[Chris Hibner]

The original post was great. I want to expand just a little on why I value the competition aspect of FIRST.

I guess I'm a bit old-school when it comes to competitions. I grew up playing sports and I learned from a very young age that you can really badly want to beat someone in competition and be their best friend afterwards. Also, it only counts if you win within the rules and with good sportsmanship.

Many of the "old-schoolers" believe that competition in and of itself and sports in general are highly valuable in teaching children about life. It teaches the value of teamwork, comaraderie, persistence, hard work, concentration, working under pressure, etc.

Dean always uses the example that it's sad that people try to get so good at bouncing a ball. Just like the robots, the ball is a tool. Some kid might get schooled during a game by someone that is much better at bouncing that ball. If that kid says, "I'm not going to let that happen again", starts working like crazy at bouncing the ball, then beats the same guy that schooled him the first time around - that's a great life-lesson about hard work, coming back from adversity, and not giving up.

I guess my point is that competition in and of itself teaches a lot of highly valuable life lessons. The thing that makes FIRST great is that the game itself also teaches a lot of things useful in life (rather than bouncing a ball). Just remember that the competition aspect can be highly valuable - embrace it.