Thoughts from an Outsider

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Tstone

I am definately going to talk with the coaches about my thoughts and see if we can be part of a solution.

T -
I think what you did here in CD is a great approach to a discussion with your coaches/team leaders.
Create a written list with bullets highlighting each of your thoughts.
Also, have your questions included with possible approaches/solutions. Use this thread as a resource.

Also, for you, if you haven't already, spend some time in the different areas of CD, exploring past threads, current threads, spotlights. The spotlights are cool because they will lead you to threads filled with information, suggestions, humor. (Humor is always good. )

Thank you for joining the community and sharing your thoughts,
Jane

[Protronie]

I too am an outsider to FIRST... my interest in it came from a business associate that was with a team. Listening to him talk of this fantastic group of kids and hearing him say more than once, "You wouldn't believe what these kids can do in six weeks." So I sat in on a webcast and was totally confused. Thanks to my friend breaking it down for me I finally got a grasp of what was going on and how it works. The good people here on CD have also educated me much.
Thats was over two years ago... I'm totally hooked and still amazed at the work, the ingenuity, and the professionalism these young people display.
This past Saturday I just happen to be around Clemson,SC and made the time to catch a regional in person... at least the semi-finals onto the finals.
It is addictive A FIRST book for dummy's would have been very nice.
As I've stated in another post... totally amazed at the welcome I received from the teams who pits I dropped by for a look and a question or three.
With so violence and rudeness at many other sporting events the FRC regional was almost a shock. No one seemed to mind an non-engineer poking around asking questions, everyone took the time make me feel welcome and a part of FIRST. And yes... I was even included in the dancing
I'm only sorry I couldn't have been there for the whole event.
See ya'll next year Palmetto !

[rbrown1]

Welcome to CD. I have to agree with all your comments. I have a son on the team and mentored for 3 years now. When in the stands I found myself discussing the rules to several spectators both in Kansas City and Milwaukee. KC did have programs to hand out, they were on a shelf near the front doors, but if you did not know it you would have missed it.
As for being hooked on such a great event, congratulations. My son is graduating this year and will be off to college but I will still be helping the kids and my wife knows not to schedule anything during the build time. This includes Valentines Day which in our calendar is Feb 21st.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by rbrown1

My son is graduating this year and will be off to college but I will still be helping the kids and my wife knows not to schedule anything during the build time. This includes Valentines Day which in our calendar is Feb 21st.

Yeah, my youngest son will graduate HS this year, but I'll continue to mentor for sometime to come.

So, you schedule the post-ship "fix-it" window around your belated Valentine's Day?

[Kimberly]

One thing I think should be explained is that the performance of an individual team is NOT part of the ranking system. It took me the entire rookie competition to figure this out. I assumed it was like other sports where seeding was done by individual performance.

Unless I didn't understand something correctly, I came to the conclusion the best robot at the competiton cannot be determined by which is highest ranked. The highest ranked team might be the best, or they might have just been fortunate enough to frequently be paired with alliance partners who were even better than they were. That would have to be confusing to any spectators used to other sports.

I also finally understood why teams spend so much time and energy on scouting, since that's the only way to be certain about the performance of an individual team. As best as I could tell, the better teams keep all the individual stats on other teams so they can figure out where teams would be seeded IF the seeding were based on individual performance.

One thing I never was quite clear on was why individual stats aren't kept - unless it's to de-emphasize the competition aspect and focus on working as an alliance. But then I had trouble understanding why awards are given to the high finishers, if it's not about competiton - except for the fact that the human brain actually likes competiton/ranking and it would hurt a sport to remove that aspect of it.

Please let me know if I didn't understand this aspect of the regionals. I'm also curious how it came about that individual team performance is not measured, yet recognition goes to the highest finishers. I've been asked for an explaination for this by some of our spectators and I simply don't have one.