// Section 01

Override Pre-Season Training Plan 🎯

What drivers and strategists do from now until first competition. Manual-aware, day-by-day, doesn't depend on the robot being done.
🎯 Override 2026-27 specific

Who This Is For

Drivers and strategists. Engineers will read this for context, but the work assigned here is for the people not on the build crew. The point is to keep practice and strategy work moving forward at the same pace as the robot, not behind it.

Why a Training Plan Now

The Override v0.1 manual was released April 27. Two pieces of bad news for unstructured pre-season time:

The plan below assumes 3 phases — what to do before the robot is built, what to do once two fields are available, and what to do the week before competition. Plus a standing-roles section for ongoing responsibilities that don't fit into a phase.

Time Budget (Per Person, Per Week)

// Phase 1: Desk Phase (no robot, manual study) Drivers: ~3 hours/week Strategists: ~5 hours/week

// Phase 2: Two-Field Phase (drills available) Drivers: ~6 hours/week (3 sessions × 2hrs) Strategists: ~4 hours/week (in-session + analysis)

// Phase 3: Pre-Comp (week before first event) Drivers: ~8 hours/week (every meeting + targeted) Strategists: ~6 hours/week (matchplan + scout)

How to Use This Page

Each phase has a list of exercises — concrete things to do, with metrics. Pick the exercises that match the team's current phase, schedule them on Canvas (or a shared whiteboard), and check them off. Don't try to do everything at once.

Standing Responsibilities (Section 5) are for the whole season — notebook ownership, logistics work, awards prep. These run in parallel with whatever phase the team is in.

💡
For coaches/leads: the typical failure mode at this stage of the season is "drivers and strategists wait on engineers." This plan is designed so neither role waits. If a student tells you they have nothing to do, hand them this page.
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// Section 02

Phase 1: Desk Phase 📚

No robot yet. Field elements may not even be assembled. This phase is manual mastery, score math, notebook setup, and meta studies. All of it can be done from a desk with the manual PDF and a laptop.
Weeks 1–2 (or until robot drives)

Manual Mastery (Drivers & Strategists)

Both 15 min/day Daily
Rule-Citation Flashcards
Make flashcards for every rule the team will be cited under during a match: SG6 (1+1 possession), SG10 (no descoring opposing goals), SG12 (endgame midfield rules), SC8 (AWP criteria), R10 / R11 (motor caps), GG13 (auton violations forfeit AWP), SG1 (starting size), SC4/SC5 (toggles + ownership). Driver should be able to recite each in 1 sentence, with rule number. Strategist should know which page in the manual each rule is on. Referees give benefit of the doubt to teams who quote the rule correctly during a discussion.
Metric: 100% accuracy quizzed by partner. Run weekly.
Both 15 min/day Daily
Q&A Monitoring
Read every new post in the official VEX Forum Override Q&A category at vexforum.com/c/v5rc/override. Specifically watch for clarifications on SG12 (endgame timing 10 vs 20s), SC4/SC5 (toggle + yellow ownership edge cases), SG6 (possession), SG10 (descoring boundary). Anything material gets logged in a shared "Override Q&A digest" doc with date, rule, and one-sentence summary.
Metric: digest doc has ≥1 entry per week of meaningful Q&A activity. Strategist owns the doc.
Both 30 min One-time
Reveal Video Deep-Dive
Re-watch the official VEX Override reveal video. Pause and timestamp every rule reference, every shown manipulator action, and every score example. Compile a one-page index of "things the GDC chose to show in the reveal" — that's a strong signal for what they expect to be the meta. Cross-reference against the manual.
Metric: 1-page reveal index produced and shared with team.
Both 30 min Weekly
Manual Quote Game
Strategist picks a paragraph from the manual at random and reads it aloud. Driver identifies which rule it's part of and what page. Then swap. This is the fastest way to build shared vocabulary between the two roles — you'll need it during in-match referee conversations and pre-match strategy.
Metric: 80% correct identification within 10 seconds, by week 2.

Score Math (Strategists)

