team spirit?
 

Hello, I want to know why don't most teams have spirit, last year our team went to new york regionals for a change and only 3-4 teams has spirit? Just curious?

Re: team spirit?
 

Not all FIRST teams think or act the same.
You have some teams that focus their strength on having a strong robot on the field.
You have teams that are strong in the FIRST community but are just OK at building robots,
And you have high energy spirited teams that are just a fun bunch to be around.
Not every team is like that due to size and team makeup (boy heavy teams tend to not like cheering with some exceptions). The best thing to do is to try and encourage them.

Re: team spirit?
 

LOL. Well our team is made up of 36 guys and 7 girls i believe. We have alot of spirit. Well we also have some crazy lady screaming at the top of her lungs do that we can cheer too. But thanks that pretty much awnsered my question!

Re: team spirit?
 

To team 191: I saw you guys last year because our team went to the long island regionals, just thought i would say hi and that was an awesome competition.

Re: team spirit?
 

Personally, I think it's the students that chooses on whether or not they'd want to make a fool out of themselves--just to have fun. Or maybe, it's just something teams do not focus very hard on. But from personal experiences, our spirit usually depends each year on how spirited the students want to be.

Re: team spirit?
 

It's not a question of who has spirit. Everyone on the team has some degree of spirit. It's more a question of who wants to take the initiative and show it?

From what I've seen, a good number of teams have 1-2 members that exude team spirit and get the group going. Other teams that are smaller than the ubber teams wait and use it at the right time.

So, yes there is team spirit but most of the time it is saved for when it is needed most.

Re: team spirit?
 

It also helps if the mentors are a bit crazy themselves. Being open to new ideas (such as our kilts in 2003), shows a team that is comfortable with the "party atmosphere" that so many regionals have. Yes, it is still a competition, and you want your robot to do well, but it also is a celebration of accomplishment. Always make sure that you take the time to celebrate your accomlishments! Even if you do get a bit crazy (in a GP manner, of course)!

Re: team spirit?
 

To me, being a spirited team isn't necessary about dancing around and screaming your head off (although it could be). Spirit is having a positive, gracious, and professional attitude, and very team shows this friendly attitude and willingness to help in their own unique way.

Re: team spirit?
 

Last year when we went to the long island regionals I saw alot of people sleeping and like going home once they were done with their matches that day :/

I lost my voice last year and I still haven't found it...

Re: team spirit?
 

[b]when our team team 47 comes into most events people look and ask were the advil is we have 16 girls and about 14 boys we tend to be very loud and very energetic. we have a set time for everyone on a schedule that everyone has, and whoever is not busy at that moment is cheering and we are pretty much organized so we are kinda loud. BRING YOUR ADVIL OR TYLENOL THIS YEAR.!!! :ahh:

Re: team spirit?
 

Wow more girls than guys, thats a bit surprising imho. Anyways, in team 59, if your not working on the robot, or on chief delphi forums comming up with strategies than your preparing your voice to scream, yell, and dance.

We win, we cheer.
We loose, we still cheer maybe even louder.
We're not even playing, we cheer till we loose our voice.

This year we're going to do something smart, we're going to cheer a little bit on practice day to save our voices for the next days of competition.

Re: team spirit?
 

The reason some teams don't have alot of team spirit is because they think it is a worthless thing to do even if it does get your team moral up. And they have no life.

Re: team spirit?
 

So... What's the importance of having team spirit, and besides yelling and cheering, what else does team spirit do? (I'm a rookie :rolleyes: )

Re: team spirit?
 

Team spirit is what makes the competition fun. I see other teams and they look so bored. We just scream, dance, and jump and have an awesome time doing it. Without team spirit that competition is rather boring and repetitive. Spirit is to show how proud you are of your robot. Even if you have an awesome robot or a basic robot when you cheer and dance it makes the FIRST experience alot funner. Most teams i guess don't cheer because they are made of mostly guys. Ramtech is also mostly guys but we all know that cheering and having fun is what makes the competition fun and makes you want to go over and over again.

Re: team spirit?
 

Two words: Infectious enthusiasm.

