Re: Spirit Time!
 

"Hard to find a reason to put effort into"? I can think of plenty of reasons, mainly centering around one thing.

It's fun.

The teams like the X-Cats and Waldo who come to competitions and are full of energy make the event more fun for all the teams, volunteers and fans. One of the biggest reasons FIRST is so different than other similar programs is because of the enthusiasm of it's spectators. The spirit shown by these people help create that "Super Bowl" like atmosphere.

I really don't think the teams with a lot of spirit are doing it to win an award. They're doing to to try and spread some of the excitement that they're feeling, and most of all because it's really fun!

Re: Spirit Time!
 

You think that the spirit award is chosen from a hat? You've obviously never sat in front of CD at a regional. The cheering coming from that section scared the parents half to death at our first regional and they very much deserved that award. As to encouraging cheering? I'm not sure why they wouldn't. Talk to the kids and find out why they don't cheer. Is it because their minds are elsewhere? They think they'll look silly? Once you find out why they won't cheer, it will be a lot easier to deal with those issues one on one.

Re: Spirit Time!
 

Spirit, pretty much starts with motivation. Everyone has spirit but some just cant just make it appear out of air. Put together Spirit Leaders like what other people on this thread said, once they get members involved and into it, it will be hard to get them to stop. :D

Re: Spirit Time!
 

Our team has almost no noticeable spirit. Our most extreme effort consisted of shaking coca cola cans with various bits of metal nuts, washers, trash, etc. in them, some didn't have that, but we sort of didn't care. Although there was this five year old kid thats I think is a mentors son that ran around with a GM banner as a cape with tons of buttons. He was the only spirited one at nats. But, I plan on learning to breath fire :eek: . That should get attention.

Re: Spirit Time!
 

Most of the time i get so into the game. I scream or yell when somethings wrong! heheh, but I love to cheer. Our drivers say that it really helps them if we cheer so I'm glad that they like it too! :D

Re: Spirit Time!
 

Should there be a sub-forum somewhere here on Chief Delphi to discuss spirit-related things? After all.....it's JUST A GAME!

Things to be discussed:
a) how to instill team spirit
b) how to pick team names
c) how to find graphics and fonts for team names
d) how to promote team in community
e) cheers, fun stuff for FRC events

etc?

Re: Spirit Time!
 

Try to get your team to go crazy! Have them dance and create their own cheers, you could even make it a little competition of who creates the best one and can get the team to show the most spirit with that cheer at competitions! Maybe you could even try to interact with other groups who are already wild with spirit, I'm sure that they would be willing to help out with getting your team riled up! :D I just joined 433 this year, and I've found it a lot of fun to dance to the cotton eye joe and such, maybe you can get your whole team on the floor to do it? Try new things, ask your team how awkward they would feel dancing and shouting and if they would feel a bit better if they had a "leader", you would be surprised at how many people will try if other "leaders" do the same thing! :)