It will reverse very well just I would need to do a complete stop before reversing although if you get stuck as you suggest you are already stopped, so it shouldn't be much of an issue. I would aim to keep away from the walls of the arena as it is possible the contact would send me flying with the forces my robot will put out, Therefor it would possible to end up outside of the arena.

One key feature of my design is that the whole weight of the robot is its weapon, and the new concept allows for two ways of attack, either spinning one way to hit the opponent with a wedge to flip them or in reverse where I would give armour penetrating blows with the spike. If someone's using 4mm Hardox or titanium (anything equal or higher strength) armour I would not use the spike because it would have little effect.

I also have a wide range of control options for my robot as the Arduino is what controls everything on the robot acting as my failsafe and translation controller giving me the ability to program in a feature which prevents the motors from reversing until stopped.

Overall the design is a "New" and more complicated "electrically" than other robots although "Mechanically" it is simple.