Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

How addicting it becomes

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

49. have your pit crew assigned before ship and give them practice on the robot

50. give your drivers a lot of practice, if there is space on the field and you have time use the field

51. color coordinate your tools for easy access in the pits, say i need a 10/24 screw, wheres it o, it's blue...

52.have a big banner to put up in the stand area

53. have a neatly organized pit area, very team/spectator friendly

54. HAVE A CLOCK! it helps a lot and make sure it's the right time

55. safety FIRST

and i can think of more but I'll leave some room for others

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

56. Never be afraid to ask for a spare part even if your sure no one will have it.

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

you havent seen the warning label?

WARNING! FIRST IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE - MAY CAUSE: SLEEPLESSNESS, LARINGYTIS, UNCONTROLLABLE CHEERING, YELLING, CLAPPING, STOMPING, TENDENCY TO TALK TO ALLEN WRENCHES, COMPULSION TO BE IN ATLANTA IN APRIL, REVULSION FOR PIZZA, INCLINATION TO CALL PEOPLE 'HUMAN PLAYER', OBSESSION WITH #S 5 26 120 130, INTENSE LOVE/HATE FEELINGS TOWARDS ROBOTS, IRREVERSABLE POSTIVE ATTITUDE, STRONG FONDNESS FOR WOODY FLOWERS, STRANGE DESIRE TO BALANCE THINGS ON 2 WHEELS, TENDENCY TO LEAN TOWARDS MIT, INEXPLICABLE ADMIRATION FOR SOMEONE CALLED DEAN KAMEN, CAUTION! MAY CAUSE STUDENTS TO SUDDENLY EXCEL UNEXPECTEDLY AND WITHOUT WARNING. SIDE EFFECTS ARE PERMANENT - THERE IS NO CURE OR TREATMENT FOR ADDICTION TO FIRST.

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

57. Remember to eat and drink, FIRST is very intensive and food is not often your number one priority during the day. :ahh:

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

57. Talk to other teams, make friends, moer friends = much more fun

58. When scouting, dont sweat the small details, look at the important facts needed and scout them well.

59. Scouting is MUY important

60. Support your team with all you have

61. Have fun

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

62. You're never too cool for a giant conga line around an arena. :cool:

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

63. Make sure you turn the robot on before the match

64. Eat a good breakfast before competition

65. Speak up when it comes to a major decision about the robot

66. Dont be afraid to talk with other teams

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

67. its impossible to bring too many buttons

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

68. It's immpossible to bring too much of any give away.

69. Make sure your battery cable isn't somewhere your arm will catch it and unplug it when you start a match. (True story)

70. For Heaven's sake, use a velcro battery strap or otherwise firmly secure your battery. Batteries don't help you if they're lying on the field.

71. If part of your robot cart sometimes sticks to the underside of the robot, make sure it's not stuck there when you put the robot down for a match, leaving your wheels 2 inches off the ground. (Almost a true story)

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

Hey! You changed it.
Good thing. Now it can be the template for the new version of the button. :D

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

72. Safety glasses may be a nice forehead protector, but thats not what they are made for.

73. Make a list of safety rules and go over it with your team so everyone knows the proper safety procedures. Place list in pits where everyone can read it. Judges like the list(2 safety awards this year so far).

74. Make punishments for breaking the safety rules. Pushups work good.

75. Be careful when driving your robot cart over cables, it can learn how to fly(almost a very bad thing).

76. Stop very slowly when your robots wheels are the only thing touching the cart(almost another very bad thing).

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

77. (KokoEd reminded me of another) your teams banner can never be

TOO BIG

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

heh. :o

Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
 

78. If you're the coach, don't be afraid to do whatever you have to in order to get the driver's attention, especially if it's to avoid a penalty. Go on, it won't kill him to be hit on the head.