Advice for Rookie You?
 

If you could go back in time, and tell yourself the most important thing you learned in all your time (or lack thereof) doing FRC / FIRST events.

What would you tell yourself?

(side note, I only ask because this is technically my first year doing FRC...)

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Ask questions; don't be afraid to talk to "powerhouse" teams.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Get as active as possible, as soon as possible. One of my biggest regrets (only my second year of FRC) is me NOT going to champs last year. One of the other teams in my school district (1777) went to champs and was asking for other people to go with them. I didn't realize how awesome of an experience champs was then, and I really regretting it now, especially with #2champs. Get out and just do stuff. That's part of the reason I'm not on Chief Delphi and F4, it's because I want to be part of the greater FRC community as a whole, and to help all of that as well.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Network more.

Follow the FIRST season that you don't take part in.(watch other events, watch Champs)

Work hard on the team all year.

Teach new people your skills during and outside the season, practice your existing skills an learn new ones.

Every team is your ally, help them like you help your own team.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

As a mentor: Find lots of mentors to help... with everything!

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

no, you don't want to work in the pits. go scout.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Even though you may start off filing/sweeping/vacuuming/not doing anything with the bot, just keep going and be the best you can at whatever task you are given. If you don't know ask your mentor or look it up. Just keep working hard. Eventually you will find what you like and become a leader in it if you work hard enough at it.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Sit down, try to focus and stop spazzing ouuuuuut but still always have fun, enjoy the time. The next two years will be the best ones you've had. You'll gain a group of friends and... just wow get ready to have the best time of your life bro! Also an andretti racecar will win the 100th running of the indy 500 via strategy so stop railing on them

For your sneezon 2.woah. Keep reciets of all the parts you buy, yelling at people isnt a way to lead you'll figure that out fast. The group youre with are the coolest group of friends and you'll grow with them. Keep pushing for the triwheels, they will make the bot the one you want to be. AND FOR GOD SAKES DO NOT, NOT, waste a week of build sneezon researching where to make gears custom. Spend 2 seconds of research and go to vex moron.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Start learning cad now.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Don't apologize for everything.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

learn cad and labview early.
dont hesitate to ask a billion questions
go all in
give up trying to sleep before midnight during build season

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

I have three pieces of advice that would have really helped me my freshman year:

• Don't be afraid to try new things on the team, especially if you have yet to find something you're truly passionate about.
• You will get out of FRC what you put in to it.
• Be the change you wish to see on your team.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Although I am still technically a rookie, I'll answer anyways. My answers are more geared towards advice for new rookies, but I hope not just rookies can learn from some of the things I experienced. Here goes it!

Hard work and long nights pay off.
-After weeks and weeks of long nights, delays, and problems, you might start asking why you are even still involved. Just keep doing the best work you can. When you see the robot that you poured 6+ weeks of your life in to at your event, on the field, it is one of the best feelings in FIRST!

Try your best, no matter what.
-While times may be tough, especially your rookie season, stay strong and try your best. The knowledge and experience you will gain from FRC is worth it.

"Powerhouse" teams are some of the kindest and gracious people you will ever meet.
-While they may seem scary with their large looming pits and many students and mentors, don't be frightened! Much of what I know is gathered from conversations with members of 254, 1678, 971, etc. Don't be afraid to reach out to these people and talk to them at competitions. I guarantee that you will learn something new.

Don't be afraid to meet new people and build relationships.
-Similar to the above, always meet new people and talk with them. You will gain so much knowledge and wisdom from other people. Just from talking with people, I now can contact some of the most esteemed minds in FRC when I need help or have questions.

Take advantage of any opportunities you are given.
-Always take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you. For example, I got to experience so much and learn so many things my rookie year from taking advantage of opportunities like visiting other team's shops, going to Champs, and just talking to people at events.

Clean up as you go, don't leave a huge mess at the end of a build session.
-Many times this build season we would leave tools out after finishing a task and put off cleaning up scraps, putting away tools, etc. This then left a major cleanup at the end of a session, which no one wants to do at 9:30pm after a long school day. Something we learned was to have an ongoing clean up. This allowed us to leave faster after sessions and everyone was in a better mood!

Get a printer and make mechanical drawings.
-As one of my colleagues said in another thread, without a printer our robot probably wouldn't have gotten finished. Using mechanical drawings allowed us to speed up fabrication of parts ten fold.

