Quote:
Originally Posted by JB987
"None of the teams are going to say "Today, we take this specific friday off - the team will not meet on friday during week 5 out of 7." That's scary."
Actually Evan, our team did exactly this...after a rough 2010 build season when we tried to do the impossible (lift 2 robots along with our bot) and finally figured out that the points weren't worth the effort, so we decided to take off all Fridays since that season and we also banished all-nighters, rarely working until midnight these last 3 seasons. We scaled back and set smarter work schedules, work fewer and shorter days and as our record attests, it hasn't seemed to hurt our end product.  A bag free season could allow us to spread out the work days even better and IMO further reduce the burn out potential while still maintaining a top notch program/robot. As stated in an earlier post, it just takes discipline. |
+1 to this! We take off every Sunday to give our students and mentors a day of rest. Wouldn't trade it for the world.
I totally get that teams that currently iterate within the 30lb withholding allowance/practice robot would be less "burned out" if they only had to iterate/build one robot. 1678 is a perfect example, they started out with a completely different robot then when they finished. After Madera, they designed a new shooter inspired by 973's incredible design, and slapped that on with the 30 lbs at Davis. Then, between Davis and Champs, they built a more effective intake based on 254's effective pickup system.
Team's like these don't stop working, and it seems like the bag becomes more of a formality then anything else.
I like the idea of having more time to help other teams too, especially rookies. A few extra weekends with the robot could mean more opportunities for effective outreach.
Question: Would teams build a practice bot if there was no bag and tag?
Great discussion for sure, it's hard to image FRC without the 6.5 week "build season", but I'm trying to keep an open mind!
-Mike