101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament

[Quatitos]

72. Safety glasses may be a nice forehead protector, but thats not what they are made for.

73. Make a list of safety rules and go over it with your team so everyone knows the proper safety procedures. Place list in pits where everyone can read it. Judges like the list(2 safety awards this year so far).

74. Make punishments for breaking the safety rules. Pushups work good.

75. Be careful when driving your robot cart over cables, it can learn how to fly(almost a very bad thing).

76. Stop very slowly when your robots wheels are the only thing touching the cart(almost another very bad thing).

[KenWittlief]

77. (KokoEd reminded me of another) your teams banner can never be

TOO BIG

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

77. (KokoEd reminded me of another) your teams banner can never be

TOO BIG

heh.

[StephLee]

78. If you're the coach, don't be afraid to do whatever you have to in order to get the driver's attention, especially if it's to avoid a penalty. Go on, it won't kill him to be hit on the head.

[Alex Cormier]

sorry i frogot one

79. Winning is an outcome

Now you can add all your reminders to one centralized list.

http://www.nrg948.org/portal/modules.php?name=101Things

I've already added all the ones up to this point.

[Amanda Aldridge]

Originally Posted by StephLee

78. If you're the coach, don't be afraid to do whatever you have to in order to get the driver's attention, especially if it's to avoid a penalty. Go on, it won't kill him to be hit on the head.

Only a very few people will really, really appreciate this, but:

"You need an open-handed slap to the side of the head."

or some variation of the same.

[Goobergunch]

But if you're the coach, don't touch the controls, whatever you do.

(And before you laugh, this actually happened to us at one match at Chesapeake. Disqualification isn't pretty.)

[kevin.li.rit]

79. Always coordinate strategy with your partners.

[Winged Wonder]

81. If you dont think you'll get enough sleep, better bring some Bawls!

82. Don't bother bringing a GameBoy or iPod.

83. Always keep track of your stuff (i.e. put your name on it), especially when you leave things in the stands, and especially if everyone on the team has something that looks exactly like yours (i.e team shirts).

[Billfred]

84. If people offer free hugs, take them up on it.

[Collin Fultz]

85. Volunteer...it will make you see a totally different side of FIRST.

86. Often time the best, most powerful teams are the ones who are most likely to help those in need.

[Chris Fultz]

87. If it can't be done in pneumatics, it really doesn't need to be done.

88. Designate a few team members to be 'team spokespeople' in the pit and then be sure they are always there to be spoken to.

89. To really embarrass your mentors, make a huge sign of their head and then take it to every regional possible and get it on the webcast.

90. Your opions and statements DO reflect on your team and its' reputation, regardless of what your disclaimer says.

[DarkJedi613]

91. If MOE (365) is at your competition...theres no need to bring tools or replacement parts.

92. Don't ever let the engineers change things when they have a "good idea".

93. Remember that screw heads have to be in the box while fitting your robot.

94. Bring hardware...even if you don't think you'll need it or didn't use it on the robot - bring all you can.

[dubious elise]

72. Safety glasses may be a nice forehead protector, but thats not what they are made for.

I beg to differ on that one...

just ask Ricky Q. how safety glasses saved his life up there!