Advice for Rookie You?

[frcguy]

Although I am still technically a rookie, I'll answer anyways. My answers are more geared towards advice for new rookies, but I hope not just rookies can learn from some of the things I experienced. Here goes it!

Hard work and long nights pay off.
-After weeks and weeks of long nights, delays, and problems, you might start asking why you are even still involved. Just keep doing the best work you can. When you see the robot that you poured 6+ weeks of your life in to at your event, on the field, it is one of the best feelings in FIRST!

Try your best, no matter what.
-While times may be tough, especially your rookie season, stay strong and try your best. The knowledge and experience you will gain from FRC is worth it.

"Powerhouse" teams are some of the kindest and gracious people you will ever meet.
-While they may seem scary with their large looming pits and many students and mentors, don't be frightened! Much of what I know is gathered from conversations with members of 254, 1678, 971, etc. Don't be afraid to reach out to these people and talk to them at competitions. I guarantee that you will learn something new.

Don't be afraid to meet new people and build relationships.
-Similar to the above, always meet new people and talk with them. You will gain so much knowledge and wisdom from other people. Just from talking with people, I now can contact some of the most esteemed minds in FRC when I need help or have questions.

Take advantage of any opportunities you are given.
-Always take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you. For example, I got to experience so much and learn so many things my rookie year from taking advantage of opportunities like visiting other team's shops, going to Champs, and just talking to people at events.

Clean up as you go, don't leave a huge mess at the end of a build session.
-Many times this build season we would leave tools out after finishing a task and put off cleaning up scraps, putting away tools, etc. This then left a major cleanup at the end of a session, which no one wants to do at 9:30pm after a long school day. Something we learned was to have an ongoing clean up. This allowed us to leave faster after sessions and everyone was in a better mood!

Get a printer and make mechanical drawings.
-As one of my colleagues said in another thread, without a printer our robot probably wouldn't have gotten finished. Using mechanical drawings allowed us to speed up fabrication of parts ten fold.

Help other teams!
-There is nothing better than helping to improve another team's bot! We sent a team of students and a technical mentor to 253 at SVR to work on their robot so they could play their last qualification match. The feeling when our fix to keep their battery in worked was like nothing else.