Help other teams!
-There is nothing better than helping to improve another team's bot! We sent a team of students and a technical mentor to 253 at SVR to work on their robot so they could play their last qualification match. The feeling when our fix to keep their battery in worked was like nothing else.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Two things, both of which apply whether a student, mentor, or otherwise:

1. No one comes to FIRST knowing very much about robotics. (OK, there are a FEW exceptions to this rule, but the point is that this is NOT an impediment.)
2. Everyone who comes to FIRST has to learn something in order to achieve his/her potential. And keep learning. (There are NO exceptions here.)

Edit:
"Powerhouse" teams are some of the kindest and gracious people you will ever meet.
Yes, but even if you aren't a powerhouse, you can still exemplify gracious professionalism. Start helping other teams NOW, even as a rookie [team], wherever your strengths are.

Edit2 (hopefully obvious as I'm quoting forward):
As the old song says, "You can learn a lot from Lydia." Even if you don't get that, just pay attention to that's going on. I'm sure you can still google this and find an old audio if you're really curious about it. [Yes, it's still all over the top of the links, with video.]


There's more truth than poetry in that sentence.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Try CAD. it's not so bad, and we could use some help.

Get involved with the community. There's over 6000 teams from all over the world, and you're one of the lucky 600 that get to go to a world championship where you can meet many of them. Talk to people.

There's plenty of places to talk to FRC people online if you just look for them. Do it. You know you want to.

Talk to [Jared]. He's really smart and he can help you a lot if you just grow a pair and talk to him. Ask questions.

Through robotics, you'll meet some of the most caring, helpful, and skilled people you've ever met. Every moment is a chance to make a new friend and learn something new, so take the opportunity.

With all that free time you have, try walking around the pits and talking to other teams. Don't know how to start a conversation? Try just asking about their robot. We're very passionate people, and we love to talk about what our fancy totemachines do and why and how. You don't know much about ours, but there is a lot to learn.

Pay attention to what Karthik says. The man has been doing FIRST for longer than you've been alive.

Dude, just stop worrying about...that thing. FRC people are very accepting, and they will be supportive. If you don't tell them, you give up on that support. Don't do that. They can definitely help you through whatever you're going through, and it's what you need, even if you refuse to admit it to yourself.

Don't just resign yourself to being safety captain so you can sit down in the pit all day. The world is going on around you, and you came here for a reason.

Treasure your sleep. You won't get any next season.

Start making friends with the Uberbots now. They're great people and really friendly. You'll take a liking to them very soon.

Trade for some shirts.

A lot of people are saying to "go all in." I'd like to counter with my own experience:

Don't get too involved. It's your freshman year and there's very few expectations of you. Help the team, yes. But since you may not always have a job at events, treasure your free time. By next year, you'll be the only person on your subteam and you'll have to keep the robot alive all on your own. Remember how events are fun and exciting, and a great time to hang out with your friends? Well, next year, you'll be having fun in a very different way, and it'll be far more stressful. You'll be at worlds, running on a few hours of sleep, trying to make the robot work by the next match so the team can cheer for something. You'll be the only person who can do this. At least five people will be looking over your shoulder and yelling at you like they know what you're doing. Now is the time to enjoy FRC so that you don't forget why you love it next year.

That got extremely specific and a bit ranty...

Welcome to FRC!

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

THIS INCLUDES MENTORS AND SENIOR STUDENTS. Some of the greatest opportunities to make connections and learn skills will come from your more seasoned peers or adult mentors. Every adult volunteer has an amazing background and resume, with countless things to explain/teach. Listen to them and take advantage of their knowledge.

Senior students will benefit from teaching you just as much as you will benefit from being taught. Listening to older students, asking questions, and working together not only helps you gain new passions and skills, but it helps them become better at what they already know how to do, and improve when it comes to sharing their knowledge with others. You're doing both parties a favor when working with other team members, specifically the experienced ones that have been on the team for a while.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

I actually just finished my rookie season! I would tell myself to try more things in the other subteams. Also, talk to other teams some more.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

6237 team numbers, 3134 actual teams...

Sorry to be nitpicky, but I figured I don't want the rookie collective us to be misinformed.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

avoid chief delphi

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Too true.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Yes. The evil Chief Delphi machine will begin to consume you and your non-robotics life thread by thread. First hand experience :D.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

#35 chain has a pitch of .375, not .35.:(

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Don't ever believe anyone that says mounting electronics upside- down is a "good idea" or that "we have the right stuff to do it- it'll work this year".

