Olympics X Robotics

[Lobão]

Hi everyone,

As you know, we are approaching the Olympics this year. Many sport lovers are going to focus their attentions to Rio de Janeiro - Brazil for a few weeks.
I´ve decided to open this discussion, because not only the Olympics are going to take place in my country, but also because I think we always can learn from different things.
Dean Kamen always say that we are playing the sport of the mind, or the superbowl of the smart.

Let´s start it

What do you think a robotics team can learn from an athlete/team that competes on high-level competitions such as the Olympics?

You can discuss in terms of teamwork, performance, commitment, training, leadership, strategy, management, pressure, and any other related topic you want to.
In addition, if you have any experience (good or not) applying any of this knowledge coming from sports, it will be a pleasure to hear from you.

hope you like the thread

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Lobão

Hi everyone,

As you know, we are approaching the Olympics this year. Many sport lovers are going to focus their attentions to Rio de Janeiro - Brazil for a few weeks.
I´ve decided to open this discussion, because not only the Olympics are going to take place in my country, but also because I think we always can learn from different things.
Dean Kamen always say that we are playing the sport of the mind, or the superbowl of the smart.

Let´s start it

What do you think a robotics team can learn from an athlete/team that competes on high-level competitions such as the Olympics?

You can discuss in terms of teamwork, performance, commitment, training, leadership, strategy, management, pressure, and any other related topic you want to.
In addition, if you have any experience (good or not) applying any of this knowledge coming from sports, it will be a pleasure to hear from you.

hope you like the thread

Love this thread. I believe there was a similar one a while back.

Nothing compares to the pressure of a whole nation counting on you and seeing you succeed or fail. We constantly see athletes pick each other up while competing against one-another. Gracious Professionalism is nothing compared to the many examples of opponents lifting each other up in the heat of competition.

*Waits for Karthik to chime in*

[Sperkowsky]

Being I am a competitive gymnast the Olympics is a big deal in our community. I have had many many conversations with Olympians. Even my full time coach is one.

The big thing a lot of people took from it was pride in their country. However, every single person likes the same thing the most. And that was the Olympic village.

I don't really know how we can relate these feelings to a robotics competition but I think it's an interesting discussion.

First world's is the Olympics
Surrounding Hotels Olympic village.

[Alan Anderson]

Practice. Evaluation, feedback, and continuous improvement. And practice.

[Kevin Leonard]

The biggest thing IMO that translates from sports to robotics and back is work ethic. The best athletes and robotics teams in the world are working almost every single day at improving their craft, both in-season and out.

This also carries over to everything else in life.

[smitikshah]

In my opinion inspiration has a lot in common in both fields. (In this context I mean FIRST in lieu of robotics). In the Olympics a lot of top athletes compete which inspires the next generation of kids coming up to do similar stuff, and inspires them to work hard, giving them a goal to reach. In robotics, when you see Einstein winning and HOF teams, I am completely inspired to work hard and be like them one day.

[Lobão]

I think we have some main points we can learn from them

1 is expectations and pressure, the expectations from the other and from yourself about your performance. High-level athletes must control their anxiety in order to be successful.

2 Teamwork. Even in individual sports, you have a whole team behind you, other athletes, your coach, the sponsors, and you must learn how to work with them and interact with then
Of course, in team sports it goes far beyond, you also need to give up your vanity for the good of the group.

3 Respect as the main rule of the competition itself

4 practice and continuous improvement is a very important point to follow, because if you stay in you comfort zone, you will never experience the real feeling of achievement.

Those are some points I can see as main points to learn. Some of you have contact with Olympic athletes, and that is awesome, try to learn as much as you can from someone like this and pass this knowledge ahead. Personally, I never met an Olympic athlete, but that would be something very rewarding.

[Lobão]

I forgot something very important and that I saw a lot in FRC every year

The passion on what you are doing.

That´s probably the most important thing to learn, apply and enjoy.

[MattC9]

I believe that people that compete in robotics at a high level and world class athletes share similar traits. Some of these traits include, but are not limited to; a strong work ethic, respect for others, and a willingness to learn and teach. Athletes and robotics participants both have to work extremely hard day in and day out if they want to perform at a high level and meet their goal. This requires an extremely strong work ethic and determination. Respect for Others is another quality both groups of people share. In order to compete with others that have the same work ethic and ideals you must be able to respect them and realize that competing with them is only making you a better person. A willingness to learn and teach is extremely important to each group. An athlete will learn from a set of coaches and their peers to try and make them better down the road. A student will learn from many mentors and their peers, then pass along the skills they were able to learn. Both groups of people ultimately want what's best for their sport.

As a competitive swimmer I want to pass along my love for the sport of swimming. As a FIRST Alumni I want to pass along the message of FIRST and help kids get the same experience that I did because someone gave up their time to mentor me.