Re: team spirit?
 

well, beside the whole part that there's an award for Spirit (thats really not important in reality... thats just a nice bonus if you win it), having Team Spirit sort of unifies the team. it gets you all together to cheer on your Drive Team and your Pit Crew, and its a great excuse to just let loose and have fun. You've worked SO HARD to built this robot... now's your chance to just have fun. trust me, when you're being spirited (yelling, cheering, bodypainting, running around, starting a congo line or limbo or even twister) you meet a lot of new people that way and make new, amazing friends that you would have never met otherwise.

having team spirit has a lot to do with the disposition of people on your team... usually if you've got more laid-back people, they're less likely to jump up and do the cha-cha slide than if you're with a team with a lot of rambunxious high-energy kids. usually that energy from other teams transfers over, but think of it as being personally up to you to bring the party and get everyone to stand up and have some fun. :) Spirit is all about gracious professionalism and having fun... its about cheering people on, whether it be for your own team or the opposing alliance or for some team you're good friends with or some rookie team who honestly has no idea whats going on.

Don't worry, you'll understand once you finally get to a competition. its the most fun and rewarding experience you could ever imagine, and those three days will probably be near (if not at) the top of your list of favorite memories for your entire high-school career. :)

Re: team spirit?
 

hey, team spirit is having fun without bashing other teams. There is an award for team spirit at the Granite State Regionals. Sometimes a team that doesn't do so well in terms of the robot, wins this award because they cheer for other teams with alot of enthusiasm.
after every FIRST competition i've been to I've lost my voice by the end. :D
dancing, hanging out with other FIRST peeps, and just having fun is what I love about the competitions. Winning helps with the fun factor alot but is not necessary.

Re: team spirit?
 

The extent of our team spirit are 2 foam board signs that say "Bay Shore 271" on them that usually stay on the floor at competitions. Here, we believe that if you are not working on coding, driving, or operating, you should sit down and scout. It's what I did last year, and I had a great time. Why not tone down the screaming and help your team gather information? There is nothing better for your team than to work for it.

Re: team spirit?
 

Basically what we do on our team is that most of the team is out in the stands screaming and cheering and a team 4-5 people goes scouting. We only do scouting on thursday with an occational scouting during the actual competition.

Re: team spirit?
 

I see where youre coming from, but on my team we MUST have flawless scouting or else theres hell to pay. we are supposed to scout every robot every match and average up every single robot in order to have a perfectly averaged inspection. When qualifying matches are over, we have every team in order from "best" to "worst". We really have no time to cheer at all.

Re: team spirit?
 

I guess every team is quite different. We have a huge team of 43 members so I guess that leaves alot of people. Last year our scouting wasn't very strong but this year it is very strong. Well we also have a crazy lady that screems her head off and then we all do. She doesn't let us sit down. It is funny because last year some kid fell asleep at the competition and she got mad! lol. I wish you good luck at regionals!!

Re: team spirit?
 

From what I know about my team this year, we have a morale manager. I'll see how that goes. :P

Re: team spirit?
 

Its very easy to do both. This year we're going to work on Intel and Spirit. On practice day we plan to gather intel and such while the pit crew and drive team practice their skills. On the actual competition days we're going to cheer while they play, after they play, dance a bit a few times, maybe a congo line or two that I plan on starting. And when we're not doing any of that I'll bring my scout team down and walk around saying "Hi" and such making sure everyone is doing ok with their bots. So you can easily gather intel (information) about the other teams and have team spirit that day too! ^_^

Re: team spirit?
 

Depends on what qualifies as team spirit... I entered the thread expecting a lot of talk about what people wear/having mascot.

The social spirit part isn't quite my thing.... I'd much rather be watching what's going on around me than be shouting like crazy (though it's fun at times). And no, watching != scouting :p. On the other hand, my team this year is full of a LOT of crazy people. Certainly crazy enough to name the robot Mango (changed to Mongo...), for they outnumber us sane folk ;) They also choose completely random colors for tshirts this year...

As for items and whatnot, I can think of several things that I've seen:
-Mascot
-Flag
-Beach balls in the audience
-Banners
-Apparel other than shirts

My team has a flag and headbands with our team logo printed on it. A mascot would be sweet (a samurai), but our duct tape man isn't too bad (cape, trench coat, spazziness, etc.). I've got to make a gazillion more of the headbands this week (vacation week). I do bemoan the fact that colors are inconsistent... The flag is purple (school color)... so are the bumpers... and somehow, everyone voted the shirts to be silver on blue :confused:

(purple flag, white headbands, blue/silver tshirts... eww?)

Re: team spirit?
 

my team is not really large enough to have effort used for showing spirit but maybe this year since we are slightly larger we may have a very small spirit group maybe...

Re: team spirit?
 

Being spirited isn't just for big teams going for an award.
Do it because it's fun.
You don't need to be big to do that.

