FIRST Robotics as a sport

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Lol Andrew our school used to just change the locks on us....for our OWN workshop XD.

But now they're chill with us working around 3am. Even the area cops know who's on robotics and who's not. (My bro got pulled over once in '99 leaving the school at 1am lol)

Was it legal for him to drive that late?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by jpmittins

Was it legal for him to drive that late?

back then, yea

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

But now they're chill with us working around 3am.

Your mentors stay with you guys until 3 AM
We have to be out of our shop by 9 PM
...

By the way, this has been something that has been bugging me for a while. When you think of a sport you think of a game with set rules. Bearing that in mind FRC theoretically has a set list of rules, but the list changes every year. So what does that have any bearing on whether or not FRC counts as a sport?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by jpmittins

Was it legal for him to drive that late?

Not sure about Jersey law but in Michigan if it is work related or school related students can drive that late on their probationary license. IE if you are building a robot into the wee hours of the night you don't need to worry about how you are getting home. (This is just what I recall, I am not an expert or a lawyer so the above statement does not constitute legal advice in any way shape or form)

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Not sure about Jersey law but in Michigan if it is work related or school related students can drive that late on their probationary license. IE if you are building a robot into the wee hours of the night you don't need to worry about how you are getting home. (This is just what I recall, I am not an expert or a lawyer so the above statement does not constitute legal advice in any way shape or form)

Well, where I live (PA) it's illegal to drive past 11 PM without either being 18+ years of age, or having an adult license (which can only be gotten after a year of perfect driving with your original license). I didn't know that was the rule in Michigan. That sounds pretty good for all those late night robotics meetings, though.

[cpeister]

Here in Ontario, your G1 licence you have to drive with a parent. After 1 year (or 8 months if you take Driver's Ed), you can get a G2, which allows you to drive yourself, family members, and one non family member at any time. You can drive anyone else except between midnight and 5am. Your G licence (after another year) has no provisions.

[Debbie]

Not much discussion on this topic lately! I hope that means more schools are now awarding varisty letters. We successfully convinced our principal and Athletic Director with this video. Feel free to use it if it helps. I have a higher quality one that I can send you, but it wouldn't upload to youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8-CVg0QAyg

[Ramiro_T]

Whatever any jock says that FIRST isn't a sport, they're wrong. You have to use teamwork, strategy, and sportsmanship anyway. Besides, carrying the robot counts as building muscle. If anything, it's the ultimate sport because it always changes, with no definitive way until you've seen the final rules. When I did FLL, they counted it as a sport, so you know FRC is bar none.

[buildmaster5000]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

This sounds like the argument that marching band is a sport. After having done both robotics and marching band, I can say that neither are sports. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they don't have that 'zing' that sports do. Ya, I'm prepared for flames; whatever, not everyone can agree on everything...flame away.

I must respectfully disagree.

I have done marching band, robotics, as well as swum on my school swim team. After 90 minutes of carrying around 65 pound tenor drums, I'm dead tired, even more so than after a hard swim practice. Robotics requires the same amount of energy, just mental instead of pysical like most sports. IMO, my school recognizing cheerleading, rifle shooting and crew as sports is questionable.

[MagiChau]

well "FIRST is the sport of the mind," I consider it a sport. I mean they consider fishing and golf a sport why not robotics.

[Ramiro_T]

I agree. I used to play on the school golf team. Comparing FIRST to golf, FIRST is more of a sport. I treat it as a sport. When we won a match, me and my friends started yelling like if it was soccer or something.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by Ramiro_T

I agree. I used to play on the school golf team. Comparing FIRST to golf, FIRST is more of a sport. I treat it as a sport. When we won a match, me and my friends started yelling like if it was soccer or something.

Which is kinda funny, cause aren't we playing Soccer???

[angelawence11]

I do many different sports and I have all my life, and based on that I would have to consider robotics a sport. I mean, after running track, playing soccer, volleyball, softball, doing cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics over the course of my life, I can honestly say that I put more dedication into robotics than any of these. In addition, to all of you who argue that its not a sport because its not "building muscle," Robotics build season takes a much tougher physical toll on me than any of the other sports i play do (sleep deprivation takes a toll on you too, people!)
If NASCAR is a sport, so is FIRST. Heck, if cheerleading is a sport, so is FIRST (This was not meant to be offensive to any cheerleaders! as i mentioned previously, i've been a cheerleader before too!)

[mwtidd]

Going off the wiki definition:

"A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play."

This year i don't think there was much skillful physical activity done by human players... However look at 04, 05, 06, or 09. All of these games were definitely sports.

So with regards to the GDC, I'd say just in the future, always have the human players do some kinda of physical activity. And anyways, the human-robot interaction is usually more exciting too. Seeing human players running along the field in 05 or shooting the balls in 04 created a sense of energy for even those not that interested in robotics.

[Debbie]

But still... we do exercise our brains thoroughly!