Advice for Rookie You?

[jakeyoung22]

Hard work pays off. It's really that simple.

[Brian Michell]

Don't put electronics in a cramped, hard to access box... Looking at you 2015 bot...

High School goes by fast, take advantage of every opportunity you're given even if it pushes your comfort zone.

With Chief Delphi comes great responsibility. (Don't go onto CD before you're done with all your other work or an hour before you need to go to sleep.)

[Gregor]

Two previous posts I've made are relevant here.

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...78#post1212678

Originally Posted by Gregor

This and this again. I found this out last year, being the rules person can help every single subsystem on the robot. Between reading the Manual, Q&A, Team Updates, the Blog, and Chief Delphi, you can be one of the most valuable members of any team.

I made that post with only 1 build season under my belt. If you're new and 'don't know anything,' do that^

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...35#post1517635

Originally Posted by Gregor

This thread really helped me remember where to focus my efforts in my later years of high school, as I definitely did not balance FRC and schoolwork well enough.

2015 was my last game as a student, and I'm currently in first year university.

This post is mostly targeted to university bound students, but there's some useful information for anyone.

You will see your grades decrease during build season. Don't let them crash too hard, and work extra hard before and after season to compensate. I'm the kind of person who has to be at every meeting or I'll feel like I'm missing out and not contributing. If you're that kind of person too, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave yourself sometime before, during, or after meetings to study. I had an hour commute each way by public transit to 1310, so I took advantage of that time. Don't be afraid to excuse yourself for an hour or two during meetings to go sit in an empty classroom.

Talk with your teachers, ask if they can give you some leniency on deadlines. I've found that once I explained my time commitment to robotics, my teachers were very understanding and let my hand in assignments late without penalty. Don't take advantage of this, but use it if you really have to. Do make sure you talk to them in advance, before anything is due. Don't show up to class the day a big project is due and say that you couldn't finish because you were at robotics. You will see your grades decrease during build season. Don't let them crash too hard, and work extra hard before and after season to compensate.

You do not have to go to meetings every day. I did and I probably shouldn't have. My team didn't meet on Sundays, I have no idea how people can attend meetings 7 days a week. If I had attended meetings on Sunday's too I can confidently say I wouldn't have gotten into the university I did.

FRC is not worth giving up your grades. If you're planning on attending university this message is especially important. FRC definitely provides you valuable skills over others, after one semester in engineering I've already noticed this, but you also have to get there. Don't trick yourself into "FRC is the best learning you'll ever do" mindset because it's not true. FRC is incredible and one of the most important aspects of my life, but your formal education is more important. Don't hurt yourself in the future.

You will see your grades decrease during build season. Don't let them crash too hard, and work extra hard before and after season to compensate.

This thread has good examples of things to try and avoid.

Read through that entire second second thread and you'll survive FRC.

[Chris is me]

There's a difference between listening and waiting to speak.

Nothing you are doing is more important than having a good time and making each experience a positive one for yourself, your students, and your team. Robots happens, just try to grow from it each year.

[Chief Hedgehog]

Volunteer earlier. You get a much greater experience to give back to your team.

[FrisbeeFunTime]

Be as involved as you can and don't be shy. If you take initiative you will have a lot more fun.

[EDesbiens]

Don't be affraid of trying new things... Even if people say you are crazy, even if you get insulted, even if it involves a lot of time and money, try it. You can't know if it'll work or not if you didn't try it yet.

[HelloRobot]

Okay, I have 2 thoughts on this:

As someone who participated in FRC for all 4 years of high school:
-Don't feel discouraged if you feel like you're not being included, especially during your first 1-2 years on the team. It's perfectly normal. With hard work and a positive attitude, you will be noticed and included.
-Go to stuff - meetings, outreach events, fund-raisers, build sessions, any team activity! You'll get to know your teammates better, and it's a great way to get more involved and stand out.
-I'm pretty sure this is a given, but always show respect for adults and leaders on your team. Follow their rules, listen to them when they are talking, and just be a good citizen.
-To get involved, become someone's (who is more experienced than you) "shadow." Start by asking if they can teach you how to [whatever they're working on]. Then, hang around. You may make a friend, gain experience, and be their replacement on the team after they graduate.
-Robotics is about what YOU make of it. Robotics can be the best thing you do for yourself.
-Sometimes, you will have to work without your besties, and that is okay.
-Put yourself "out there" and try new things. Does your team lack someone with CAD skills? Learn it! Does your team need some help fund-raising? Take initiative and help them out!
-Apply for FRC scholarships!
-Last but not least, SCHOOL COMES FIRST. Don't let your GPA slip because of Build Season. Plus, it may make robotics look bad to a teacher if suddenly all the robotics people let their grades fall in a certain class (true story). If you're highly involved in robotics, remember to balance robotics time with study time. I would also advise against taking the ACT or SAT during busy robotics times.