Strategist 2 hrs One-time + drills
Per-Half Score Calculator (Spreadsheet)
Build a spreadsheet that computes match score from inputs: red halves placed, blue halves placed, yellow halves placed by quadrant, toggle states, midfield-robot count. Use it to drill: "Given 14 red halves, 8 blue, 3 owned-yellow halves in Q1, 2 owned-yellow in midfield, what's our score?" Practice until you can answer in 5 seconds without the calculator. Reference: override-toggle-strategy for the full per-half framework (78 yellow halves × 10 = 780 max yellow yield; 48 red+blue halves × 5 = 240 max alliance yield).
Metric: estimate match score within 10pts of actual in 5 seconds. By week 3.
Strategist 1 hr Weekly
Decision-Tree Sketching
For each plausible auton outcome (success / partial / failure), sketch the driver's first 5 driver-control actions on paper. Branches: did we win the auton bonus? Did we earn AWP? Where is each robot at 1:45-clock? By the time you have a real robot, you've pre-decided every common branch. The strategist's job during a match is to recognize which branch you're in, not to invent it on the fly.
Metric: 1 decision tree per auton variant the team is considering, before the engineer codes the auton.
Strategist 2 hrs One-time
Rule-Conflict War-Game
Pick two rules that could conflict: e.g., SG6 (1+1 possession) + SG10 (no descoring opposing goals) + SC4 (toggle interaction). Write a one-page "what does the referee see" memo describing a hypothetical match incident and how it should be ruled. Forces strategists to read rules in combination, not isolation. Other good pairs: R11b (no PTO) + R3 (mechanism categorization), SG12 (endgame) + GG14 (Robot interactions during endgame).
Metric: 3 memos produced, reviewed by another team member, refined.

Notebook Setup (Strategists drive, Drivers contribute)

Strategist primary 4 hrs Week 1
Game Analysis Section
Strategist owns the notebook's Game Analysis section end-to-end. Initial entry: manual interpretation summary (using override-manual-summary as the structural template), per-half scoring math, opponent meta predictions, AWP route analysis. This is rubric-required content and strategists are better positioned to write it than engineers. Update entries as Q&A clarifications come in.
Metric: section initialized in notebook by end of week 1, ≥1 substantial update per subsequent week.
Driver 30 min/session Every practice
Driver Practice Log
Driver owns the Driver Practice Log section of the notebook. Daily practice entries: drill names, metrics achieved, cycle-time data, controller-setting iterations, what felt off, what improved. Even before the robot exists, log desk-drill entries (rule flashcards, reveal-video study). Judges love seeing data-driven driver development; they hate seeing drivers who only show up with a controller.
Metric: practice log entries with metrics, 3+ per week minimum.

Past-Meta Self-Study (Both)

Both 3 hrs One-time
Past-Meta Deep Dive
Driver picks one past-meta study (High Stakes, Skyrise, Spin Up, Tipping Point, ITZ, Over Under); strategist picks a different one. Each does a 1-page write-up: "what was the dominant scoring lever in that game, what robots won, what would NOT translate to Override." Present to the team. Builds historical pattern recognition — you start to see how toggles in Override echo (or don't) past games' control mechanics.
Metric: 2 write-ups + presentation to team. Done by end of week 2.
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// Section 03

Phase 2: Two-Field Drill Library 🎯🎯

Once two competition fields are built and at least one robot drives. Two fields unlocks head-to-head drills that single-field practice can't reproduce. Most of these are the highest-ROI training in the season.
Once two fields are available
🎯
Even before your real robot is done, you can run drills 1 and 6 below using cones, boxes, or junior-team robots as stand-ins. Don't wait for the perfect setup — communication and rule-execution drills work with any robot stand-in.

The Five Flagship Drills (Run These First)

Both 30 min Weekly Pre-build OK
1. Mock Matches with Cones
Even before the real robot is built, run "ghost matches" — 4 humans walk through a match at quarter-speed on real fields, simulating robot positions with traffic cones or boxes. Strategist calls actions, drivers practice the timing call-outs and rehearse 0:15 / 0:10 endgame transitions. Surfaces 80% of communication issues before they cost a real match. This is the single highest-ROI drill before competition.
Metric: every team member can call out auton-end position, 1:00 status, 0:15 commit, and 0:00 endgame state without hesitation.
Driver 10 min Twice weekly Needs 2 robots
2. Midfield Pushback
Two robots start at the midfield, each contacting the boundary on opposing sides. On start, push the opponent fully across the boundary line and hold them out for the remainder of the 10 seconds. Then swap sides and repeat. Pair against a junior team's robot or even a fixed-mass dummy. Two fields means you can run two pairs simultaneously and rotate. See full drill spec on role-driver Drills tab.
Metric: push-success rate ≥70% by first event, ≥85% by champ-qualifying. Reference SC5b + SC6 for why midfield position decides yellow-pin ownership.
Both 20 min Weekly
3. Auton Head-to-Head
Both fields running auton simultaneously with synchronized starts. Logs which auton wins the bonus, tracks AWP completion. Critical because Override AWP requires NO violations (SC8 + GG13) — running side-by-side surfaces the routes that brush perimeter or cross the auton line. Strategist tracks: which alliance won the bonus, which (if any) earned AWP, where each robot ended.
Metric: AWP earned in ≥75% of head-to-head reps; auton bonus win rate ≥50% by first event.
Driver 15 min Each session
4. Two-Field Cycle Racing
Each field has one robot. Same task (e.g., "place 8 alliance-colored pins in your home short goal"). Stopwatch. Drivers race — first to complete wins the round. Builds raw cycle time AND surfaces robot consistency issues you'd never see in solo practice (one robot's intake jams 1 in 5 cycles, the other has a flaky brake mode, etc.).
Metric: cycle-time delta between robots <10% by mid-season. Tracks robot reliability and driver skill simultaneously.
Driver 10 min Weekly Needs 2 robots
5. Toggle-Flip Races
Two fields, two robots, race to flip all 4 toggles to your alliance color. Trains the V1 toggle flipper mechanism's real-world utility (see override-secondary-mechanisms). Each toggle counts only when fully seated and not in robot contact (SC4). Surfaces whether your toggle-flipper actually works in field conditions vs. just on a workbench.
Metric: 4-toggle flip in <25 seconds reliably. Tracks alongside V1 mechanism performance.