Re: team spirit?
 

oh believe you me we have fun we come up with weird names and everything but we don't really spend much time roaring and cheering in the stands...

Re: team spirit?
 

hmm 1568 was composed of mostly 7 memeber (high school students) 4 ovoisly were the drive team, one was always in pit sometimes 2, if not than the other was scouting, since we had a few problems the team was in pit. the 7th our programmer was always looking for better codes to write and it worked...we were able to drop and sometimes cap as well...this year the team has grown slightly but weve also lost 2 members to college, myself included...however out sprit was showed, there were signs held up while 1568 was on the clock...

so, some teams dont have spirit mainly because they are 2 small

Re: team spirit?
 

Sometimes it's hard to be sprited, I am the spirit un-official leader, but if the team is having a bad day then sometimes people really dont want to cheer. An award should never be the motivation behind cheering or else it isnt genuine. If you have one or two people on your team that are spirited then it will usually (at least on 341) catch on and people will start getting into it. If you ar a small team it is helpful to have as many people in the stands as you can afford especially if it is your match. At regionals we kick most of the people out of the pit when we are in a round and everyone goes to the stands. Being spirited is something that can't really be forced. it just has to happen, maybe with some encouragement!

Re: team spirit?
 

We had a team come over during the Championship and asked if we would cheer for them. They had a small group in the stands (about 6), and their competition team could never hear them cheer due to the overall crowd noise. So, we joined in with them, and their competition team looked up in the stands shocked. Don't hesitate to ask a larger or more vocal team to help if you are smaller. Just don't ask it when they are competing against you!
While cheering is often a measure of "team spirit", it isn't the only one. I patricularly enjoy those teams who form the "gauntlet" at the escalator as you arrive at the Championship. They wish everyone entering the Georgia Dome "Good Luck" and high-five you as you pass. That just starts the day and the tournament off right. It gets extended by teams like TJ^2 (88), who run around with their water bottle rattles and encourage their whole division to "pump it up". Then the teams who pass out or trade their trinkets with other teams. Or teams that help other teams in the pits improve a robot that will be competing against them. There are so many other acts of GP that make up the "spirit of a team" beyond cheering, and I hope the judges take these additional acts into consideration.

Some teams view the events as the "Measure of their accomplishments", and concentrate on how their robot qualifies. But, the teams who view the events more as the "celebration of their accomplishments", are the teams who tend to show the greatest spirit. Something that Woodie acknowledges at the start of every event, when he says "Everyone who attends is already a winner."

Re: team spirit?
 

Yes I agree with you our accomplishments our in the build period and the competition is our chance to share them. I wish that all teams shared this view. Well anyway good luck to you and all other competing teams and remember to always display gracious professionalism and to all those who don't I pity you for you will receive little to no aid should you need it...

Re: team spirit?
 

Team 1733 would like to borrow those teams that have spirit as we only have 7 students attending the event and those 7 expect to be in the Boston Regional pits. :D

Re: team spirit?
 

You are lucky, you have TJ^2 at the Boston Regional. That team was "Born to Cheer"! Go over to them and ask them to help you, you will find they are very gracious in their cheering encouragement. Get to meet MOE, one of their mentors. That is one crazy guy!
(Not to be confused with our MOE, or Big MO from Detroit.)

Re: team spirit?
 

I'll agree

Re: team spirit?
 

Yes they certainly were they went to our regionals last year we were seated next to them and boy did they make themselves heard. my head ached incurably for hours after the competition even the next morning Tylenol no longer stopped the pain although I will admit it did numb the pain slightly

Re: team spirit?
 

I wish my team...180 S.P.AM. was going to the Boston Regional...but :( ..... the good news is: another Floridian team will be there...233...Think Pink...they are awesome ..full of team spirit and infectious.....you can't miss them...their color is pink :cool: ... the guys wear pink body paint..... and their bot is pink...look them up.

Team spirit is really...having fun...if it means the team line dance...mentors dancing....all of this is in good natured and harmless fun :p ...it does connect the team and the participants of the regional.

Good luck to you. If you are going to Atlanta...look us up....especially if you need something....we bring everything on the bus. :)

Re: team spirit?
 

look us up RAMTECH might not have been there last year but we are gonna be there this year soo come to use!! just looks for some a whole bunch of people (around 40) jumping and screaming!!!! number 59.

Re: team spirit?
 

Spirit?

I tattoo'ed myself for this team.