My team and I are going to a tournament on January 21 and then one next weekend on january 28th. What do you recommend that we do during that week?
practice driving and change nothing major on your robot
18 Likes
Practice!
Many teams have a 1 or 2 week rule, where the robot is in “break-fix or tune” mode (e.g. no new components, no major changes to existing components, etc.) to allow for driver practice and auton work.
16 Likes
That makes a lot of sense.
Before practicing (which I agree is how you should spend most of your week) be sure to do post-comp maintenance on your robot. Tighten your nuts, replace anything that may have been bent or damaged, etc.
2 Likes
do driver practice, tighten everything on ur robot (twice) and prepare mentally
5 Likes
Don’t do major things to your robot, work on code, work on the maintenance of your robot, work on the notebook, and practice driving. Thats what we do. Also if you want to do any major things do it off your robot.
3 Likes
Literally anything but a rebuild. Having said that, I have broken that rule 5 times out of 5 possible times.
Update: 6 times.
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Depending on how many hours you have and your driver skill, you could make small modifications. For example, if component A keeps braking, maybe find a way to better secure it.
2 Likes
Drive a little, improve auton, reconsider your strategy if it didn’t work and maybe fix a problem you are having with the build just don’t get too carried away.
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My team who always changes a major part of our robot 2 hours before comp be like 
We call the week before a tournament “Tweak Week”. This is because we drive and do auto, while tweaking small things we notice along the way. I highly recommend to do this, and NEVER change anything major unless it is absolutely necessary. And if you are at that point, you might not be ready to go at all.
2 Likes
I usnderstand that. Having teamates change stuff at the last minute.
My teams do too it is do frustrating