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Drive Team·Lesson 24 of 34

Project 5: The One-Page Pre-Match Strategy Brief

Assemble a repeatable pre-match brief that converts scouting data into a concrete plan the drive coach delivers in under 60 seconds.

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By elimination time, the team with the best process for turning data into a plan wins more than the team with the fastest robot. This project gives the drive coach a one-page brief template and a workflow to fill it before every match.

The template. One landscape page with three zones:

  1. Alliance plan (top). For each of the three robots on your alliance, write its primary job: who farms FUEL, who is the dedicated TOWER climber, who plays support/defense. Anchor each role in data — e.g., "7492 is our climber (endgame EPA 24, climbed Level 3 in 9/11 quals)."
  2. Opponent threats (middle). List the opposing alliance's single biggest scorer and its biggest reliability liability. Decide one thing: do we play defense, and on whom? The classic rule is to put defense on the opponent's best scorer — and your scouting tells you which robot that is.
  3. Pre-match checklist (bottom). Battery swapped and labeled, bumpers correct color, robot powers on, dashboard connected, controllers zeroed, gyro reset position confirmed. Mirror the WPILib operator-console guidance: laptop on a high-performance power plan, sleep set to never, Wi-Fi off, FRC Driver Station in focus.

The workflow (do this for every match):

  • T-15 min: scouting lead pulls the six teams' rows (your averages + OPR/EPA) and fills zones 1 and 2.
  • T-8 min: drive coach and drivers huddle at a whiteboard, draw starting positions and the first 20 seconds of auto, and agree on one defensive decision.
  • T-3 min: run the bottom checklist out loud; the last person to touch the robot confirms each item.

Defense, done legally. If the plan calls for defense, brief the driver on the rules so a smart play doesn't become a match-losing foul. You may use contact to slow an opponent, but in 2026 REBUILT you cannot PIN them for more than 3 seconds before backing off (a violation is a MINOR FOUL worth 5 points to the opponent, escalating to a 15-point MAJOR FOUL for every additional 3 seconds uncorrected), and you cannot tip, entangle, or reach inside their frame. Verify these numbers in the current 2026 REBUILT Game Manual Section 7 (Game Rules) and the latest Team Updates before every event — foul values can be adjusted mid-season.

Why one page. A driver can't absorb a paragraph 30 seconds before a match. The discipline of fitting the whole plan on one page forces you to decide what actually matters: roles, the one defensive call, and the checklist. Run this for an entire event and you'll feel the difference in elims, when matches are decided by who executed the plan they walked in with.

Key takeaways

  • A pre-match brief has exactly three zones: alliance roles (data-backed), opponent threats + one defense decision, and a pre-match checklist.
  • Default defensive target is the opponent's best scorer per your scouting; brief drivers that pinning past 3 seconds draws a foul.
  • Always confirm foul values and the pin limit in the current 2026 REBUILT manual Section 7 and Team Updates - they can change mid-season.

Go deeper

Lesson quiz

Required

Answer all 3 questions correctly to complete this lesson.

1.What is the core purpose of a one-page pre-match strategy brief?

2.According to scouting-driven strategy practice, how should an alliance decide which opposing robot to play defense on?

3.To be useful to the drive team during the few minutes before a match, a strategy brief should be:

Answer every question to submit.