From a leadership perspective:
-Again, be present and be involved in team activities, especially if you are on a small team. Even if you're not at the center of the action, this shows your commitment and dedication to the team, which is looked upon positively in the eyes of a leader.
-Be your own person. Don't just be there because your friend or "bae" is. You both should be able to work independently and be productive.
-Once again, put yourself out there! It can be disheartening for a captain to see a lack of participation. It relieves some of our stress to know that others want to help us.

Robotics is wonderful, and I hope you enjoy your first year! Enjoy yourself, and the experience will be rewarding.

[Lady-of-Fandoms]

If you just keep showing up, you'll be rewarded. I logged more hours during Build Season than I spent doing anything else (including sleeping) and I got rewarded with an officer position and a Mentor's Favorite Rookie Award. People like dedication, so even if you don't think there's anything to do, show up!

[Skyehawk]

This may not be the most inspirational. It's sad to admit it took me way too long pick up on some of this stuff.

Too many chiefs, not enough Indians.

...know when your beat

There is a difference between simple and familiar

[Libby K]

Old thread, but good advice.

For me, I think the TL;DR is two things.

1. Shush up & listen. You don't know everything, and you really don't know anything. Everyone else around you has been doing this for at LEAST another year longer than you have. They have good advice. Listen up!

2. Don't 'hate on' a team that's better than you. Observe, ask questions, and try to get on that level. There's no reason for the negativity. (I was SUPER guilty of this as a young person).

[dradel]

Get a few parents on the team to help set up a calendar for all the available scholarships in relation to the year/s students can apply for them, and when the cut offs are.

Give those said parents mentor titles even though they aren't at all the meetings, and or at the shop every day during build.

With all the $$$ available to students it is imperative that there is a department to help organize it all.

[Munchskull]

1) You are going to loose way more than you are going to win and you need to find peace with that, but not complacency. Every time you loose you learn a thousand things you couldo have done better but when you when you learn one thing that goes right.

2) You have more friends than you know by just being in the FRC program. To paraphrase Kevin Ross from FIRST Washington
"of all the people in FRC I am going to like 97% of you, sure 3% of you I might not be able to stand but if I am looking to weed out that 3% then I am going to miss an entire ocean of great people." He said something along those lines at the OSU district back in 2014 and those words have followed me for for years.

[KosmicKhaos]

This is a quote from Doc Rivers after loosing that Simbotics tweeted out some time over a year ago.

"I told them I was a player for 13 years, and I had my heart broken for 13 straight years. I told them every night I prayed, every single night my only goal was to win a world championship.Every year I'd give my heart completely to the team, and every year it got completely broken. I told them it was worth it. I told them it's so worth it to buy in and give yourself to a team, and this is part of sports, only one winner. If we didn't win this round or the next, it wouldn't have mattered.But it's worth giving yourself to the team. It's worth getting your heart broken and taking all the criticism. It should excite you. It does to me. I told them that. I'm broken up right now, but in my mind, I'm already thinking about next year. You just have to get back on. That's going to be us, and that's what we're going to do."

tl;dr: Pour your heart into it and don't be afraid to loose; yhere's always next year.

[ThaddeusMaximus]

Rookie team lead student here.

That giant electronics box is a bad idea.

Bite off a little more. But not everything; keep that design simple.

No mecanums. No fancy drivetrains.

Do actual strategic analysis and weighted tables.

Worm gears, set screws, lead screws, and keyways are your enemies and need to be avoided or mitigated; their ways must be learned.

Don't do familiar things. This is a learning experience, and oftentimes the familiar thing is actually much harder than the right thing.
- Adopt CAD earlier
- Adopt encoders earlier, ditch pots
- Adopt pneumatics earlier

Go over your mentors when applicable. They have some wild**** half-baked ideas. You put in quite a few out-of-place hours, but should have been more serious about that.

Push for weight savings and do some self study on structural engineering.

You'll find this out, but you're an ME who loves code/wiring. You really should be focusing on the mechanical side of things; you have controls on more lock than you put in time for.

Indirectly related to FRC: start taking community college courses ASAP, the credit transfer is wonderful and you wouldn't have had to take Physics/Chem/Calc 3/DiffEq at college. It takes as much time as being homeschooled currently does- you'll have 50% of your time devoted to FRC still.