Team attitude

[548swimmer]

Each competitive team that I have had the privilege of participating on had a certain "no-nonsense" attitude. From what I observed at Championships, the "competitive" teams (1114, 469 to name a few) have that same attitude. I saw these teams and several others of the same caliber stay after the GM ice cream social to just run on the practice field so their drivers got as much "wheel time" as possible.

Sure, competitions are fun, but we had almost half of our team miss the last qualifying match on Friday to go see the arch. In the morning, I saw some teams with their entire team there right when the pits opened, regardless of when matches started. While some teams had everyone there, our drivers didn't show up until they had to so they could get as much sleep as possible after staying up late goofing around. How do you do it? How is it possible to keep so many kids serious about how the team does all three days?

Where does that competitive attitude come from, and why doesn't AndyMark have it in the KOP in the same tote as the chassis. After all, attitude is as important as the robot.

[Chris is me]

Teams that find success foster a culture of hard work and doing everything possible to succeed. It takes dedicated, hard working leadership to foster this culture.

[BrendanB]

Those teams turn it into another subsystem that is the backbone of their team. Next year I hope we can allocate the weight to push our students to such a level.

There is a difference between being competitive and striving for excellence which shouldn't be a bar set for our drive teams only.

[Bryan Herbst]

I would say that this is something you need to explore as a team.

I am perfectly fine with teams deciding that they will allow students to go sight-seeing. One of the most exciting aspects of traveling somewhere for a competition is getting to go somewhere new. I do agree that they could have found a better time to do so, but if that is what they decided to do, it is their decision.

If your team decides that it does not want students leaving championships, then you need to clearly communicate that and make it clear that students are expected to remain with the team at the venue for the duration of the event.

As for the attitude- it typically comes from the environment both at the competition and leading up to the competition. At the competition, make sure that they can find ways to stay engaged. Teams with great robots make for great incentives to get more motivated. Leading up to the competition, always strive to instill team spirit into each member.

[prettycolors91]

I strongly believe that personal investment is how you can get students to really care about what goes on at competition. When you pour your heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into your team (whether it be through programming, design, fabrication, documentation, PR, scouting....), you want to see it through to fruition.

By making sure that students are as involved as possible creates an incentive to participate later on. A robot that was fabricated FOR the students will have a different impact than a robot that was fabricated BY the students. Sure, the robot built/designed by mentors is really shiny and performs fantastically, but students might become disillusioned by the program and goof off instead of working at competitions. Not that there is anything wrong with shiny and effective machines (that is one of the points of this program, is it not?).

It's disheartening to see students that don't care, but I feel like it is a failing of the team structure (not necessarily yours, but in general). I feel successful as a mentor when I can accompany my students to a competition, step back, and watch them run the show. We are there to guide, offer firm "no's" when necessary, and make sure responsible decisions are made. Past that, it's THEIR robot and THEIR team. Watching their faces light up when they fix a problem, or drive it for the first time is the best feeling in the entire world.

I think this might be an issue that you want to take up personally with your team. I know its satisfying to post issues on here, but keep in mind that everybody can read what you post, including your team mates and mentors.

[GaryVoshol]

Alec, about 2 years ago I commented to one of your mentors, "548, the best team no one has ever heard of." Well, this year they've heard of you. The rollercoaster of up-down-up at MSC, being mentioned by "Looking Forward" and being selected on an alliance in St Louis. 548 is arriving - not there yet, but arriving - at the top tier.

Attitude can be encouraged, but not enforced. Some of it is inherent in the people that come to the team - look at the work ethic of 51's backup driver as reported by Chris Hibner. Look at JVN's blogs.

As others have said, there can be time and place for fun and sightseeing. Not everyone has to be "on" 100% of the time. Your team has to decide who, what and when the "on" times are, and allow for some "off" times to decompress.

One thing that you might look to in your team organization is how tasks are assigned. Even in a huge team, everyone must have some unique responsibility. Don't assign these 6 kids to do X, because then 2 of them will do it while the other 4 goof off. Instead, break up X into x1, x2, x3, x4, x5 and x6, and assign the tasks individually. When everyone has some personal ownership in the outcomes it could improve overall attitudes.

[Alan Anderson]

The TechnoKats team wranglers (i.e. teachers) made it a priority this year for the entire team to be a cohesive group. We could have sent just the pit crew early and had the rest of the students follow later, but it was considered important for everyone to be a member of "the" team.

