tips. To summarize, design + strategy + practice. Find the bottleneck and squeeze a little bit here and a little there.
1 Like