What makes FRC a sport?

[logank013]

I personally don't consider robotics a sport. I do think that FRC is very borderline to a sport but most members on a team can not be considered athletes.

I have one problem that I can't see past when considering robotics a sport. When you look at this definition brought up in an earlier post, I totally agree with everything he said when breaking down the definition.

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition Defines Sport as:


Lets break it down piece by piece:
an individual or group activity I don't think anyone will argue this.
pursued for exercise or pleasure I don't know about your team, but our team has fun, and derives pleasure from seeing the robot compete.
often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game The basic structure of FIRST competitions is a competitive game. Further, it is a test of physical capabilities - of the robot, not the student.

It's a question of how you define the competitor in the activity. If your friend has any doubts that your robot is a fierce competitor that requires all the athleticism and endurance he thinks of in sports, first show him a video of a hard-hitting match. Then tell him he can stand in for one of the robots, and you'll have paramedics standing by to reattach his severed limbs when he's done

But there is something drastically missing when thinking like this. When I compare robotics to football, they are so super similar. Let me break it down. In Football, You have a set of rules that tend to change in some sort of way from year to year. Essentially, you have a team of coaches and general managers who are trying to figure out what they can do to their team to figure out how to play the game the best. They scout out players and see who they can pick up or see who they can draft to make their team great. Each player has some set of abilities that gets them noticed and that is how the general manager chooses who they want. Then, their team is pretty much set in stone and they can make little tweeks to their team throughout the season to try to get the perfect team for playoffs.

Now let's look at FRC. You see, we are like the coaches. We get the game manual or the set of rules that we have to follow and we have to break them down to see what abilities our robots need in order to make our robot great. Don't you see now that each little part of our robot is like a player in the game of football. Then, we have scouts. The scouts jobs are to look out for robots who have certain abilities that they need in order to make the alliance great. Each robot that is drafted is made up of several different little players. One robot may be the offense. The second robot may be the defense. The third robot may be the special robot or the special teams robot.

So now the real question comes down to this. Would you ever think that the general manager is playing the game of football? Of course not! He isn't on the field during those 60 minutes of regulation. Now of course, he does impact the team. So do the coaches. They impact the team which is why they are so important to the game of football. That is why they get payed a similar salary as football players. Do you understand what I'm saying? We are the coaches, managers, and scouts of a football team. Our robot is the team. As the general managers of our robot, we choose what we want our robot to do but once we design and build it (Just like actual football coaches and GMs do!), our team or our robot does all the work. The only "athletes" I'd consider in FRC are those on the drive team. They work with the robot and they have to have split second analysis's to make a decision. Those 3 or 4 student are the ones they deserve the title of a sport. Those 3 or 4 are the ones that should be getting the sport letter in high school. Should the coaches of our sports team get sport letters? No! that's why they don't. So if most of the robotics team are coaches and general managers, why should we expect to get sports letters?

My Final analysis is that FRC is built very much like a sport. Most of the arguments brought up about FRC being a sport is the fact that many team member want to be considered athletes. Are we athletes? Should we be getting the same letter on our jackets as Football players? I say no to both of those. I think that robotics has 3 or 4 athletes per team. Those 3 or 4 people are those who are the drive team. The rest of us in FRC are like the Coaches, General Managers, and Scouts of NFL teams. With that said, we are a structured club. Not to be considered athletes of a sport. We are super important to FRC but once our robots are deigned, our robots are the ones who actually play the sport. Our pit team is like the doctors and medical staff in the locker room. Our Scouting team is the set of scouts and GM who are trying to figure out who to draft to make our team better. Our Drive team members are a mixture of the Coaches, Coordinators, and football players who are the ones who make the tough calls and last second decisions when playing. That is my analysis of comparing robotics to football.

The real question that should be asked isn't "Is FRC a sport?". It should be "Do you consider yourself an athlete?" and I think anyone who isn't on the drive team isn't really an athlete when at a robotics event. Opinion's? Thanks

[bobjones227]

Originally Posted by logank013

The real question that should be asked isn't "Is FRC a sport?". It should be "Do you consider yourself an athlete?" and I think anyone who isn't on the drive team isn't really an athlete when at a robotics event. Opinion's? Thanks

As a pit scouter and match strategy person, I view FRC as being a sport. There's more to a sport than the players/athletes (Drive Team). People in the stands are often taking data on competing teams, I'm going to other teams and making a strategy for the upcoming matches, and the pit crew helps repair the robot. Everyone is part of the team. I know the definition may not specifically state something like FRC as a "sport", but it definitely requires a great deal of teamwork and dedication, much like any other sport.

I hope this didn't come off as overly aggressive.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by bobjones227

As a pit scouter and match strategy person, I view FRC as being a sport. There's more to a sport than the players/athletes (Drive Team). People in the stands are often taking data on competing teams, I'm going to other teams and making a strategy for the upcoming matches, and the pit crew helps repair the robot. Everyone is part of the team. I know the definition may not specifically state something like FRC as a "sport", but it definitely requires a great deal of teamwork and dedication, much like any other sport.

I hope this didn't come off as overly aggressive.

It wasn't aggressive. So do you consider yourself an athlete. I can accept if people call FRC a sport, but I won't consider anyone besides the drive team as athletes. And I'm in a similar situation to you as I'm basically the team's Head strategist.

[bobjones227]

Originally Posted by logank013

It wasn't aggressive. So do you consider yourself an athlete. I can accept if people call FRC a sport, but I won't consider anyone besides the drive team as athletes. And I'm in a similar situation to you as I'm basically the team's Head strategist.

I don't consider myself as an athlete in the physical way. Team members really aren't "athletes" if we're only regarding the physical side of sports. But many teams do put in the dedication that many athletes put into their own sport. I do agree that the drive team should definitely be thought of as athletes, as they do a great deal before and during competitions, especially when matches are close together. The other team members are what I consider the supporters of the team, as they provide many key roles, whether they cheer in the stands or repair the robot down in the pits. Even the people in the stands are taking data on all the matches that go on. But yes, I would not go as far as to call all people in FRC "athletes." I can see why some people would do to the competition of the games and teamwork required, but that's the only real qualifications that FRC has, unless I'm not seeing any more that are out there.