Want to Win, Don't Whine

[skimoose]

After detailing our team's recent experiences to several friends, they recommended that I share the story with the CD community. Hopefully, you'll find something useful here.

There seems to be a down turn in positive posts here on Delphi. These forums are about sharing enthusiasm, ideas, and working collaboratively to promote FIRST. The country as a whole is rather stressed and whiny due to the economy. What we're seeing on Delphi is merely an extension of that national mood. I've tried to stay out of those whiny threads if I didn't think that my input would improve anything.

Many have noted that this was one of the most challenging build seasons in quite a while, probably the most challenging I've experienced in my time in FIRST. I felt less "in control" this year, but I did my best to shield my students from the stress I was feeling. Hey, I'm still stressing. My budget is shot and now I need to come up with $15K+ in the next few weeks to cover my team getting to Championships. Just means it's time to buckle down and try harder. Whine. Not me, at least not now. I don't have time to whine.

The situation is also what you make of it. I'll agree that there seems to be a slight increase in the number of vocal whiners in FIRST and here on CD. Maybe it's also part of the national trend of entitlement. People think that just because they participate, they're entitled to a strong performance or winning. Winning takes a LOT of hard work, and not just during build season, even then a little luck always helps.

Even with the stress I'm under, this will be one of the most memorable seasons I'll ever have. After design problems, supply problems, sponsor problems, I thought we had turned out a pretty good robot. Then at our first regional we experienced a crippling bearing problem, I was just about ready to throw in the towel mid-afternoon on Friday, but we agreed to limp through the rest of Friday's qualification matches and tear into the problem. We ripped out all four swerve modules, pulled the bad bearings, came up with a shaft revision and had the machine shop modify our shafts.

Saturday morning we torn into rebuilding our machine which was in pieces in the pits. We were working like maniacs, but our spirits were now really high. One of our students had been announced as winning a $10k scholarship during opening ceremonies. Now THAT'S what this program is all about. Even though we worked furiously, we missed 3 more qualification matches, but we wouldn't let it get us down. We sent out a driver and human player to help our partners anyway we could. We made it out for our last qualification match with almost no system checks, and a very stressed out drive team. The robot worked, but the match didn't improve our standings. We were ranked 27 out of 29 teams.

A lot of less experienced teams might have cracked and the whining would have started, but we kept to our plan. People noticed, teams noticed, and judges must have noticed. The number one and two seeds were talking to us throughout the morning while we worked. They wanted to know if we'd get finished in time, we assured them we would. They must have liked what they saw and heard, because they selected us as their alliance partner (Thanks Teams 230 & 20!!!), and we didn't let them down. 6-0-0 in eliminations. Winners. Our first ever regional win in twelve years. Stress, oh yes, more than I'd like to go through again, but it paid off in the end.

Even through all these distractions our students followed our lead and kept upbeat, letting teams know why we weren't making our matches and keeping them posted as to our progress. They also simply rocked the judges with their contagious enthusiasm.

Winning was awesome, but the highlight of the day had to be when our team was selected as the regional Engineering Inspiration Award recipient. I know we've been slowly and quietly building a strong team, but I wasn't expecting this at least not this year!

Our team also had a student selected at the regional for the Dean's List Award. Another unforgettable moment, and another reason to get to Atlanta.

So I'm in full agreement with those of you who say we should lead by example. Here's our example, I hope this helps.

Now back to finding donors and sponsors.

Whine... I don't have time to whine!

[FRC4ME]

Wow...that is just incredible. As I was reading your post, after you mentioned your rank, I was expecting the rest of your post to be a, "but we had fun anyway, we learned a lot from the experience, and it isn't about the robots...etc," which is all great stuff...but being selected for eliminations, winning the regional, and winning EI? I think I may have cried after reading that. I guess happy endings don't come any better than that, now do they? You certainly couldn't have been more deserving. I'm definitely going to read this to my team.

Great job!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Well put, Art. For as long as I can remember, 228 has been a very good example of a FIRST team who really "gets it". Congrats on the wins at WPI and best of luck in Atlanta.

[GaryVoshol]

How do we get everyone on CD to read this post? It's one of the best essays on "don't let things get to you" that I've read.

[BrendanB]

Really worth the time to read! Thanks!