Many fallen encoder wires later....

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

If you design a drivetrain you should design drivetrains to run with an even number of links in the chain.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

I'd tell him to put down the cup of noodle and get to work. Also, observe what veteran members and mentors are doing closely, note their successes and failures with detail.

And for goodness' sake, meaningfully name your cad files.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Alright, I can't resist threads like this, so here is a slightly excessive trail of advice.

You should not sacrifice your health for this.

As much as you want to, and I know you will, you seriously need to know when to take a break. You are still transitioning into high school, and we both know you have this tendency to try to occupy yourself as much as possible. This is more than just a program to you, but you need to make sure that you are okay.

Let things flow naturally.

You are luckily going to grow as a person, by a lot, which is to say that you will see differences in the way you conduct yourself. I'm not going to lie to you and say that you are quite qualified to be a leader at this point, because you aren't, not fully. But, you will discover this convenient ability to talk to parents and young children. Thank the library for that, but also our outreach events. :)

Feed your urge to learn.

You aren't going to grow out of your rookie stage, not in terms of genuine interest of learning, or sheer awe of teams, but you will chill down in some regards. There are tons of resources out there, including ones in development, as you know quite well. There are communities and people out there, albeit, not always the kindest. You don't need to post, but hey. Posting was never required.

Mess-ups are okay, if you admit them.

So, this is something both applicable to the team and Chief Delphi. Your first post will likely be a misinterpretation of the rules that will be responded to. That's fine. You admit the mistake, and move on with life. But as time passes, you will want to post more as you begin to envy people's post counts. Then you realize that post count doesn't mean THAT much, neither does the number of green dots. In the larger scheme of things, you will soon recognize who can help with your problems.

Don't be afraid to talk to people.

I probably don't need to remind you this, because you are exceptionally good at using online chats for this. Real life is kinda nice though. The "friend other teams at outreach and shirt trade strategy to keep contact" was A++! You will find yourself increasingly networking with people on your own. The biggest supporter of this will honestly be Twitch Chat for regionals, followed by Chief Delphi and just straight-up adding people on Facebook. You, my dear duckling, will be surprised by who you become friends with through that last option.

You were right about scouting.

Yep. You volunteered to scout at the off-season you attended around the time of making your account. Thank Karthik for the Simbot Seminar on Scouting and Match Strategy. Watching that live online actually inspired you to start scouting. It still remains your favorite part about being on a team, though you still like going down and talking to people.

Finally, though not on the list, is that Idaho is awesome, especially when there's Tators involved.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Also bonding with team members can make for a great team experience. My rookie year I stayed really closed off and didn't make great friends with people on my team. However, this year I opened up a lot and took part in a lot of team events/bonding experiences and now its so much more enjoyable and I made such great friends.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Respect your leadership, there's a reason why they're the leadership.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Speaking of this, I love showing other people our shop, what we did to acquire stupid amounts of shop equipment for cut-throat prices, and how theoretically we don't need it to be as successful as we are(It does make engaging more hands a very easy task however).

All you have to do is ask(PM is fine) and I can arrange it.

Please ask. :D

This, very this. If I could go back and do it again I would bash my inept skills at teaching when I was on FRC 1678 Team EnGen and force myself to do some dang teaching of other people. Once you are decent at something the easiest way to get amazing at it is to teach others your skills. It puts you in a whole different point of view that really forces you to understand why you do what you do. I spent my first year as a mentor doing a crappy job of it because of my teaching skills, don't be me, learn to pass on your knowledge effectively.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

I know that most of the things that I wrote were already mentioned by other members. Here are some things that I would advise a rookie or anyone in general:

• If you are a driver, you should not be in pits unless it is absolutely necessary. As a driver, you must be focused on the game, not on what problems may the robot have. In other words, pits can be stressful, and stress affects everyone.
• Always mentor the rookies, especially if your team lacks consistent mentors.
• From season to season, new things can be made available for FRC teams. You should not build a robot using the technologies and methodologies that your team used 4 years ago. In other words, accept change and innovate constantly.
• Do not hesitate to kick out of your team members who don't aport something to the team (especially if they are not rookies). It may sound rude, but they are not a good example to the younger members of your team. It may also prompt them to participate more when they re-gain their interest in FRC.
• Everyone makes mistakes, even if they have a lot of experience. Conflicts will always happen. In some sense, this is good, since you can always learn from your mistakes (both on the practical side and on the emotional side).
• All-nigthers and marathons are not a good idea. Period.
• You will get experience just after you need it. This will happen many times.
• For the rookie to respect you, you must first respect the rookie.
• As much as you hate your safety captain, listen to what he/she says.
• Never lose interest in learning. Find some time to learn new things, even if at first you may think that you know enough. What we know its just the tip of the iceberg.
• Everyone in your team will come from different backgrounds, do not expect everybody to have a good technical background.
• Talk with your parents, teachers and friends before build season. This will save you from a lot of trouble that may come with build season.
• Take advantage of the opportunities that FIRST or its sponsors offer you, especially if you are from the US.
• Last but not least, do not over-involve yourself with robotics, try to balance FRC and the other aspects of your life (school, family, sleep, etc.).

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Hard work pays off. It's really that simple.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Don't put electronics in a cramped, hard to access box... Looking at you 2015 bot... ::ouch::

High School goes by fast, take advantage of every opportunity you're given even if it pushes your comfort zone.

With Chief Delphi comes great responsibility. (Don't go onto CD before you're done with all your other work or an hour before you need to go to sleep.)

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Two previous posts I've made are relevant here.

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...78#post1212678

I made that post with only 1 build season under my belt. If you're new and 'don't know anything,' do that^

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...35#post1517635

Read through that entire second second thread and you'll survive FRC.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

There's a difference between listening and waiting to speak.

Nothing you are doing is more important than having a good time and making each experience a positive one for yourself, your students, and your team. Robots happens, just try to grow from it each year.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Volunteer earlier. You get a much greater experience to give back to your team.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Be as involved as you can and don't be shy. If you take initiative you will have a lot more fun.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Don't be affraid of trying new things... Even if people say you are crazy, even if you get insulted, even if it involves a lot of time and money, try it. You can't know if it'll work or not if you didn't try it yet.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Okay, I have 2 thoughts on this:

As someone who participated in FRC for all 4 years of high school:
-Don't feel discouraged if you feel like you're not being included, especially during your first 1-2 years on the team. It's perfectly normal. With hard work and a positive attitude, you will be noticed and included.
-Go to stuff - meetings, outreach events, fund-raisers, build sessions, any team activity! You'll get to know your teammates better, and it's a great way to get more involved and stand out.
-I'm pretty sure this is a given, but always show respect for adults and leaders on your team. Follow their rules, listen to them when they are talking, and just be a good citizen.
-To get involved, become someone's (who is more experienced than you) "shadow." Start by asking if they can teach you how to [whatever they're working on]. Then, hang around. You may make a friend, gain experience, and be their replacement on the team after they graduate.
-Robotics is about what YOU make of it. Robotics can be the best thing you do for yourself.
-Sometimes, you will have to work without your besties, and that is okay.
-Put yourself "out there" and try new things. Does your team lack someone with CAD skills? Learn it! Does your team need some help fund-raising? Take initiative and help them out!
-Apply for FRC scholarships!
-Last but not least, SCHOOL COMES FIRST. Don't let your GPA slip because of Build Season. Plus, it may make robotics look bad to a teacher if suddenly all the robotics people let their grades fall in a certain class (true story). If you're highly involved in robotics, remember to balance robotics time with study time. I would also advise against taking the ACT or SAT during busy robotics times.

From a leadership perspective:
-Again, be present and be involved in team activities, especially if you are on a small team. Even if you're not at the center of the action, this shows your commitment and dedication to the team, which is looked upon positively in the eyes of a leader.
-Be your own person. Don't just be there because your friend or "bae" is. You both should be able to work independently and be productive.
-Once again, put yourself out there! It can be disheartening for a captain to see a lack of participation. It relieves some of our stress to know that others want to help us.

Robotics is wonderful, and I hope you enjoy your first year! Enjoy yourself, and the experience will be rewarding.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

If you just keep showing up, you'll be rewarded. I logged more hours during Build Season than I spent doing anything else (including sleeping) and I got rewarded with an officer position and a Mentor's Favorite Rookie Award. People like dedication, so even if you don't think there's anything to do, show up!

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

This may not be the most inspirational. It's sad to admit it took me way too long pick up on some of this stuff.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Old thread, but good advice.

For me, I think the TL;DR is two things.