Strategist-Driven Drills (Use Both Fields)

Strategist drives 30 min Weekly
6. Match-Plan Execution Audit
Strategist hands the driver a one-sentence match-call (using the worked example template on role-strategist). Driver executes. Stopwatch starts at "3-2-1-go." Strategist scores execution against the plan: did auton run as called? Did driver hit the AWP path? Did they make the 0:15 commit? Run 10 matches, score each, debrief. Strategists learn how drivers actually execute their plans — often very differently from how the strategist imagined.
Metric: plan-execution score (% of called actions actually performed) ≥75% by mid-season.
Both 45 min Weekly Needs 4 robots
7. Alliance-Pair Drilling
Two robots on the same field as your alliance, two on the other field as scouted "opponents" (humans walking in their lanes if no extra robots). Practice partner coordination — who takes which quadrant, who commits to midfield first, who covers AWP requirements. This is where most mid-season alliance failures originate: not from individual driver mistakes but from unspoken assumptions between alliance partners. Make the assumptions explicit through drilling.
Metric: zero quadrant collisions between alliance partners across 10 reps. Both partners complete distinct AWP-contributing actions.
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// Section 04

Phase 3: Pre-Competition Polish 🏆

The week before your first event. The robot is built and tested. Drills shift from skill-building to confidence-building.
Week before first event

Driver Polish (Highest Priority)

Driver 2 hrs Daily
Full-Match Simulations Only
Stop drilling components. The week before competition, every practice run should be a full 2:00 match (15s auton + 1:45 driver, including the 10-second endgame at the end). Vary the starting tile and starting auton variant. The goal isn't to get faster — it's to remove the mental load of "what comes next" so on competition day, the driver's brain is free for opponent reading and adaptive choice. See role-driver Match Simulation chip for timer setup.
Metric: 10+ full-match sims with consistent score (±10pts) across the week. No new mechanism tweaks during this phase.
Driver 30 min 3× week
Recovery Drilling
Practice failing gracefully. Teammate disrupts the robot mid-cycle (knocks an element loose, repositions, calls a different goal). Driver recovers without panic. Specific Override scenarios: pin gets dropped outside a goal (must abandon? recycle? SG6 compliance check), opponent flips your toggle to their color (re-flip plan), an alliance partner pushes you out of the midfield (SC5b yellow-loss recovery).
Metric: scored recovery within 10 seconds in 80% of disruption scenarios.

Strategist Polish

Strategist 3 hrs Once
Match-Plan Library Build
Pre-build 5 match-call templates covering common alliance/opponent scenarios: (1) Strong partner, weak opponents — cycle-heavy plan with AWP focus. (2) Weak partner, strong opponents — defensive midfield-denial plan. (3) Mirror match (similar skill level on both sides) — toggle-control race plan. (4) Auton failure recovery plan. (5) Alliance partner mechanism failure plan. Each template is a one-sentence match-call following the worked-example format.
Metric: 5 templates ready, indexed by scenario, callable in <30 seconds during queue.
Strategist 1 hr Once
Scout Sheet Design
Build the team's competition-day scout sheet. Per-team data points to capture: auton variant + reliability, manipulator type, observed cycle time, observed midfield commitment, AWP completion rate, observed defensive tendencies. Sheet should fit on one printed page or one tablet screen. Plan to scout 1-2 matches per round, not all of them — prioritize matches involving teams in your projected alliance pool.
Metric: scout sheet template tested on at least 3 mock-team profiles. Accommodates 8 teams per page.

