FIRST FCC: A Sport or Not?

[Graham Donaldson]

Ok, so here's the background info on this poll. Today in Geometry, we somehow got onto a discussion about what was a sport and what wasn't. My teacher flat-out refused to recognize what we do in FIRST as being even remotely a sport, even when I pointed out all the work we did (staying at school till like 7, 8, or even nine every day, plus some Saturdays, and then going to regionals and all the work there). Half of my beef is that things like band have varsity jackets at our sister school, and FIRST can't even be recognized as a sport? Sure, so we're not sprinting as fast as we can or tackling people (track and football), but we're running a marathon for work to meet a deadline. I'd love to see the football team at my school try and do what we do. On Dictionary.com, this is the definition of "sport":

1. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
2. A particular form of above activity.
3. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
4. An active pastime; recreation.

In my opinion, this validates FIRST as a sport. Physical activity by the team is involved, and there is also extreme mental activity. You also have to be skilled (driving, programming, building, etc...)


So, in conclusion, this is just a random poll to see what people think of the committment required when you're in FIRST.

P.S.- the sport & varsity jacket option is there because I've heard of schools that have jackets for FIRST, and there was a proposal by the team to get them at our school. (Edit: varsity jackets or some other thing recognized by the school, eg. calling it a team not a club.)

[s_forbes]

I think the FIRST competition falls more along the lines of a competition rather than a sport. My only reason for this is that the FIRST game changes every year, but most "sports" have a set of rules that stay more or less the same forever.

In my opinion, FIRST is better than a sport.

[Greg Marra]

I want a "Not a sport, design your own jackets" category. While FIRST is certainly a competition, I am not sure it falls under the category of "sport". Is Math Team or Model UN considered a 'sport'?

Why do you really want a varsity jacket anyway? They're not nearly as warm as team hoodies

[Michelle Celio]

To me, a sport is an activity that requires allot of physical activity, and that can be done in a P.E class (excluding any sports like swimming, that can't really be done in a class).

Originally Posted by Google, Define:Sport

an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition

Yes, FIRST is a competition. Yes FIRST has physical exertion, but it's not the same. You don't really build muscle like you do in "normal" sports. If anything, FIRST is a sport for the mind.

[Bill_Hancoc]

I dont think FIRST is a sport by defination. My defination of a sport is something that is played...sorry playing a musical instrument doesnt count. neither is Track...you dont PLAY track. These things that you dont play may be worthy of a letter such as track or band or FIRST all of which i think desearve a letter...(but not really the band at my school but thats regardless)...but I dont think it is a sport by my defination. But still worthy of a letter.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by Fruity Pebbles

You don't really build muscle like you do in "normal" sports.

I don't know, on our team, we build a little muscle. Hacksaws are our cutting tool of choice, even though we use newbies for a lot of our manual labor, such as the hacksawing, (gotta learn tool safety/use somehow) veteren members still do a good bit. We also tend to use hammers in our robot contruction quite a bit... Accidents also give a good chance to build muscle, for example, this year we forgot that we would have to reopen a gearbox to grease it the next day, so we put high-strength Loctite on the screws holding it together... we had to get a team member who is a 6'7" black belt to open them.

[Michelle Celio]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

I don't know, on our team, we build a little muscle. Hacksaws are our cutting tool of choice, even though we use newbies for a lot of our manual labor, such as the hacksawing, (gotta learn tool safety/use somehow) veteren members still do a good bit. We also tend to use hammers in our robot contruction quite a bit... Accidents also give a good chance to build muscle, for example, this year we forgot that we would have to reopen a gearbox to grease it the next day, so we put high-strength Loctite on the screws holding it together... we had to get a team member who is a 6'7" black belt to open them.

Well you do build some muscle, but I really meant like getting 90% of your mussels moving, and actually getting your whole body into shape. No offence to anyone, but Robot Building isn't going achieve that, no matter how hard you try.