1. Shush up & listen. You don't know everything, and you really don't know anything. Everyone else around you has been doing this for at LEAST another year longer than you have. They have good advice. Listen up!

2. Don't 'hate on' a team that's better than you. Observe, ask questions, and try to get on that level. There's no reason for the negativity. (I was SUPER guilty of this as a young person).

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Get a few parents on the team to help set up a calendar for all the available scholarships in relation to the year/s students can apply for them, and when the cut offs are.

Give those said parents mentor titles even though they aren't at all the meetings, and or at the shop every day during build.

With all the $$$ available to students it is imperative that there is a department to help organize it all.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

1) You are going to loose way more than you are going to win and you need to find peace with that, but not complacency. Every time you loose you learn a thousand things you couldo have done better but when you when you learn one thing that goes right.

2) You have more friends than you know by just being in the FRC program. To paraphrase Kevin Ross from FIRST Washington
"of all the people in FRC I am going to like 97% of you, sure 3% of you I might not be able to stand but if I am looking to weed out that 3% then I am going to miss an entire ocean of great people." He said something along those lines at the OSU district back in 2014 and those words have followed me for for years.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

This is a quote from Doc Rivers after loosing that Simbotics tweeted out some time over a year ago.

tl;dr: Pour your heart into it and don't be afraid to loose; yhere's always next year.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Rookie team lead student here.

That giant electronics box is a bad idea.

Bite off a little more. But not everything; keep that design simple.

No mecanums. No fancy drivetrains.

Do actual strategic analysis and weighted tables.

Worm gears, set screws, lead screws, and keyways are your enemies and need to be avoided or mitigated; their ways must be learned.

Don't do familiar things. This is a learning experience, and oftentimes the familiar thing is actually much harder than the right thing.
- Adopt CAD earlier
- Adopt encoders earlier, ditch pots
- Adopt pneumatics earlier

Go over your mentors when applicable. They have some wild**** half-baked ideas. You put in quite a few out-of-place hours, but should have been more serious about that.

Push for weight savings and do some self study on structural engineering.

You'll find this out, but you're an ME who loves code/wiring. You really should be focusing on the mechanical side of things; you have controls on more lock than you put in time for.

Indirectly related to FRC: start taking community college courses ASAP, the credit transfer is wonderful and you wouldn't have had to take Physics/Chem/Calc 3/DiffEq at college. It takes as much time as being homeschooled currently does- you'll have 50% of your time devoted to FRC still.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Go to Worlds in 2014. Mexico really wasn't worth skipping it for.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

The answers are out there; go find them.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Don't pick that username.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Prototype more and faster

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

To be Brutally honest last year my team struggled horribly with time management and organization which led to times of great distress, last year was our rookie year as a team so all I have to say is keep track of time, know where your stuff is, and be ready to do anything in a seconds notice. Because everything you've worked for can go down the drain pretty fast if you're not up to doing something.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

I'd slap my past self in the face and tell him to do his homework. Also, dont try too hard to make friends (it'll happen on it's own) on the team and try to watch your language as much as possible (I had a pretty bad swearing problem my first year, and it had a tendancy to make people uncomfortable)

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

Network, Network, Network! We made a video recently featuring the Hardin Valley RoHAWKtics, and their biggest piece of advice was to always interact with others.

For Hardin Valley in their rookie year, this meant talking to potential mentors and sponsors until they had a well-structured program running. Though this advice was directed towards teams starting out, it can definitely be applied personally.

You can watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pdC5BnXAys

And be proud of yourself: you joined FIRST in the first place! Many students never give it a shot, so you're one step ahead of them!

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

You will kill your marriage.

Re: Advice for Rookie You?
 

I walked into FRC with a decent amount of programming knowledge, and ended up writing a very high volume of the code that was on the robot. However, while doing everything by myself, I admittedly did a very poor job of leading and distributing work. I also stuck to that stereotype of a programmer in a cave that can't hold a hammer right, and as a result still don't know a ton of mechanical skills, and the ones I did learn were all in a short period of time under less than ideal circumstances. So my advice for myself would be the following:

- Distribute the work. You have the technical knowledge, now gain the leadership skills and learn to act like a project lead instead of the only programmer.

- Branch out to other things as well. The code for the robot doesn't take very long to write, especially if you're working with multiple other programmers. Learning some mechanical skills and realize prototyping at the start of build season will only benefit you.