Quote:
Originally Posted by MysterE
Ok, I will post a small list - though it probably could be much larger:
#1 - Have as many people that start the build season finish the build season.
#2 - Eat less pizza.
#3 - Eat less subway.
#4 - Sleep more (har har har)
#4.5 - Build a practice robot AND a competition robot
#4.6 - Have the students do more this year and the mentors do less
#5 - Win the Bayou Regional again And/Or win the Chairman's Award
#5.1 - Be a successful Drive Coach.
#6 - Raise the rest of the funds to attend the Lonestar and Championship
#7 - Go to the top of the Arch in St. Louis
#8 - Go back to The City Museum in St. Louis
#9 - Make it to one of the top eight alliances in St. Louis
#10 - Win Einstein
Ok - so I thought big. Sometimes my eyes are too big for my stomach :-)
-Daniel
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From a competition perspective I am surprised more people don't have "Win Championship" as a goal. We actually write it on the board on kickoff day when talking about strategy. Oddly enough our goal for a few years was "Make it to Einstein", but then we were making it and losing in the semis. We then changed our goal to "Win Championship".
Why is this important? Making this statement actually changes some of our decision making throughout the season. It drives us to never stop improving because we are not rated on our top goal until the end of the season. Also, gameplay always changes a bit over the competition season. When discussing strategies the question we try to answer is how will this game play on Einstein? It also affects robot design in that reliability becomes even more important when trying to play up 12-15 matches in one day. There are also small things like an argument had between 2 mentors about putting the compressor on the robot where one states, "When we are on Einstein, put the robot on the field and then have to wait for a Dean speech we are going to want the compressor on the robot". All of these seemingly small things add up to preparing us for the Championship.
So what's my point here? Don't be afraid to dream big and therefore plan big. I am always amazed at what my team is capable of and don't think anyone should discount their team's abilities to achieve big goals. What happens if you don't achieve your goal? Not much, it’s just a robot competition. However, it does allow you to evaluate why you missed it and change what you do the next season.
"Never expect it, always prepare for it".
-Eric