[aldowyn]

Almost half your team was gone during one of the qualifiers, and you were doing well enough to get into the elimination rounds? Huh, that's just odd to me.

With our team, at both our regionals our entire team (all 18- of us) was involved the entire time, whether it was on the drive team, watching over the pit, or just cheering in the stands. Of course, we were a heck of a lot more excited in the elimination rounds and award ceremonies in Dallas (We exploded when we won one of the matches in the semifinals against the first-seeded alliance, who ridiculously outclassed us, and after we won the All-Star award one of the volunteers had to tell us to slow down heading down to the arena if we won anything else)

At the championship, though, there was quite a bit more non-team related stuff going on. I mean, there was so much stuff in the pits! There's also the part where we had accepted a LONG time ago that we didn't have a chance at St. Louis.

In general, like someone above said, if the students invest themselves in the robot, they will want to continue to do so, no matter in how small a way or how well it's doing.

[torihoelscher]

Originally Posted by 548swimmer

Each competitive team that I have had the privilege of participating on had a certain "no-nonsense" attitude. From what I observed at Championships, the "competitive" teams (1114, 469 to name a few) have that same attitude. I saw these teams and several others of the same caliber stay after the GM ice cream social to just run on the practice field so their drivers got as much "wheel time" as possible.

Sure, competitions are fun, but we had almost half of our team miss the last qualifying match on Friday to go see the arch. In the morning, I saw some teams with their entire team there right when the pits opened, regardless of when matches started. While some teams had everyone there, our drivers didn't show up until they had to so they could get as much sleep as possible after staying up late goofing around. How do you do it? How is it possible to keep so many kids serious about how the team does all three days?

Where does that competitive attitude come from, and why doesn't AndyMark have it in the KOP in the same tote as the chassis. After all, attitude is as important as the robot.

sometimes team members get so serious that they dont have fun. lol But then they have fun in the end. Ive seen it during the competition not on my team as much but others.

[Macdaddy549]

My take on this is that you need many parents or mentors to keep the students engaged. The more team members you have the more adults you need to keep everyone busy.

[MaxMax161]

I'm only a student, and heavily involved in everything 1676, so my perspective if from someone right in there and might be lacking a 3rd party aspect. I personally feel that when students put hard work in to something every time the get to see it on the field working is a moment of pure joy. For example I had a large part in programming autonomous code and it failed and failed again during our first two regionals but when it worked almost every time in STL I was elated! every single time. As well as having an investment in the robot, one of our mentors, Mr. Giraurd, had an amazing impact on me and get me even more motivated and passionate about the program then I already was. I think that a combination of amazing mentors and hard work on the students part is what really inspires students to be passionate about a team and a robot.

While I'm thinking of this I (not for the first time) noticed that almost all my friends and the people I talk to are on the robotics team. Since for 6 weeks and more I spend nearly every waking hour (after school to 9-10 every day, and more over break) with these people I don't know anyone or anything else. I think that when a team reaches that level of, healthy obsession lets call it, they will never miss a match and that no nonsense attitude will came naturally.

That said we have somewhere between 70-90 kids on our team and only 30-50 MAX get to the point where they have that, professional, time for business, attitude.

[LightWaves1636]

3320 used to be like that in their rookie year until we had a major culture change happen to the team.

We work hard year round and build up this culture where every student is expected to show up and simply work.

It all comes down to culture and that competition mentality is built during the build season and off-season.

[GW Kalrod]

Despite the nature of competition, I feel like many people on teams that don't win gain just as much from the program as those that do. Especially as a social experience.

[pathew100]

Originally Posted by GW Kalrod

Despite the nature of competition, I feel like many people on teams that don't win gain just as much from the program as those that do. Especially as a social experience.

I agree. Winning is fun though and teams should play to win the game. "Compete like crazy" as Woody is fond of saying. Every year the level of competition gets better. More teams innovate and the bar keeps getting raised.

But as Dean said at the kickoff a number of years ago, "It doesn't mean a $@#$@#$@#$@# thing if your robot wins or loses".

Down the road for FIRST participants no employer/college is going to say, "Oh that's great that you were in FIRST and learned about science and technology. But did your robot win? No? I'm sorry, we're not interested..."

[548swimmer]

Originally Posted by pathew100

Down the road for FIRST participants no employer/college is going to say, "Oh that's great that you were in FIRST and learned about science and technology. But did your robot win? No? I'm sorry, we're not interested..."

To be clear, no where in the original post did I mention winning or losing, merely a lack of interest in the competition.