Joint Polish (Both)

Both 1 hr Daily
Pre-Match Routine Rehearsal
Run the full queue-to-match routine, including: 5-min queue checklist (battery, auton confirm, alliance handshake), 60-sec walk to field, 30-sec robot placement, 15-sec final match-call recitation. Time it. Same routine every match builds a calm baseline that survives competition adrenaline. Reference: comp-cheat-sheet Queue Protocol section.
Metric: routine completes in ≤6 minutes total, every time, with no missed checklist items.
Both 30 min Once
Mock Judge Interview
Pair up — one is judge, one is interviewee, swap. Use judge-interview as the question framework. Cover: who plays what role, what's been hardest this season, how the team made design decisions, what the engineering notebook covers. Both drivers and strategists should be able to answer judge questions, not just the engineers.
Metric: every team member completes a 3-minute mock interview without team-hat-on or "I don't know" answers on team-history questions.
4 of 5
// Section 05

Standing Responsibilities ⚙️

Ongoing season-long responsibilities that don't fit a single phase. These run in parallel with whatever phase the team is in, and exist specifically to keep drivers and strategists productive when they're not actively practicing.
All season

Notebook Ownership

Strategist Ongoing
Game Analysis Section — full ownership
Strategist writes and maintains the notebook's Game Analysis section. Includes: manual interpretation, scoring math, opponent meta predictions, AWP route analysis, Q&A digest summaries. This is rubric-required content. Reference override-manual-summary as the structural template for the entries.
Driver Ongoing
Driver Practice Log — full ownership
Driver writes daily practice entries: drill names, metrics, cycle-time data, controller-setting changes, what felt off, what improved. Judges look for data-driven driver development. Reference role-driver Drills tab for the drill library and metrics.
Both Weekly
Match Strategy Iteration Log
Driver and strategist co-own a strategy hypothesis log: "We believe controlling 2 toggles + winning midfield wins 70% of matches at our skill tier" — then update the hypothesis as evidence rolls in from drills, scrimmages, and events. Judges grade the iteration, not the correctness.

Logistics & Pit Operations

Strategist designs 1-time + maintain
Pit Kit Design & Maintenance
Strategist designs the comp-day pit kit (tool list, spare parts list, battery rotation plan, charge schedule). Driver maintains it — restocks, replaces consumables, verifies charge between events. Reference: pit-crew-system for the standard kit baseline. Document the decision rationale (why each item is included) in the notebook.
Both Per-event
Travel & Event Logistics
Comp registration, lodging, travel schedule, food planning. Real responsibility, no build-schedule conflict. The team that arrives at a competition rested, fed, and on-time outperforms the team scrambling for breakfast.
Both Practice ongoing
Field Maintenance & Element Handling
Whoever isn't building handles field cleanup, element resets between drills, replacing broken pins/cups, calibrating toggle mounts. Sounds menial — it's not. Builds field-element-handling fluency that pays off when you have to handle a Match Load mid-match (SG11) without dropping it.

Outreach & Awards

Both 1 letter/week
Sponsor Outreach
One letter/email per week to a potential sponsor. Strategist often best at this (writing skills) but driver should rotate in too — sponsor relationships often outlast individual student tenures, and rotation builds team-wide ownership. Reference: outreach for templates.
Both 2 hrs/week
Excellence Award Packet Drafting
Compile team accomplishments, photos, write team-story drafts. Hours of cumulative work that pays off in March. Drivers and strategists are often better at this than engineers because they've been writing notebook entries and have stronger prose skills. Reference: judge-interview for the question framework that the packet should be answering in advance.

Cross-Training & External Research

Driver 30 min/week
Basic Onshape Navigation
Drivers don't design CAD — but they should be able to navigate Onshape, measure assemblies, and screenshot for notebook entries. 30 min/week of onshape-videos consumption. Helps drivers articulate mechanism issues to engineers using the right vocabulary.
Strategist 30 min/week
Basic Auton Concepts
Strategists don't write auton code — but they should read auton routing diagrams and understand cycle-time math. Helps them write better, more realistic match-calls. Reference: auton-strategy + auton-builder.
Both 1 hr/week
Refereeing Practice
Drivers and strategists referee scrimmages between junior teams, or against each other in mock matches. Tests rule understanding under pressure. The team's strongest rule-knowledge defense at competition is "we know the rules better than the head ref does on edge cases" — rare, but it happens, and only practice gets you there.
Both Live + recap
Competition Watching
Live-stream early Override events as they roll out. Take notes on robot architectures, scoring approaches, what wins. Subscribe to known excellent teams' YouTube/Discord channels. Log notable insights weekly. Strategists especially should know what the meta is trending toward by November.
💬
One last note for coaches. If a student tells you "I don't have anything to do because the engineers are working," send them to this page. Every item here is real work that contributes to the team's success. None of it requires the robot to exist or the engineers to be free. The standing-responsibilities section exists specifically so drivers and strategists never have to wait.
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