[techtiger1]

Mr. Dutra,

This post is also exactly what 1251 has done the last 2 years at the Florida regional. Both years our robot was not particularly good through qualifications however through constant work the whole regional on the robot we have managed a finalist and champion showing. To all the people in Florida who ask me how we do so well every year read the first post in this thread, that is how things are accomplished.

Thank you for posting,

-Drew D.

[gvarndell]

Originally Posted by skimoose

There seems to be a down turn in positive posts here on Delphi. These forums are about sharing enthusiasm, ideas, and working collaboratively to promote FIRST.

Here, here!
Whining about other people whining is nonetheless whining.
Whining about too many teams, too many teams failing, and why are there too many teams is nonetheless whining.

I feel reinvigorated. Thank you!

[JaneYoung]

There are some wonderful photos that accompany this story. I saw the photos before understanding their full significance. They were inspiring before and are truly inspiring now.

There's just something about GUS that makes you want to be better and try harder. This story is a big part of that something.

Jane

[Andy Baker]

Art,

Thanks for a great story. Thank you for sharing with the rest of us.

Sadly, it was one of our bearings (Fr6ZZ-hex) that put you in this position, and I am sorry for that.

See you in Atlanta!

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

[Wayne Doenges]

One of my favorite quotes is:

You want some cheese with that whine?

Great post.

[Michael Sperber]

Originally Posted by skimoose

Maybe it's also part of the national trend of entitlement. People think that just because they participate, they're entitled to a strong performance or winning. Winning takes a LOT of hard work, and not just during build season, even then a little luck always helps.

Great post, Art! Thank you for sharing.

In the heat of the battle, the tendency is to forget why we are here and why we do this.

And in engineering, much more is learned from failure than success. Celebrate your success and failures.

[Mike Copioli]

Art this is an excellent post. I wish all teams had this perspective. Most teams have been in this situation at least once in their existence. This is true for our team. I remember my first year in FRC, 2001. I remember being that team that was "talking" with the number one seed in hopes that we would be picked in the second (and in 2001, third) rounds. That year two teams became the inspiration for us to excel. The first team was one that "did it all" their robot was able to reset the ramp, drive over it and balance both goals at the same time. They were simply amazing.

The second team was equally impressive. Their robot was called "Ramp Bot" and as the name suggests it was a mobile ramp that other robots could drive onto. It was so impressive I cheered for this robot even when we were losing to them. I think the KOP had about 13 motors in it that year and I believe they used them all. The design consisted of rivets and sheet metal in an aircraft like structure. It was an inspiration and is one of the reasons we use rivets today.

While the focus of this post may seem to be about two robots it is really about two teams and how their performance on the field is a result of hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Instead of making us jealous, the success of these teams inspired us to achieve greatness both on and off of the field. Instead of asking, "Why do they have all of this success?" We asked, "How do we get that good?". These teams continued to be an inspiration to both myself and our future teams. Year after year they were seen helping other teams to become successful in the pits and elsewhere. Without teams like these FIRST would die.

Success is not a bad thing. It is not something that should be dished out in equal parts to everyone in the eyes of fairness. It is something that is earned through hard work and achievement, dedication and perseverance. These teams elevate the Game and FIRST as a whole and their students reap the benefits. I hope some day that our team reaches the level that these two inspiring teams have reached.

Oh BTW, the two teams are Team 71 and Team 111 respectively

[GGCO]

Rookie team 3357, the COMETS, had a similar experience. One of our mentors has been blogging about it here.

[Jacob Paikoff]

First off, great post and congratulations on the regional win

My team faced a similar experience at the Florida Regional this year. We had a bad CRIO which caused the field to crash every time we connected. Because of this we were red carded from a match and only work fully in 2 of our 10 matches.

But we didn't give up, I can admit that I whined a little and even though about just crating the robot and shipping it to our next event, We got a new CRIO and our robot's potential got us selected by the 8th seeded alliance, 1557 and 801(Thanks again) and we helped our alliance become finalist.

I think this was one of the top two greatest learning experience I have had while I have been on team 79 and I will carry these lessons with me as long as I am involved with FIRST and beyond.

[Tetraman]

2010 will go down in FIRST history as being the game where more people complained about robots then the game design and set of rules.

And a note should be taken that complaining about teams being and doing what they have worked hard to become, is the most unnecessary talking point in FIRST. Ever.

From now on, I'm just going to link people to the various threads that discuss this and similar "do something for yourself" to those who still don't get the message.