[Graham Donaldson]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

this year we forgot that we would have to reopen a gearbox to grease it the next day, so we put high-strength Loctite on the screws holding it together... we had to get a team member who is a 6'7" black belt to open them.

Yah, I'm not on Mechanical, but as far as I know, that's generally NOT a good idea lol.

[ChuckDickerson]

FIRST robotics competitions are, without question, a sport. Look up the definition of sport in any dictionary and it will read something like this:

"A sport consists of a physical and mentally competitive activity carried out with a recreational purpose for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. A sport has physical activity, side by side competition, self-motivation and a scoring system. The difference of purpose is what characterises sport, combined with the notion of individual (or team) skill or prowess."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport (click and read on for more info on what a sport is and the history of sports if you are so inclined)

After all, if fishing is a sport then FIRST competitions are most definitely a sport. However, FIRST as a whole is much more than a sport because the competitions are only part of FIRST. The real question is how do you define a World changing, one of a kind, life altering experience like FIRST with only one word?

[EricH]

Uh, guys, could you do a little searching? This came up about three months ago. I'm not sure what other threads there are on this topic, but the one referenced has definitions and a poll.

[JaneYoung]

2 thoughts:

1. a FIRST robotics team working with a Special Olympics team - I'd consider that sports.

2. One of our team leaders commented on the very first pep rally send off for the team before the bus left for Atlanta this year. He called it a win for academics.

[Dan Petrovic]

Some look at sports as physically demanding.

Sailing is a sport. How physically demanding is that? It takes a few pulling of ropes that aren't 130 pounds.

I'd say FIRST somewhat physically demanding. Some team members need to be able to lift that robot, tighten screws, do all sorts of stuff like that. There may not be as much of it as football or other traditional sports.

It's an leisurely activitiy. It can get you scholarships. It has a better chance of getting you a job than other sports. I'd say it's more than a sport.

There are are a few things that separate it from being a sport. You can get a group of kids from your neighborhood together to play basketball, but you can't do that so easily with FIRST and the game changes in FIRST every year.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

You should have added another category "FIRST is not a sport, but you should still get varsity jackets anyways."

I don't think FIRST is a sport because it doesn't require physical exertion (thats a good thing). True, FIRST involves teamwork, but not all sports involve teamwork.

I think for all the effort that goes into building a robot your school should definitely reward you. Whether that be with varsity jackets or college credits.

[Mike]

If FIRST is a sport, it shouldn't be classified as such because you need muscle to tighten screws. I work harder for an hour in the gym than I do six weeks in FIRST (although I am a programmer.) Nonetheless, if you aren't physically hurting the next day I wouldn't call it demanding...

The more I think about it, the less of a sport FIRST is. Would you call your chess club a sport? Is debate team a sport? As someone else mentioned, Model UN? However, I don't think not being a sport is necessarily a bad thing. Sport is just a classification, what we do in FIRST is so much more. We innovate, we spend hours, days, weeks trying to figure out how to most efficiently throw a foam ball through a hoop. You don't do anything relatively close to FIRST in any other sport, game or club. FIRST is very unique and that is something to be proud of.

As far as jackets go, if band gets one you should get one. If only sports get them... you're out of luck. I'd rather have a custom designed team jacket anyways.

[dubious elise]

FIRST is not a 'sport', per say, but because of the vast amounts of time and effort that most students put into their team, I do believe that it is worthy of a varsity letter.

I know that for varsity tennis, I would put in at least 6 hours per day of court time and/or training every day for months before the season began, but during the actual season, practice was barely 90 minutes, if we even had it. I worked my butt off for years (lets just say I began young) to earn those varsity letters, but still, the in-season time pales in comparison to the hours that I logged for robotics. Out of season time is a horse of a different color.

The same applies to a number of other groups at my school - most notably band. Trying to compare sheer physical output to extended committment and achievement is like comparing Apples to... well, you get the picture