Alliance Coordination and Drive Team Practice

Lesson

FTC matches are played two against two, and in qualification matches your alliance partner is usually assigned for you and changes from match to match. You might meet your partner for the first time a few minutes before you play together. A short, well-organised conversation can make the difference between two robots that help each other and two robots that get in each other's way.

The pre-match conversation

Find your partner in the pits or the queue well before the match, and plan for about five minutes. The coach usually leads, but drivers should listen so everyone knows the plan. Ask questions in a fixed order so nothing gets forgotten:

01What can your robot do reliably in Autonomous, and from which starting position?
02Which paths and areas does your Autonomous use? Which variant should each of us run?
03In Driver-Controlled, which scoring areas or tasks will each robot focus on?
04Who does the endgame task, and how many seconds before the end do we start?
05Is anything on your robot not working well today?
06What do we do if one robot stops working?

TEXT

1PRE-MATCH CARD    Match #____    Alliance: RED / BLUE
2Partner team #: ______
3Auto      us: start ____ variant ______ | partner: start ____ variant ______
4TeleOp    us: __________________        | partner: __________________
5Endgame   who: ________   start with ____ s remaining
6If a robot fails: ____________________________________

A pre-match card the coach fills in during the conversation.

At many events the top-ranked teams choose their partners for the playoff matches. The exact format depends on the event and the current manual. Teams that communicate clearly and stick to agreed plans are remembered as good partners, which can matter as much as a high score.

Drive team roles

Example team roles. On match day, a small group from the team forms the drive team; everyone else supports from the pits and the stands.

Role	Main job	Good habits
Driver 1 (gamepad1)	Usually drives the drivetrain	Smooth, predictable driving; listens to the coach
Driver 2 (gamepad2)	Usually operates mechanisms such as an intake or lift	Calls out when a game element is collected or scored
Coach	Watches the whole field, tracks time, and calls strategy changes	Short, calm instructions; calls the endgame start time
Human player (only if the game has one)	Handles game elements from outside the field as the rules allow	Knows exactly which actions are legal and when

How many people may stand in the drive team area and what each may do is set by the current Competition Manual, so check it before you assign roles.

Structured driver practice

1
Warm-up course
Set up cones and drive a fixed pattern: forward, sideways if your drivetrain allows it, and turns. Time every run and try to beat your average without hitting cones.
2
Single-phase drills
Practise only one phase, such as collecting, ten times in a row. Record the time and every miss.
3
Full-cycle timing runs
Time complete cycles and record the average and best time. This is the data you use to compare drivers.
4
Full match simulation
Run 30 s of Autonomous, the transition, and 2 minutes of Driver-Controlled, with the coach calling time and the endgame start.
5
Pressure scenarios
The coach announces a surprise, such as a jammed mechanism or a broken partner robot, and the team practises the backup plan.

Key terms

Alliance partner: The other team on your alliance in a match, working with you against the opposing alliance.
Pre-match conversation: A short planning talk with your alliance partner before a match to agree on Autonomous, Driver-Controlled, and endgame plans.
Gracious Professionalism: A FIRST value: competing hard while treating everyone with respect and kindness.
Coopertition: A FIRST value: helping and learning from other teams, even while competing against them.
Drive team: The students who operate the robot during a match, such as drivers, coach, and a human player if the game has one.
Timing run: A practice run where times and misses are recorded so driving can be measured and improved.

Practical exercise

Run a Practice Session with Roles

1Assign roles: two drivers, a coach, a human player if your game has one, and one recorder with a stopwatch.
2Hold a pre-match conversation with a pretend partner (another sub-team or a mentor) and fill in a pre-match card.
3Run the warm-up course three times and record each time.
4Run three full match simulations with the coach calling time, and score them using the example values from your game analysis sheet.
5Hold a 10-minute debrief: what went well, what went wrong, and one change for next session.

Deliverable: A completed pre-match card, a practice log with times and scores from at least three simulated matches, and a short debrief note with one agreed change.

Knowledge check

Answer every question, then check your answers.