The 6 Week Build Season and 'Mentor Burnout'

[Mr. Van]

Jim brings up some valid points. Obviously teams that are not successful are not inspired to continue, but I don't believe that extending the build season will help these teams to the extent hoped. The reasons a team is not able to build a functioning robot (a drivable base with some articulated hooks on it, for example) are many and varied, but I would argue that a build season that is too short is not one of them.

One of the major reasons is that teams perpetually "bite off more than they can chew". Another is that they refuse to use items like the kit-bot chassis, or they may simply not have the technical skills necessary to build a working robot at all. These problems will happen if the season is opened-ended or if there is a time limit, unless the teams have better mentorship.

As Jim notes, real improvements occur when teams get on an official game field, play against other teams and gain the experience of driving a robot in a competition. It is a real shame of our system is that half of the teams are "one-timers". At least we agree on that! It seems that the district system will help in that basic registration includes two events, but overall, this is a major problem.

To me, however, the solution to improving robot (and therefore team) performance is to improve mentorship and provide more opportunity to actually play the game. This does not require a longer build season.

I doubt that the CD community will be able to come to any sort of consensus on this issue, but I'm glad that we've brought this question up for debate.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox